Portal (or AGOL?) in terms of what you 'get' with your account maintenance?

[C_EHoward]

I am beginning to think about the whole upgrade to 10.2....and want to make sure I am understanding this statement correctly with regards to the portal product.

"The Portal for ArcGIS extension software is included with ArcGIS for Server Advanced (Enterprise or Workgroup) and is licensed based on the number of named users (users that log into the portal)."

The way I see it is that if I have ArcGIS Server advanced enterprise, I get the portal extension included  in my maintenance/upgrade software. But then I have to pay extra to actually use the product that is included? Or does included mean that it is like other optional extensions?
What is the benefit to portal if I already am using AGOL and the credits afforded to my organization thru what we have in terms of software/licenses? No offense, but I cannot see even paying more $ for software than I do each year in maintenance. Isn't it basically the same thing, except you have everything on your system and not arcgis.com/AGOL?

I saw some of Derek's other replies in other posts about users may get either a portal or AGOL account login or a 'free' named user, but how is/was that determined? is that old info pre UC? I was not able to attend this year so I feel totally in the dark about all these new things I am supposed to embrace 😉

[RichardWatson]

Portal == AGOL onsite

Both Portal and AGOL required named users which you have to buy/acquire.  This is not dissimilar to ArcGIS for Desktop in that each user requires a license.  Licensing is always complex.  Look at Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server which require that you purchase the software plus a Client Access License (CAL) for each user.

You might use Portal if your organization will not allow your content to be hosted outside of your organization.

If AGOL does what you want/need then use it.

[C_EHoward]

Thanks Richard. I am just wondering why it says its 'included' if you have to purchase more licenses? At least with AGOL, we got xx number of credits depending on our desktop/maintenance we have already...was hoping portal would be the same so we could assess what we want to do. Someone had told me that we 'get' portal if we have advanced enterprise but that does not seem to be entirely correct, at least for our org.
I know I will need to purchase more AGOL credits if I exceed my allotted usage and I know additional licenses for concurrent cost $ , but i was hoping I could 'acquire' a portal user like with AGOL (thru maintenance). Oh well, AGOL have to do I suppose....thanks again

[AnthonyGiles]

From what I was told at the Esri European Dev Summit is that you will get 1 named user per desktop licence that you have, you then pay for extra on top. Anonymous users can view items on your portal site without having to log in but they will not be able to mash up their own maps and save them.

The first version of portal at 10.2 has not enforced the amount of users allowed, I think that is at the 10.2.1 release so if you are quick you can have as many users as you want.

Regards

Anthony

[C_EHoward]

Thanks Anthony. That is what I have with AGOL- one user per desktop license. maybe I just was allocated AGOL and not Portal for one reason or another....will have to check with my account people on the specifics. or maybe I can use my accounts/logins on both? Guess the answer will come when I actually install server 10.2....but was waiting until the 10.2.1 for everything actually because of the whole desktop LM license connection bug. but from what you report it may be wise to hurry my install!