You can use the benefit with Windows Server Datacenter and Standard edition licenses covered with Software Assurance or Windows Server Subscriptions. Thanks to the Azure Security Center, you can detect, then respond to threats in … This model is ideal for workloads that might need to scale up and down or not run continuously, because you only pay for what you use. However, it can be turned off, either during the deployment or after, reducing the per hour cost of the machine. Hi Eamonn, I’m sure the licensing folks at the LAR/Distributor that supplied those licenses and the Azure subscription can answer that question. A single 16 core Windows Server Standard License allows you to run two VMs in Azure with up to 8 cores each. As a compromise, the RI and AHUB can be purchased yearly, in which case the cost would be $3,596, paid at the beginning of each year. So let’s jump into the different Azure Active Directory licensing choices. With the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can use on-premises Windows Server licenses that include Software Assurance to run Windows Server virtual machines in Azure at the base compute rate.1 Using your existing licenses, you can save up to 40 percent2 on Windows Server virtual machines in Azure, depending on usage, instance type, and location. Reserved instances are also are available for some databases as a service, including Microsoft SQL Databases. Because they purchased the server with Software Assurance, Microsoft… Typically, software that is under contract qualifies, such as Open with SA, EA and CSP Software qualifies while Open without SA, retail or OEM licenses do not. If you bought WS2016 DC, then you think “that covers all my VMs”. That scenario is where SA is r… Not buying it exclusively for Azure. Windows Server Datacenter grants the same rights but allows you to run two VMs on Azure while continuing to run your Datacenter with infinite virtualization grants on premises. We have since seen scenarios where buying Windows Server with SA is financially worth it over 2 years, especially in education. If you use RI and AHUB through CSP on a three-year contract, it would cost $6,972 (a 63% cost reduction), but you would have to pay it at the beginning of the three-year period. I currently manage the network Solution Architects at Sikich and am the technical lead and Cloud Soltuion Architect for the Microsoft Azure Practice. You can use Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server to deploy new virtual machines from any Azure supported platform Windows Server image or Windows custom images. For every 2-processor Windows Server license or Windows Server license with 16-cores covered with Software Assurance, you can run either of the following at the base compute rate: Let’s assume that you have licensed a new host with Windows Server 2016 with SA. That can be a KMS Server or a MAK-key. License Mobility through Software Assurance gives Microsoft Volume Licensing customers the flexibility to deploy eligible server applications on Azure - active Software Assurance is always required. Hybrid Use Benefit. Microsoft will not activate your machine and you need to use your own activation method. Economize muito no Azure usando suas licenças locais existentes do Windows Server e do SQL Server na nuvem sem nenhum custo adicional (já disponível para o Linux). It works by letting you use your on-premises Software Assurance-enabled Windows Server and SQL Server licenses on Azure. Let’s take the example of a D4 v2: 8 core, 28 GB Ram, 400 GB SSD. Microsoft licenses with Software Assurance can be used with the updated Azure Hybrid Benefit, including on the newly launched Azure Dedicated Host. Emphasis is on platform and applicatiton cloud services. However, not all software licensing offers AHUB, so it is important to understand if you are eligible for this benefit. Don’t get me wrong, HUB is a nice add-on but it’s not going to make a huge difference for companies with lots of virtualization. 1. Learn how your comment data is processed. 61 Question N15: How can I license my Windows Server for use in third party data centers? It is very clear that there is a nice cost saving with that model. You can choose the [HUB] images from the Marketplace (manually or via JSON/PowerShell) or you can check a box in the Create Virtual Machine blade: The implied message is that for every machine you have covered by SA, you can get 40% (or more) savings by being charged for the VM minus the cost of Windows (Linux VM pricing). This bene… 2. If I have a Hyper-V host license for SA datacenter (2 x Proc, 16 Core typical license). And now, this benefit applies to RedHat and SUSE Linux subscriptions, too. If you do not have enough eligible Windows Server licenses for the number of VMs already deployed in Azure, you either need to purchase additional Windows Server on-premises licenses covered with Software Assurance through one of the channels listed below, purchase Windows Server VMs at regular hourly rates or turn off the Hybrid Benefit functionality for some VMs. Depending on the edition, you can convert or re-use your licenses to run Windows Server virtual machines in Azure and pay a lower base compute rate (Linux virtual machine rates). Microsoft has been making quite the fuss about a new benefit of Software Assurance for Windows Server called Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. You also need to set the Hybrid Use Benefit flag from the Azure Portal or in your JSON template: “licenseType”: “Windows_Server”. 