Tag Archives: Virtualization

Windows Server virtualization licensing guidance document

There’s an updated (May 2025) Windows Server virtualization licensing document from Microsoft. There aren’t major changes from the previous version – the most significant one is the removal of all the (quite useful) diagrams. In addition, the original errors remain – the requirement for a customer to have a minimum of 16 Windows Server Core licences when licensing by virtual machine was removed in April 2023.

However, keep your Microsoft documentation stash complete by grabbing this document here: https://bit.ly/44doWLJ.

Windows Server 2025

Microsoft announce that Windows Server 2025 is generally available from 1 November, 2024. From a what’s-the-same perspective, there are still Standard and Datacenter editions which differ by a couple of technical features but mainly by their virtualisation licensing rights, and CALs are still needed for users or devices. From a what’s-new perspective, there’s now a PAYG licensing option through Azure Arc, and prices are increased by 10%.

Find the (low-key) announcement here: https://bit.ly/40DqRHY, and early information on the PAYG option here: https://bit.ly/3YxtfgP.

Licensing Windows Server for use with virtualization technologies

There’s an updated (October 2022) Microsoft Licensing Brief to detail the licensing of Windows Server for use with virtualisation technologies.

This document is updated for the new per virtual machine licensing model for Windows Server, so if you’re pondering how containers are licensed, how Windows Server licensing changes with VMware or Virtuozzo, or how you license Windows Server for use on Microsoft Azure, you’ll find this useful document here: https://bit.ly/3SSzfMJ.