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Can you help me with my software licensing question?

I am wondering which license does those cloud providers use for their windows instances they provide? I mean suppose if they buy windows server 2008 with 10 client license are they able to provide 10 windows instances? when client creates say two instances are 2 out of those 10 license used? Can they reuse the license key after the user destroy the instance??

Sorry for too many questions but I can't understand all this that's why asked..

Community
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johngillow
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2 Answers2

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Cloud providers use what is called the SPLA license. Basically the way this works is that for every month that you use the license (and pay the provider) they pay Microsoft for the license. When you stop using it, Microsoft stops getting paid.

Typically the monthly cost that is paid to Microsoft is between 1 and 5% of the retail license cost. Providers will usually mark this way up (especially for SQL Server, Exchange, etc.) and charge you a fortune for the software because compared to the retail price, the monthly price they charge you looks pretty good.

mrdenny
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Microsoft offers a license agreement targetted to Service Providers.It appears you can pay per processor or per instance.

uSlackr
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