Today's software systems are comprised of numerous distributed services, spanning platforms, protocols, and programming languages, all with significant impact on the operations environment. Moreover, teams have become increasingly specialized and geographically distributed. Successful deployment of modern solutions depends on bridging the communication gap between development and operations so that the entire IT department is represented early and often throughout the software lifecycle. The new Visual Studio Team System expands significantly on Microsoft's demonstrated successes in delivering highly productive tools, by offering businesses tightly integrated and extensible lifecycle tools to increase the predictability of their software development process. Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects provides integrated application design tools for service-oriented development - visual designers that enable architects, operations managers, and developers to design service-oriented solutions that can be validated against their operational environments. MICROSOFT OPEN LICENSE BUSINESS Microsoft Open License is a software volume licensing program designed for corporate, government, charity, and academic customers who order as few as five licenses. After the initial order, customers can benefit from volume pricing for all licenses for the remainder of the term of their Open License authorization number. Open License Business offers savings on estimated retail prices by placing an initial order for five or more licenses or one server processor license. With Open License Business, customers can combine any set of Microsoft products to qualify for the five-license minimum. MSDN PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION An MSDN Premium Subscription provides continuous, priority access to the development tools and technologies you need to build a broad range of applications and Web services. It includes the benefits of Professional, Operating Systems, and Library Subscriptions, and provides continuous access to new software and technical resources. During the term of your subscription, you are entitled to upgrades to your subscription software and to select new releases and product betas, in addition to resources such as software and hardware development kits and service packs. SOFTWARE ASSURANCE Microsoft's Software Assurance gives you automatic access to new technology and provides productivity benefits, support, tools, and training to help deploy and use software efficiently. With Software Assurance, you receive access to new versions of licensed software released during the term of your agreement to deploy at your own pace. New Version Rights simplifies the procurement process and shortens the business process cycle, allowing you to reduce the costs associated with acquiring new version releases and immediately take advantage of the latest technology. Software Assurance offers greater flexibility in managing technology expenditures by allowing you to spread payments annually. This allows you to reduce initial costs and forecast annual software budget requirements up to three years in advance.