Key Management System vs Multiple Key Management

There seems to still be some confusion regarding the activation methods for of Microsoft Windows Vista and Server 2008.  The two methods are Key Management System and Multiple Key Management.  Microsoft recommends KMS for environments with more than 25 computers.

Pros for KMS include the fact that there is no client configuration necessary and the method only requires the client to have access to the KMS host to activate, not necessarily the Internet.  Another plus is that KMS adds a DNS SRV record, this allows new servers to discover and activate automatically.  The downside to using KMS is that the machine must reactivated every 180 days and that a minimum of 5 KMS clients are required to activate KMS.  The main draw to MAK is that you only need to activate once and no additional infrastructure is required to activate.

The only downsides to using MAK are that you must manually activate each host and that once a key has reached its maximum product activation count you will be forced to call Microsoft each time you activate beyond that point.

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