Microsoft Streamlines Its Licensing Structure – Updates Announced at WPC

grantkd — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:01:00 GMT

In today’s economic environment, customers are looking for ways to compete in a global marketplace through combined strategic investments in IT innovation and careful cost management. Microsoft Volume Licensing policies and programs keep pace with customer needs and pave the way for new computing models.

Joe Matz, corporate vice president of Worldwide Licensing and Pricing, discusses how Microsoft is advancing the company’s licensing models and policies so that customers achieve greater choice and flexibility in how they purchase and deploy licensed software and services. To learn more about this news, click here.

You can also learn more about other Microsoft news at the WPC 2009 virtual pressroom.

IDC Announces Q2 Worldwide Server Virtualization License Shipments

grantkd — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:36:00 GMT

Industry analyst firm IDC today announced worldwide virtualization license shipments in the second quarter of 2008 (2Q08) increased 53% year over year, compared to a 72% year-over-year increase the previous quarter. The x86 server market led the way with 60% year-over-year growth followed by the EPIC server market with 18% growth. See the news release here.

IDC’s findings included the following:

· “Quarterly totals of x86 server virtualization licenses continue to experience healthy growth, although the growth rates have slowed over the last four quarters. The modest decline in growth rates indicates that the market is showing early signs of maturation.”

· Worldwide new server shipments virtualized increased 52% year over year in the second quarter, compared to 70% growth in 1Q08.

· Worldwide virtualization software revenue grew 15% year over year in 2Q08, compared to 32% growth in the first quarter of 2008. The growth in virtualization software revenue primarily came from the x86 server market, which grew 39% year over year.

· VMware’s position in the x86 server virtualization software market, with a combined market share of VMware ESX and VMware Server, is at 44% based on new license shipments.

· Microsoft's Hyper-V delivered a strong showing, and when combined with Virtual Server 2005, helped Microsoft to capture 23% of new license shipments in 2Q 2008.

Microsoft’s perspective:

· Customers now have choice in market. VMware is no longer the dominant server virtualization vendor (< 50%). Customers now have choices that include Microsoft, Citrix, Sun, Novell, RedHat and Oracle.

· Microsoft’s server virtualization software already has half of VMware’s share in the market.

· Another indicator of the strong customer and partner adoption we’re seeing of Microsoft’s datacenter and desktop virtualization software.

o SAP now supports their ERP software running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. See details: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/70f63258-bff1-2a10-9db6-cda6ef202bfc

o Microsoft’s server virtualization software and management software are 1/3 the cost of VMware’s comparable products.

o Microsoft global server OEM partners have seen Hyper-V attached to 95 percent of their Windows Server 2008 orders.

o Microsoft’s global server OEM partners have been reporting greater demand for Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Datacenter editions due in part to the expanded virtualization use rights.

· The combination of Windows Server Hyper-V, Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services, and the System Center suite of management tools is being adopted by large, medium and small businesses.

o Banverket ICT (Sweden): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002838

o SOk Group (Russia): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002703

o Costco Wholesale Corp (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002624

o Bouygues Construction (France): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002619

o Saint Raphael Healthcare System (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002615

o Gartmore (U.K.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002610

o The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002533

o Saxo Bank (Denmark): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002529

o WorleyParsons (Australia): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002503

o Land O’ Lakes (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002135

· Microsoft’s application virtualization software, called App-V, is one of the fastest growing products at Microsoft, helping customers stream applications to desktops while reducing the costs of managing desktops.

o City of Biel (Switzerland): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002668

o California State University (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002789

o Hennepin County Medical Center (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002270

o State of Indiana (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001697

o Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (N. Ireland): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002053

o Banverket ICT (Sweden): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002838

o BASF IT Services (Germany): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001313

o Kent School District (U.S.): http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002269

New Microsoft Licensing and Support Eases Path to Virtualization

grantkd — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:23:00 GMT

Today Microsoft announced new licensing, expanded product support policies and a worldwide series of events to help business customers create more dynamic datacenters and enterprise IT systems with virtualization software. Beginning Sept. 1, 2008, customers will be able to move any of 41 Microsoft server applications between servers within a server farm as often as necessary without paying additional licensing fees, and they can take advantage of expanded specialized technical support.

The company also announced that it will begin a worldwide series of “Get Virtual Now” events this month that will showcase Microsoft virtualization products and partner solutions, reaching more than 250,000 IT professionals. The series of more than 100 events started Aug. 3 in South Africa, continues Sept. 8 with a U.S. kickoff event and eventually will cover more than 50 other countries.

More information on today’s announcements can be found here:

· Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/aug08/08-19EasyPathPR.mspx

· Volume Licensing Briefs: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/volbrief.mspx

· Support Policy Details: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=125767

· Virtualization team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/

· System Center team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter/

· Exchange team blog: http://msexchangeteam.com/

· Sharepoint team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/

Server and Tools Business News Bytes blog : Licensing

Microsoft Streamlines Its Licensing Structure – Updates Announced at WPC

IDC Announces Q2 Worldwide Server Virtualization License Shipments

New Microsoft Licensing and Support Eases Path to Virtualization