As part of my engagements, invariably the discussion turns towards what version of SharePoint 2010 server the customer should purchase, STD vs Enterprise, Intranet vs Internet, etc etc. And more importantly, how much it costs.
Most of the time the answer is "It Depends", its widely accepted that Microsoft is notoriously vague as to the real cost of SharePoint. Say you have a 1000 users and you want to go to Enterprise on a 3 server farm (WFE/Index/SQL Servers). So by going through the guidlelines for generic SharePoint 2010 Costs....How does 4896 per SharePoint Server (WFE and Index) for a total of $9792 grab you? But wait there's more, you also have to pay $94 dollars per CAL for your 1000 users for Standard, $94,000 there, and $83 dollars per CAL for Enterprise for another $83000 on top of that...
But all hope is not lost, Microsoft has a fairly robust online licensing calculator that can give you your true cost, taking into account your licensing agreement with Mother Microsoft, which will Dramatically affect those numbers above. The link is here , just select the software needs and enter in the pertinent data, and you can move back from the ledge or be able to make a better case for a different level of licensing, as the end report shows how much each form of agreement costs. Good luck.
