Easily Bring Your Licenses to the Cloud: New Flexibility for Customers
Thursday 29th September 2022
On 1st October 2022, Microsoft will implement significant upgrades to our outsourcing and hosting terms that will benefit customers worldwide. Added customer benefits will enable new scenarios for how you can license and run workloads with cloud providers, including with partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program. These changes will support customers’ ability to move licenses to a partner's cloud, leverage shared hardware, and have more flexibility in deployment options for software licenses.
So, what are we doing to increase flexibility and choice, and make working with partners for hosted cloud easier, whether you bring your own licenses or get them from a partner?
- We’ll introduce a new Flexible Virtualization benefit that will greatly expand customer choice when outsourcing. Under this benefit, customers with Software Assurance or subscription licenses will be able to use their own licensed software to build and/or install solutions and run them on any cloud provider’s infrastructure—dedicated or shared. This will give more flexibility to run software on multitenant clouds.
- We’re adding the option for those with Software Assurance or subscription licenses to license Windows Server on a virtual core basis. Under this model, customers can buy licenses for only the virtual cores they need (subject to a per VM minimum), without being tied to a physical number of cores on the server. With the virtual core licensing option, customers can license Windows Server by the number of virtual cores they are using in virtual machines, making Windows Server easier to license when virtualizing or outsourcing.
- We’re making it easier to virtualize Windows 10 or Windows 11 by eliminating the Virtual Desktop Application (VDA) add-on license requirement for Microsoft 365 F3, Microsoft 365 E3, and Microsoft 365 E5 users who want to virtualize Windows 10 or Windows 11 on servers and don’t have a primary Windows Pro device.
- Under the new Flexible Virtualization benefit, customers can work with partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program to get pre-built hosted desktop and server solutions and either bring their own license or get the license from the partner. A Microsoft Customer Agreement with the participating partner and proof of license will be required to run these hosted solutions.
- Customers will have the choice of one and three-year subscriptions for many products including Windows Server, Remote Desktop Services (RDS), and SQL Server, through partners in the Cloud Solution Provider program, to offer price stability with long-term subscriptions.
With these changes, you will have additional choices to deploy solutions with more flexibility. Want to know more? Contact a Bytes Account Manager today!
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