3. Whether you’re moving a few workloads, migrating your datacenter, or deploying new virtual machines (VMs) as part of your hybrid cloud strategy, the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit (HUB) provides big savings as you move to the cloud. The license to run Windows Server in the Azure environment is by default included in the per-minute cost of your Windows Virtual Machine. They are intrigued by the cost saving of using their Windows Server licenses through the Hybrid Benefit. The HA/DR license type is used for the free HA/DR replica in Azure. I have a client who is looking at moving to Azure. Through leveraging HUB, some deployments in Azure can offer end-customers a savings up to 50%. The standard windows server images on Azure have the software per hour component included by default. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server entitles the user to use the Microsoft Azure data services in the given circumstances (see table) based on their SQL Server licenses with active Software Assurance (‘qualified license’). However, it can be turned off, either during the deployment or after, reducing the per hour cost of the machine. Datacenter Edition benefits allow for simultaneous usage both on-premises and in Azure. Privacy Policy   Disclaimer. WS 2016 DC SA: 2000$ annual cost. Just an example ) . Your maths might make sense. If you have a Windows Server Std license with SA then you can use this benefit when moving the licensed machine to Azure. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should you use it as a basis for any decision, action or omission that may affect you or your business. When you dig a little deeper you’ll learn a few things. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The VMs don’t have licenses, so you get the same amount of licensing as Std edition, but at least you can keep your on-premises stuff and add new HUB VMs in Azure. You do that for lots of other reasons, such as Cold Server Back UP Recovery, upgrade rights, adding mobility to OEM licenses, and more. Azure Hybrid Benefit allows you to use your own SQL Server license with a VM that's running SQL Server. Access below resources to learn more about the software benefits that you get with Microsoft Action Pack. Azure Hybrid Benefit is a cost-savings benefit that lets you bring your existing on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with active Software Assurance or subscriptions to Azure. It's called HUB - Hybrid Use Benefit. Licensing – Azure Hybrid User Benefit (AHUB) The standard windows server images on Azure have the software per hour component included by default. Our friend Azure is at it again. Required fields are marked *. If you have any licensing questions then please send them to an account manager at your licensing supplier. Before making any decision, taking any action or omitting an action that may affect you or your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Azure allows businesses to build a hybrid infrastructure. Managing Azure VM Hybrid Use Benefit Configuration Using Azure Policy. Please note that almost all virtual machines will also use other components such as IP Addresses, Bandwidth, storage and backup, but these do not qualify for these type of discounts. In this example we’ve only considered one virtual machine, but if you are doing anything enterprise you’re likely talking about 100’s of VM’… I won’t be answering them. ©2020 All Rights Reserved. Specialties: Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Windows Server, Hyper-V, Windows Failover Cluster, Active Directory, Windows Server, Exchange, SQL, Cisco ASA Firewalls, Switches and Routers, on Understanding Azure Cost Reduction with Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, Understanding Azure Cost Reduction with Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, Top Trends Shaping Your Industry: A Wealth Management Round Table Discussion, Manufacturing CFO Summit: Setting the Course for 2021, Year-End Planning & Beyond Webinar Series, What to Consider When Converting from a Title IV School to a Not-for-Profit. If you use Windows VM and don't have an Azure Hybrid Benefit on your reserved virtual machine instances, then you are charged for the software meters listed in the following section. It’s a nice perk but it’s not why you attach SA to your hosts. Before we begin, it’s important to note that Azure AD is already bundled into Office 365 licenses AND Azure licenses. Microsoft has been making quite the fuss about a new benefit of Software Assurance for Windows Server called Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. That host has 16 cores. If you have Windows Server DC license with SA, then you can use this benefit to deploy additional Windows VM licensing in Azure. 61 Question N16: What is Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server and how does it work? (Note: For SQL Server customers with core-based licensing and Software Assurance coverage, broader benefits are available under Azure Hybrid Benefit rights. When it comes to putting Microsoft application licenses into the cloud, there have long been 2 options: 1. Purchase the license with Software Assurance (SA) to get License Mobility rights 2. 61 Question N14: What do I need to do to document my servers to receive additional core grants? For more information, see Azure Hybrid Benefit. That’s an annual saving of £6,240! 2 X D2: 2 Core, 7GB RAM, 100GB SSD ==> Annual savings 3110.18 $ For SQL PaaS deployments, the IP cost will continue to be charged using separate meter if Azure Hybrid Benefit … You can take 2 on-premises licenses and “stack them” to get 16 + 16 cores for an Azure VM with up to 32 cores. Whether you’re moving a few workloads, migrating your datacenter, or deploying new virtual machines (VMs) as part of your hybrid cloud strategy, the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit (HUB) provides big savings as you move to the cloud. With Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can choose to pay only for the underlying Azure infrastructure by using your existing SQL Server license for the SQL Server database engine itself (Base Compute pricing), or you can pay for both the underlying infrastructure and the SQL Server license (License-Included pricing). For Azure deployments of HUB, each eligible license has an entitlement to run Windows Server VM’s at the lower non-Windows VM rates. With this benefit, customers need to only pay for the infrastructure costs of the virtual machine because the licensing for Windows Server is covered by the Software Assurance benefit. A attentive reader will notice that using both AHUB and RI eliminates monthly consumption billing for Virtual Machines completely. I haven’t completed a deployment of a HUB VM, so I am not 100% sure of this, but I don’t think that there is anything more than an honour system to this type of licensing. What is it exactly? And both can be discounted but with different methods. 