Information on the changes with licensing mobility around Microsoft Server products with Software Assurance.

1. -511175-1152525Licensing Enhancements to Support Cloud Adoption: License Mobility Frequently Asked Questions for Partners00Licensing Enhancements to Support Cloud Adoption: License Mobility Frequently Asked Questions for PartnersOn March 30, 2011, Microsoft will announce upcoming License Mobility for Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance. License Mobility through Software Assurance gives the customer the ability to deploy certain application server licenses with active Software Assurance on-premises or in the cloud in a shared hardware environment to take advantage of the lowest cost infrastructure for changing business priorities.<br />Frequently Asked Questions<br />What is License Mobility?<br />With increasing adoption of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), customers want to move workloads and applications to the cloud without having to acquire additional licenses. For select Microsoft server products, the License Mobility construct will allow customers to assign certain licenses to a cloud infrastructure for that customer’s use.<br />License Mobility through Software Assurance allows Microsoft Volume Licensing customers with SA to deploy certain application servers in a service provider’s shared hardware environment. A partner providing the shared environment can leverage a single delivery platform to host multiple end customers leveraging the benefits of License Mobility for their dedicated application server instances.<br />How does License Mobility work?<br /> A customer’s application server licenses can be assigned to run server instances on shared hardware in a Service Providers’ datacenter. However, despite sharing hardware, such server instances must be dedicated to a single customer, and cannot be shared with other customers.<br />Who is eligible to use License Mobility?<br />Any Microsoft Volume License customer who has eligible application server licenses covered with active SA may elect to leverage License Mobility. Eligible customers include those under an Enterprise Agreement or any other Volume Licensing agreement where Software Assurance is available. More information is available on the Microsoft Partner Network Volume Licensing page.<br />When will License Mobility be in place?<br />License Mobility rights will be effective with the release of the July 2011 PUR.<br />How will I know what products will be included in License Mobility?<br />The Product Use Rights (beginning with the July 2011 PUR) will identify the Products eligible for License Mobility. The list of eligible Products will be the same as those Products that are currently granted license mobility within server farms.<br />Will new SKUs be required for my customers to take advantage of License Mobility?<br />No new SKUs are required, however, to make licensing easier, there will be a new Core Infrastructure Suite SKU made available in SPLA for Service Providers. This suite of products is designed to make licensing the infrastructure at the Service Provider's datacenter easier and more affordable when using the complete Microsoft server stack. You may use the existing SPLA Windows Server SKUs to enable mobility for your customers. <br />What is the Core Infrastructure Suite for Service Providers SKU?<br />This suite of products is designed to make licensing the infrastructure at the Service Provider's datacenter easier and more affordable when using the complete Microsoft server stack. Products included in the Suite are Windows Server Datacenter Edition, Server Management Suite Datacenter, and Forefront Endpoint Protection.<br />With License Mobility, is anything changing in the SPLA Program Agreement?<br />No, License Mobility is enabled through the end-customer agreements (such as the Enterprise and Select Plus Agreements), so the SPLA Program agreement will remain unchanged.<br />Does License Mobility apply to CALs?<br />No, the customer maintains their CALs on-premise for the application servers that are deployed at the Service Provider. CALs remain assigned to the customer's users/devices.<br />How does the customer obtain access to Windows Server as part of a License Mobility scenario?<br />Windows Server is provided as a part of the infrastructure software tier by the Service Provider and; it is not part of License Mobility.<br />Why is Windows Server not an eligible product for License Mobility?<br />License Mobility through SA is an extension of the current License Mobility within Server Farms. Products that are identified as eligible for License Mobility within Server Farms in the Product Use Rights (PUR) will be available for License Mobility. Windows Server is not granted license mobility within server farms today. Windows Server licenses will remain assigned to customers’ on-premises hardware with their applicable license terms.<br />Is Windows Client being made mobile with License Mobility?<br />No. License Mobility through SA is an extension of the current License Mobility within Server Farms. Products that are identified as eligible for License Mobility within Server Farms in the Product Use Rights (PUR) will be available for License Mobility. Windows Client Operating System is not granted license mobility within server farms today. Windows Client Operating System licenses will remain assigned to customers’ on premise hardware with their applicable license terms.<br />What is License Mobility within Server Farms?<br />License Mobility within Server Farms allows the reassignment of licenses to any of customer’s servers located within the same server farm as often as needed. The prohibition against short-term reassignment (shorter than 90 days) does not apply to licenses assigned to servers located within the same server farm.<br />A server farm consists of up to two data centers each physically located:<br />In a time zone that is within four hours of the local time zone of the other (Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and not DST), and/or<br />Within the European Union (EU) and/or European Free Trade Association (EFTA)<br />License Mobility within Server Farms is further described in the Product Use Rights.<br />Does License Mobility change anything with regard to hosted desktop as a service?<br />No; partners cannot offer hosted desktop as a service. Our analysis and market research indicates that although there is a demand for better management of desktops from end user customers, we have not yet seen a quantifiable demand from the end user or market that demonstrates a need for Windows hosted desktops in the Public Cloud at this point of time.<br />When will Microsoft make more information available to partners? <br />Partner readiness activities will begin in Q4 FY11.<br />How will License Mobility help my business? <br />License Mobility through Software Assurance provides organizations the flexibility to deploy certain application server software on-premises or in the cloud to take advantage of the lowest cost infrastructure for changing business priorities. A Service Provider can use a single infrastructure to support their business by leveraging License Mobility.<br />How is a customer eligible for License Mobility through Software Assurance? <br />-762001033145©2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED IN THIS SUMMARY.00©2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED IN THIS SUMMARY.Any VL program where the customer has active Software Assurance will be eligible. These include Enterprise Agreement and Open Value, where Software Assurance in included, and other VL programs where Software Assurance is an option. More information is available on the MPN Volume Licensing page.<br />