At our small shop (50 users, two IT staff), we occasionally need to purchase one-off software licenses. For example, we've deployed client-side virtual Windows images for Mac and Linux users, server-side virtual Windows images to support various departmental workflows, onesy-twosy Acrobat upgrades upon request, and so on.
Currently, we buy full retail copies of Windows, Office, Acrobat, etc. via Amazon Prime. This strikes me as "doing it wrong", but I'm not sure how to improve the process.
I imagine that, at our size, these companies would laugh off any inquiries about volume licensing. Is there some way to buy legitimate serial numbers for these sorts of products online, without waiting for a wasteful retail package to arrive? For example, we could spin up a virtual copy of Windows 7 from a sysprepped image, put in the new serial number and be running in minutes rather than days. Am I dreaming?
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