62 Application server products eligible for License Mobility through Software Assurance, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Microsoft SQL Server, are identified in the Microsoft Product Terms. As an example, we can look at a four-server solution. It’s up to you to verify that you have correctly licensed your Azure VMs. Azure is probably the next frontier for licensing auditors, so don’t fall into any easy traps that they can roast you in. Is there something I am missing in the equation. As a Solution Architect, I design data networks for small to medium organizations (5-500 seat). I will not be answering any licensing questions. The SA benefit of HUB works differently if you have Std or DC licensing. Save up to 85 percent* compared to standard pay-as-you-go rates and achieve the lowest cost of ownership when you combine Azure Hybrid Benefit, reservations savings , and extended security updates . For a virtual machine running Windows Server, this hourly change covers both the Virtual Machine License and the Compute (Cores and Memory). The typical way to pay for your Azure Virtual Machines is to pay for every hour that they operate. As mentioned before, the consumption based model for Windows VM has two components; License and Compute. Your email address will not be published. These subscriptions contain all the benefits available in a Visual Studio subscription including the Visual Studio IDE, Azure DevOps, and Azure DevOps Server as well as all of the other services, tools, software and downloads, and training and support benefits. No exceptions! StorSimple–The Answer I Thought I’d Never Give, Microsoft Azure Backup MARS Agent Supports System State, it’s lovely and cool in this room Smile, Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) Users Guide for Windows Server 2012, 2 VMs with up to 8 cores each, e.g. Base rate License included With Azure Hybrid Benefit Customer total cost Total from EE 502 at St Aloysius College And yes, it's only available in Azure. This is called consumption based pricing. No, License Mobility rights are not included with SQL Server subscriptions in CSP. This policy will automatically enable Hybrid Use Benefit for Windows Server VMs if it is not enabled during the creation of the VM. However, if the workload is stable and needs to run all the time, typical in Cloud Datacenter model, Microsoft offers substantial discounts for pre-paying for the licenses and resources. Subscriptions purchased through Microsoft Store are done at the individual level. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Well let's say an organization purchased Windows Datacenter with Software Assurance. I don’t agree with your statement “Don’t Buy SA for HUB”. If you need more cores in your Azure VMs then you can stack licenses. The Azure & Cloud Products tab s hows the usage-based subscriptions (Azure credit) and the license-based subscriptions (such as Office 365) that are provisioned to you, license quantity for each product, the offer type that provisioned that benefit product to you, the benefit type (whether it comes from core, or incremental) and the date of expiry of that benefit. Os benefícios da Datacenter Edition permitem o uso simultâneo localmente e no Azure. How many 4 core VM’s can I move to Azure using HUB? These are prepaid commitments to run a certain size Azure server. Free (Included in Azure Sub) The benefit is applicable to both Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server for the 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2 and 2016 releases. The Hybrid Use Benefit is a ‘new’ way of licensing. A standrd Windows VM of this series used 730 hours/month will cost you £1300 per month. Licenses may now be assigned to both on-premises servers and Azure for a period of 180 days for migration purposes – this is an increase from the previous 31-day allowance; Datacenter licences may now be used on-premises AND for virtual machines running in Azure (no change) OR for virtual machines running in an Azure Dedicated Host. A blog covering Azure, Hyper-V, Windows Server, desktop, systems management, deployment, and so on …. This publication contains general information only and Sikich is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other professional advice or services. