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:  http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/value-of-volume-licensing.aspx#tab=4.