Microsoft Adopts Virtual Licenses

* * Beatles-Beatles is one of many to let us know that Microsoft has changed how they handle licensing for Windows Server and related products with regards to virtual machine environments. The new regiment will allow per-processor licensing to be handled based on the number of virtual processors rather than the number of physical processors in the computer.

Comments

Re:Great!

[isotope23]

"This means they'll be accepting virtual money, right?"

Yeah, they're called federal reserve notes....

Re:How will this work for Windows?

[BrynM]

I'm not sure if this new system covers that situation or not.

Exactly. Licensing gets easier under the new system, which most people postig seem to have missed (RTFA people).

As you said, under the old system, you were charged for each processor. Thus, a server with two physical processors was charged for two processor licenses for SQL Server even though you were only running it on one. The situation now lets you simply purchase a single license for each CPU you are _actually running it on_. Despite everyone shouting greed, this is a rare occasion of MS doing what the customers (Corp Customers) have been asking for for a long time.

Good for them

[nacs]

This kind of thing only benefits opensource so I approve. The more ridiculous their licensing gets, the more businesses will look to open source solutions ( Linux + Xen or Linux + UML, etc).

I love this quote from the article:

The shift will benefit customers, Microsoft says.

Higher prices 'benefit' consumers. I'll have to remember that one. </sarcasm>

Re:Good for them

[StikyPad]

Except you're thinking of it bass ackwards..

Bob Armstrong, managing director of IT at Delaware North Cos. in Buffalo, N.Y., said he hasn't even evaluated running SQL Server in a virtual environment because of the license fees that would be required. Armstrong noted that with a virtualized quad-processor system, Delaware North would have to pay for four instances of the databases under Microsoft's previous policy, even if it used only two processors for SQL Server. "We were waiting for the change," he said.

They're not talking about virtual processors, they're talking about the number of actual processors used to run the virtual OS.

1 Copy != 1 Price ?

[eikonos]

Why does one copy of Windows cost more if you have more CPUs, since it's still only one copy of Windows? That's like buying a whole pizza where the price is based on the number of slices it's cut into. A pizza cut into 6 slices would cost $6, but the same pizza cut into 10 slices would cost $10.
It really should be 1 CD & 1 Product Key = 1 price.