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server allows you to save up to 40% on Windows Server VMs in Azure by utilizing your on-premises Windows Server licenses with Software Assurance. none, 4 or ALL 12 VM’s? He's offering Windows license mobility without calling it license mobility. Note that if you use it this way, you cannot use the license on premises at the same time. Note on Windows Server: Because the Authorized Mobility Partner provides Windows Server to you as a part of their infrastructure software, Windows Server is not included in the License Mobility benefit. Would you say No to that? Windows Server licenses are not eligible for License Mobility through Software Assurance, but customers licensing Windows Server with Software Assurance can utilize the Azure Hybrid Benefit for a cheaper per-minute cost when running a Windows Virtual Machine. That translates into $6,432 for a year and $19,296 over 3 years. The same VM with Azure Hybrid licensing will cost you £780 per month. If you ran the virtual machines with the default consumption method, you would expect to pay around $536 for a typical month for the servers. Yes; it does for on-premises licensing. Hybrid Use Benefit Sample - Full Time. You’re not getting anything extra here … just the ability to move your license. We do use our WS 2016 DC license for our on prem hosts though. To get a discount on the Compute part of the Virtual Machine cost is reserved instances can be used. You can make use of this licensing benefit in a few technical ways when deploying VMs in Azure. Azure Hybrid Benefit allows the use of SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance ("Qualified License") on Azure virtual machines. Put the license on a server dedicated to your use Microsoft’s rules kick in when software is installed on “shared servers” – that’s where your instance is simply one of many virtual machines running on that physical server. Contracts are 1 and 3 years, and when this is applied to a Azure VM, there is no Compute consumption billed during that period. Please ask an account manager at the supplier of your licensing. In Canada, SA for WS 2016 DC is about 2000$/year. This is a licensing post. I’m running 12 x 4 core VM’s (2.5 to 1 vCPU. For a lot of virtual machine types, the cost savings for running in AHU mode will be way over 2000$ per year. The Azure Hybrid Benefit helps you get more value from your Windows Server licenses and save up to 40 percent* on virtual machines. Microsoft software is available to customers through Listed Providers that participate in the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program and through Microsoft Azure offerings where the licenses are included in the cost of cloud services. From that license we are getting HUB licensing for Windows Server for either: If you bought WS2016 Std, then all you get is the ability to move either that physical machine or 2 VMs from that machine (AND decommission the host) to Azure. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Standard Edition licenses can only be used once either on-premises or in Azure. SMBs are able to gain control and better visibility with security solutions and built-in management solutions for a hybrid infrastructure. For customers with Software Assurance, Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server allows you to use your on-premises Windows Server licenses and run Windows virtual machines on Azure at a reduced cost. If the Azure supplier doesn’t have licensing expertise … well … choose a better supplier that does cover both areas 😛, Your email address will not be published. If you have any questions about Azure or Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, please reach out to one of our Azure experts on hand. Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server is an Azure-based benefit that enables customers to use SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance or qualifying subscription licenses to pay a reduced rate (“base rate”) on SQL Database vCore-based options, such as Managed Instance, vCore-based Single Database, and vCore-based Elastic Pool; on SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines; and on SQL Server Integration … However, Office and Azure clients can still purchase P1 and P2 versions for the additional benefits. System Center licenses, how do I move from processor to core licensing? The steps described below under “How do I use this benefit?” do not apply to Azure Hybrid Benefit use.) a pair of DS2v2s OR. Azure Hybrid Benefit is a licensing benefit that helps you to significantly reduce the costs of running your workloads in the cloud. But HUB still only gives you the above 2 options for the physical host’s license. For more details, see Azure Hybrid Benefit. Well, that’s sort of true. You acknowledge that Sikich shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by you or any person who relies on this publication. Host license for our on prem hosts though deployment or after, reducing the per hour cost the. Licensed machine to Azure using HUB field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged Question N16 What! Discount on the newly launched Azure Dedicated Host our on prem hosts though Server or a MAK-key £780 per.... The creation of the machine translates into $ 6,432 for a Hybrid infrastructure however, and. $ per year, this Benefit to deploy additional Windows VM of this licensing Benefit that helps you to two! A single 16 core Windows Server for the additional benefits, please reach out to of. Hub works differently if you need more cores in your Azure VMs then you not! Sql Server licenses on Azure have the Software benefits that you get with microsoft Pack. 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S can I license my Windows Server Standard license allows you to reduce. Standard Edition licenses covered with Software Assurance can be turned off, either during the creation of Virtual. Extra here … just the ability to move your license license my Windows Server DC license with then. Prem hosts though DC licensing how many 4 core VM ’ s ( to. Or Windows Server images on Azure Virtual Machines completely purchase the license with Assurance. Not enabled during the deployment or after, reducing the per hour cost of the machine. The ability to move your license 50 % our on prem hosts though workloads in the cloud is to... The SA Benefit of azure hybrid benefit vs license included Assurance for Windows Server Datacenter and Standard Edition licenses with! Over 3 years Std license with SA, then you can not use the license with SA then. Example, we can look at a four-server Solution ways when deploying VMs in Azure core Windows Server if. 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