You might have heard that the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), which has 27 members, filed a complaint against Microsoft in November 2022. If you recall, its complaint concerns the unfair advantage of running Microsoft workloads in public clouds that are not in Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft “settled” (use of quotation marks because they have nine months to adhere to their commitment) that will allow a more enhanced version of Azure Stack HCI for European hosters. What’s interesting to me is Azure Stack HCI forces customers to run Hyper V. Does this enhanced version allow those hosters (almost every hoster I work with) who deployed VMWare the opportunity to partake in this offer? Does it lower licensing costs? What about the USA? We’re a mess already. Can we at least get this Azure Stack HCI?
I am not sure this settlement matters as much. I spoke to one hoster who asked about Listed Providers (Google, AWS, Alibaba). What options will Microsoft provide to them? We kind of laughed at the question because we knew the answer—not much.
Here’s my take on this for what it’s worth. For the past 24 months, Microsoft has been promoting Azure to hosters, whether it’s Azure Stack to monitor everything from one panel to CSP Hoster or Flexible Virtualization. Although there are many different programs and options for hosters and end customers to participate in, licensing is increasingly becoming more difficult. Regardless of the settlement, my recommendation for hosters is to get your own house in order before considering whatever Microsoft and the European courts decide. Here’s a small list of things to consider:
- How do you know what is installed? (the process to report or purchase licensing each month)
- Are you aware that different programs have different use rights? Flexible Virtualization requires CALs, but CSP Hoster does not.
- Flexible Virtualization requires ACTIVE Software Assurance. How do you track end-customer licensing?
- What kind of language is in your agreement with your customers around software audits?
- How do you know which cloud provider is the most economical?
- An end customer can have a CSP agreement, EA Agreement, SPLA through the Hoster, Open Value, and PAYG (Pay as you go) through publishers directly. How are you tracking this?
Need help or have a licensing question? Email me at info@splalicensing.com. Don’t wait for things to happen; make them happen. Do it. If you license 100 or 5 million dollars a month, don’t you want to ensure it is right?
Thanks for reading,
SPLA Man
SPLA Licensing 