Azure Hybrid Use Benefit

If you have Windows Server licences with Software Assurance then you have the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. This means that you can choose to use your licences to license the Windows Server part of an Azure virtual machine and so just pay for the compute cost of the VM.

If you have an EA you can deploy VMs from specific Marketplace images that are pre-configured with the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. Without an EA you can upload a custom VM and deploy using a Resource Manager template or Azure PowerShell.

This article explains all and has some useful illustrations http://bit.ly/2lbjIbe.

June 2016 EA Program Guide

There’s an updated (June 2016) Enterprise Agreement Program Guide. The major amendment is for the change in the minimum number of users/devices from 250 to 500 which came into effect on 1 July 2016. There are also other additions for some new SA benefits such as the Hybrid Use Benefit.

As usual, you can find this guide in our Licensing Guides store here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Azure HUB FAQ

Microsoft release more information on the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit – here are the highlights from the FAQ:

  • Windows Server with SA licences can be used to license Azure Virtual Machines at the base compute rate which is equal to the Linux rate for VMs
  • Each Windows Server licence covers 2 VMs with up to 8 cores, or one VM with up to 16 cores
  • To use the Azure HUB you need to create a Windows VM through PowerShell and set a special property which bills the VM at the base compute rate
  • Gallery images can’t be used with Azure HUB.

Find the full FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1jeqDj6.