Conor Alderson
Microsoft Corporate Executive
Windows Server Licencing Update
Microsoft this month (October 2022) announced changes to the licencing of Windows Server. Where previously, the licencing model required the full coverage of physical hosts in order to licence Virtual Machines (VM) regardless of whether the Physical host had a Windows Server Operating System. With the new change licencing can now be applied to the Individual VM, this has revolutionised compliancy in a low Windows Server Environment.
The new change comes with some licencing rules such as an 8-core licence minimum per VM and a minimum of 16 licences must be purchased across the tenant. Alongside this, for the licences to be applied to the individual VM they must be purchased with Software Assurance or on a Software Subscription through CSP. This move further increases the value provided by Software Assurance, which also includes new version rights, downgrade rights and Azure Hybrid Use Benefits. On top of this reassignment rules have been relaxed for the individual VM’s to allow the VM to move between hosts in a cluster without needing to purchase more licences.
To coincide with the Licencing change Windows Server Datacentre has also become available on CSP Software Subscription giving those with Highly Virtualised environments more options when it comes to agreement types alongside bringing the subscription model for Windows Server Datacentre into the modern day.
If you are interested in discussing these new developments in Windows Server licencing or wish to discuss general Microsoft licencing, then feel free to get in touch with us here at Softcat.