One of the most challenging aspects of being a Microsoft partner is ensuring you and your customer’s solutions remain compliant. This challenge has reduced over the years as the CSP Program gained prominence, but some of the more traditional forms of licensing still require you to keep an eye on things like what license can be used where or require you to report usage into Microsoft.
In the past it was difficult for customers to bring their licenses to a hosting providers infrastructure, with solutions requiring dedicated servers. The good news is that in October 2022 Microsoft introduced Flexible Virtualisation which offers a range of options for partners.
Flexible Virtualisation allows any license that is a subscription-based license or has active software assurance to be deployed on an Authorised Outsourcer’s servers. An Authorised Outsourcer is any outsourcer who is not a listed provider. Listed providers are currently Azure, AWS, GCP and Alibaba.
Unlike the old License Mobility, there are no forms to complete, however I suggest you keep solid records of where the licenses are from in case you are audited by Microsoft. Copies of a customers Subscription or SA licenses particularly if they weren’t purchased via you should be kept on file and I would add a diary appointment on the relevant day to ensure they renew them.
When a customer uses server products under this benefit and licences via virtual machine, they can reassign their licenses within the server farm with no restrictions; previously it was only every 90 days.
Virtual core licensing for Windows Server was also added at the same time as Flexible Virtualisation. 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 virtualising or outsourcing.
If you want to know more about the above changes, or if you are looking to make a more substantial move by looking at moving a hosted solution into Microsoft Azure, please reach out to the Dicker Data Microsoft team either at Microsoft.sales@dickerdata.co.nz or by reaching out directly to your Partner Development Manager.
