Microsoft Shares Licensing Updates at Microsoft Hosting Summit

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Today at the
Microsoft Hosting summit, we announced license
mobility, to offer customers the flexibility to deploy application
servers on-premises or hosted by Service Providers in the cloud.

Effective on
July 1, 2011, this will give customers the ability to deploy their
application server licenses covered by Software Assurance (SA), to a hosted
environment on shared hardware without any additional licensing costs.

License
mobility will cover application servers such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft
Exchange Server, Microsoft Lync Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, Microsoft
System Center servers, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Beyond maintaining Software
Assurance, there is not an additional purchase requirement for customers to
take advantage of the extended license mobility rights. Note that products under the Windows Server operating
system, Windows Client operating system, Desktop Applications and Developer
Tools licensing models are excluded from License Mobility.

Other
licensing updates announced today include:

-
The
retirement of Outsourcer SKUs for Windows Server, as well as removal of
workload restrictions on the non-outsourcing SKUs. This means a lower single
price offering across all Service Provider workloads. The change also increases
platform manageability by eliminating ambiguous licensing terms and improving
licensing consistency across Microsoft products.

  • The introduction of a new Core Infrastructure
    Suite in the Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement program (SPLA ) that
    will make licensing the infrastructure at the Service Provider's datacenter
    more affordable. This suite will include Windows Server Datacenter, System
    Center Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD) and Forefront Endpoint
    Protection.
  • The reduction in the pricing for certain
    Subscriber Access Licenses for Software Assurance ("SALs for SA") that will
    make shared application hosting more affordable for customers with active
    Software Assurance.

For more
information about the new Software Assurance benefit of volume license mobility
visit our information:  https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/value-of-volume-licensing.aspx#tab=4.