Does a user need a CAL per farm?

Question

currently we have an internal installation of SharePoint 2010 that has no access to regulators world. We have the standard addition and have a cal for each user.

we want to create a new SharePoint farm that has access to the internet. Using content deployment some site content will be Collier from our internal only site to the site that can be got to via the internet. To use the internet site the user needs to log in with there internal network credentials. We plan to host the site ourselves our dmz.

I know we need a new so license for each server in our new farm. Do we need a new cal per user or is this covered already?

Answer 1

Unfortunately I have heard Wictor's and moontear's explanations, both from Microsoft on the same project! It depends on who you talk to. Call Microsoft and ask, if you don't like the answer, call back, you'll probably get a different rep, so keep calling back until you get the answer you want, then go with that. ;) I don't think they fully understand their own licensing...

Answer 2

No, a CAL is not connected to a specific farm. One CAL is valid for any number of farms (of course there's a whole lotta fine print). It's the same as for Windows Server CAL's - you don't need a CAL per Windows Server.

Answer 3

CALs are unfortunately per-user-per-device as you can read here, so you will need a new CAL for a new farm AFAIK. But Microsoft Licensing is very tricky and often on a per-company basis (some companies pay less for a CAL, some more). Your best bet is to shortly call your Microsoft rep and ask them what they can do for you.

Also ask yourself whether you really want a complete new SharePoint farm if you only want to display some content to external users. You can also have an external facing site/web application on you existing farm and e.g. just host one WFE in your DMZ for internet access.