Univention Announces New Pricing and Licensing for Univention

BREMEN, GERMANY--(Marketwired - Apr 21, 2015) -  Univention, developer of Europe's most popular open source corporate server, Univention Corporate Server (UCS), today announced Univention Core Edition. The new licensing, compared to its previous "free for personal use" license, can be used for commercial purposes. Univention also announced today that it is expanding the scope of its enterprise subscriptions. UCS is an open source server platform for the flexible and efficient management of IT infrastructure and applications. With a comprehensive Active Directory function, UCS is an increasingly popular alternative to Microsoft products. UCS features an App Center offering more than 60 enterprise applications, and easily integrates cloud services, making it perfect for the requirements of dynamically evolving companies that need to control of their infrastructures, applications and rights management without having to forgo the advantages of cloud-based IT.

The new UCS Core Edition provides individual users and administrators in companies the ability to use UCS with without purchasing maintenance subscriptions. UCS can be deployed as a platform for the seamless operation, management and integration of enterprise applications from the App Center on premises, in the cloud or in hybrid environments. In addition, Active Directory-compatible domains can be run without restrictions. Univention's App Center offers a continually increasing number of enterprise applications, including groupware and collaboration systems such as software for customer and enterprise management (CRP and ERP). These software products can be set up with just a few clicks and integrated into new and existing infrastructures.

"Univention Corporate Server, along with its App Center, is evolving into an open platform that software developers can leverage to make their products easier to find, install and integrate. With the UCS Core Edition, UCS becomes a powerful integration and application platform that is free of charge at all times," said Peter Ganten, CEO of Univention.

Unlike other free platforms such as Ubuntu and CentOS, UCS Core Edition offers high-performance Active Directory functions and a sophisticated management system. Univention will also provide regular security updates and upgrade options for the free UCS Core Edition.

"The Core Edition makes our App Center partners even more successful, translating to more apps and even better integrations, directly benefitting the Open Cloud Alliance," Ganten continued. The Open Cloud Alliance, formed in late 2014 and launched by Univention, is comprised of a growing number of leading regional software and hardware vendors which offer comprehensive portfolios of integrated SaaS offerings.

Flexible license model and attractive introductory prices

Along with the introduction of UCS Core Edition, Univention has new pricing for maintenance and support subscriptions and has expanded its scope considerably. Unlike the previous "free for personal use" license, UCS can be employed for commercial purposes and used for an unrestricted number of users. Under the new pricing model, Univention offers four programs for its professional server solution at various prices -- Base, Standard and Premium subscriptions -- as well as the "UCS Cloud Edition" for cloud service providers. These service subscriptions guarantee customers professional support, extended software maintenance, product liability, copyright infringement protection, service level agreements and much more. The separate categories differ predominantly in service support level.

The basic version (UCS Base subscription) costs $348 per server and now includes (as do the Standard and Premium versions) licensing for the first 10 clients within a domain. Additional clients are charged at $16.68 per client.

"Our new pricing model, with its use of commercial subscriptions with extended maintenance and the possibility of support access, is no longer a financial hurdle even for smaller companies," said Ganten. An overview of the functions and support services included in the UCS Core Edition and the subscription versions can be found on the Univention website at: https://www.univention.com/products/prices/.

For further information, please visit www.univention.com

About Univention

Univention is a leading provider of Open Source products for the operation and management of IT infrastructures. The core product is Univention Corporate Server (UCS), a flexible, cost-efficient and successful alternative to server solutions from Microsoft. UCS contains comprehensive Active Directory functions and an App Center via which enterprise applications can be integrated and operated. UCS allows web-based IT management and can be employed in organizations of all shapes and sizes. The product can be used as a classic server solution, in the cloud or for hybrid IT environments. It can be operated as a component for existing Microsoft infrastructures and supports the simple replacement of Microsoft Windows domains. UCS also forms the technical basis of the Open Cloud Alliance, a consortium of renowned hardware manufacturers and software developers aiming to work together with a constantly growing number of cloud service providers to create an open, standardized and secure cloud offering. Univention has a global partner network and subsidiaries across Europe and North America.