This is part 1 of an ongoing series we call ‘Debunking Microsoft’ where we address the ongoing disinformation, half-truths, and mysticism surrounding its own products as it relates to Customer licensing, usage, contracts, terms, pricing, and much more.
In part one, we address what we frequently hear from clients; that Microsoft has told them regarding usage of their own licenses in a cloud other than Microsoft's.....words to the effect of “You can’t use your existing Microsoft licenses on non-Microsoft clouds such as Amazon or Google.”
Well, that’s not true and Microsoft knows it.
This is just one case of Microsoft’s constant and consistent questionable behavior. It’s clearly been approved from the highest levels within Microsoft, intentionally designed to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the minds of customers, while also carefully skirting the line of anti-competitive behavior that would put them in a legal spotlight around potential abuse of their monopoly market power.
For these reasons (among many others) I caution all clients to ask whether this is the kind of company they want to do business with at all, much less rely on them for your entire business infrastructure.
The basic facts are:
Everyone, even Microsoft, agrees that you can run Windows Server on “dedicated” hardware, in any datacenter.
The main topic of confusion and FUD is whether and how you can use your existing Windows Server licenses to run in a clustered VM environment, using Amazon or other non-Microsoft datacenters. So, this article focuses on that use case.
To summarize:
There is no difference in the license terms that apply to Azure vs AWS. They are the exact same terms.
It really can’t be any other way, else Microsoft risks getting sued, again, by the US Department of Justice for anti-competitive practices.
Stay tuned for part 2 in the Debunking Microsoft series where we get into the details surrounding Microsoft’s Licensing and Product Use Terms. Drilling into these and understanding what they ‘really’ mean will help you understand how much more you might be getting out of your entitlements if you know how to use them.
If you have questions on the above or any Microsoft related issue, please contact us to get in touch with a Subject Matter Expert to review your situation.
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