Hi,
I will shortly begin a project for a customer that is running at this time version 15, client and server. The only way they work with FM files is using FMP or FMPA, no FM Go, no WebDirect and no CWP. They have a concurrent licence for 15 connections. Back in those days, can't tell if it's the same today, each copy of FMP / FMPA came with a license to connect to the server. But then, why did they need to buy 15 concurrent licenses, unless there is something that changed with version 15. Note that I need to see the documents, but my guess is that all I told about is right.
Now back to 2018. FileMaker is now selling a platform and not products anymore. I have few questions:
- Can one upgrade a server as one can upgrade FPM/FMPA ?
- If for some reason they wish to stay with concurrent connections, can they get FMS 17 at an upgrade price, or do they need to pay full price ? I never heard of upgrade price for FMS.
- My guess is that they better go with FUL where they get FMPA for free. Am I right ?
Thanks
FM15 offered FLT where FMP needed concurrent connections on the server. If they licensed this way they will likely be rolled into FUL in FM17. FMPA was always sold per seat on a VLA with FM15.
If they bought 15 VLA seats of FMP, They would not need the concurrent connections. If sales sold them both I would be surprised as that would not have been the right thing to do. I suspect they have an FLT perpetual VLA for 15 users.
Perpetual licensing is available with maintenance. There is no actual "discount" upgrade for VLA software. If they have not been paying for maintenance since v15 they will have the expired maintenance costs. You will need to talk to FM sales to see what the best option is.
Catching up on 3 years of expired maintenance on concurrent connections might be more expensive than just getting a new perpetual license for v17 or v18. There was a big 3x increase in the cost of concurrent connections and the date to lock in the earlier pricing has already passed. Expire Maintenance on 15 concurrent connections is now $7,770 just for last year alone, not including the previous two years expired maintenance. A new perpetual license for FM17 with 15 users is $7560. Missing the chance to hold only the earlier maintenance pricing is unfortunate in this situation.
So the real answer is to know what you have now and call sales to sort out the best option.