Microsoft removes licensing restrictions for virtual environments

27th August 2008

The company Microsoft announced the significant change in licensing rules and support for its server products in virtual environments.
In particular, the software giant called off a 90-day-rule according to which license redirection from one server had been allowed once every 3 months - from September 1, 2008 it will be possible to do this as often as you wish.
Changes in licensing will affect 41 server software products, including such popular systems, as Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP 1 Standard / Enterprise, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Enterprise / Professional, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft System Center. Thanks to lifting restrictions, customers will be able to get rid of the need to acquire additional licenses: itâ€™s enough to buy only as many licenses, as many copies of applications are actually used.
In order to provide enhanced support of their products, working in virtual environments on the same level as for physical server environments, the company Microsoft has launched the program SVVP (Server Virtualization Validation Program). The program will provide full support for all applications running on platforms of certified virtualization.
Naturally, the first in the list of certified platforms will be a bundle of Hyper-V and Windows 2008 Server. As for third-party developers, the companies Cisco, Citrix, Novell, Sun Microsystems and Virtual Iron have already certified their solutions.
In addition to changes in the mechanism of licensing and expanding support of their products in visual environments, the company Microsoft has launched a series of over 100 events dedicated to new proposals on virtualization, which will be held from August, 3 to September, 8 in different cities around the world.