Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Will Squeeze Datacenters On Price of Windows Server

Posted by Soulskill on from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "Microsoft plans to raise the price of the Datacenter edition of the upcoming R2 release of Windows Server 2012 by 28 percent, adding to what analysts call a record number of price increases for enterprise software products from Redmond. According to licensing data sheets available for download from the Windows Server 2012 R2 Website (PDF), the price of a single license of Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter will be $6,155, compared to $4,809 today—plus the cost of a Client Access Licenses for every user or device connecting to the server. News of the increase was posted yesterday by datacenter virtualization and security specialist Aidan Finn, a six-time Microsoft MVP who works for Dublin-based value added reseller MicroWarehouse Ltd. and has done work for clients including Amdahl, Fujitsu and Barclays. The increase caps off a year filled with a record number of price increases for Microsoft enterprise software, according to a Tweet yesterday from Microsoft software licensing analyst Paul DeGroot of Pica Communications."

13 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Fine with me by hawkbug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    RedHat should see a nice increase in business because of this.

    1. Re:Fine with me by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually the guys at the FSF along with the major Linux players like Red hat and Canonical really should get together and bake a really nice cake for Steve Ballmer, because he is singlehandedly doing what Linux never could, completely destroying MSFT and killing Windows. From the "LULZ HAI I'm a cellphone, seen my appstore?" Windows 8 debacle to jacking the price of both home and server versions of Windows in a dead economy to burning Xbox with his retarded "hey lets bleed the gamers for more cash!" scheme, his pathetic leadership and Dilbert PHB obsession with Apple and the stock price is completely trashing the company.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    2. Re:Fine with me by dnaumov · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually the guys at the FSF along with the major Linux players like Red hat and Canonical really should get together and bake a really nice cake for Steve Ballmer, because he is singlehandedly doing what Linux never could, completely destroying MSFT and killing Windows. From the "LULZ HAI I'm a cellphone, seen my appstore?" Windows 8 debacle to jacking the price of both home and server versions of Windows in a dead economy to burning Xbox with his retarded "hey lets bleed the gamers for more cash!" scheme, his pathetic leadership and Dilbert PHB obsession with Apple and the stock price is completely trashing the company.

      So you mean this is why Microsoft's net income has basically TRIPLED over the last 10 years?

  2. Oh, Microsoft.... by intermodal · · Score: 5, Funny

    it's almost as if you're trying to get people to use something else.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  3. I'm not that surprised. by jaseuk · · Score: 5, Informative

    Datacentre allows unlimited virtualization and consolidation ratios are climbing.

    We run around 300 Windows VMs on 16 CPUs, that was a major saving over Windows Server Enterprise Licenses.

    Still, the pain.

    Jason.

    1. Re:I'm not that surprised. by jaseuk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Redhat don't sell Windows licenses last time I checked.

      Jason.

    2. Re:I'm not that surprised. by jaseuk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well it's too late. If you need a Windows Datacenter licenses (e.g. for new hardware) then you don't really have a lot of choice, even if you do want to use 2012 or 2008. We have ours on SA. Even with a price hike, it's still a pretty good deal. What's more newsworthy is they have reduced the virtualisation count for Enterprise (down from 4 to 2) and gone to a per-CPU price.

      Those businesses that are using Datacenter probably wont notice the actual price hike so much... You only run Datacenter on some serious hardware. (e.g. 20 core, 512GB RAM etc. and there are relatively few requirements in a single org), which is why I think the price hike is overdue. This is the Microsoft equivilant of the VMWare VSphere 5 VMEM fiasco... Something tells me Microsoft are in a better position than VMWARE though.

      Jason

    3. Re:I'm not that surprised. by afidel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      R2 doesn't deliver any outstanding new features, but with higher and higher consolidation ratios this was pretty much inevitable, we've gone from 72GB to 144GB to 384GB of ram in our hosts in 3.5 years while the cost of the hardware has actually dropped. Since datacenter edition allows unlimited virtualization that means people need fewer license and hence to keep up revenue costs per license rise. Trust me, the other MS prices from last fall had a MUCH larger impact on most enterprises EA renewal than this little increase will.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    4. Re:I'm not that surprised. by benjymouse · · Score: 5, Informative

      What is the gain for this pain? From a business standpoint, I would want to know what R2 delivers that would necessitate a price increase. If there isn't much then this makes it hard sell for businesses: "We get to pay more for no reason!"

      A number of important improvements to Hyper-V allowing higher VM density and (if you run 2012R2 guests) improved performance because of more direct access to hardware. Also, Hyper-V replica

      Storage Spaces with tiered storage (what is usually only available with SANs). You can fit a server with regular disks, fast disks and/or SSDs and set up tiered storage spaces, e.g. with parity (think ZFS). Server 2012R2 will then move "hot blocks" to faster disks and move them back to slower disks when they are not accessed as often anymore, letting other hot blocks utilize the faster tier.

      A number of manageability improvements, among those PowerShell with Desired State Configuration (think puppet/chef on steroids for what is not already covered by group policies).

      There's more. You can read some of it here: http://www.zdnet.com/windows-server-2012-r2-a-first-look-7000017675/

      Whether it is value enough to justify the price increase is probably subjective. However, it could steal away some SAN business as you now basically can set it up to provide the same features as (at least) entry level SANs. Also the higher VM density could be worth money.

      --
      Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
  4. I must, I must increase my going bust by raymorris · · Score: 5, Funny

    I must, I must increase my going bust

  5. Poor Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They've got to pay for all of those Slates they have stuck in the warehouse.

  6. Gov Balmer by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Princess Leia: Governor Balmer, I should have expected to find you holding Gates' leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.
    Governor Balmer: Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your license.
    Princess Leia: I'm surprised that you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself.
    Governor Balmer: Princess Leia, before your execution, I'd like you to join me for a ceremony that will make this game console operational. No IT department will dare oppose the Emperor now.
    Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Balmer, the more data centers will slip through your fingers.
    Governor Balmer: Not after we demonstrate the capabilities of Windows 8!

    1. Re:Gov Balmer by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Princess Leia: No! Alderaan is peaceful! We have no weapons, you can't possibly... Wait, nothing's happening. Isn't that supposed to be doing something?
      Governor Balmer: Give me a minute. Try the hot corner. No, the other one! Get out of the way. Desktop Mode.... WHERE THE %#@$ IS THE START MENU?

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.