Win Server 2012 Licensing Made Almost Simple
Microsoft licensing is never easy. In the case of Windows Server 2012, there are a few new wrinkles you ought to know about so you can spend your money wisely.
Windows Server 2012 starts out simple since there are only two versions: Standard and Datacenter. Both  are licensed per processor and one license lets you run it in a server with two processors or two cores. But that actually lies at the root at the complexity, since Datacenter offers virtualizations licenses which you might want to make part of your math.
Here's where it gets interesting: A standard license can run on two processors or two VMs. But I can physically run two standard licenses and get four VMs. This may be cheaper than buying the Datacenter edition to run on that same server if I am looking to run 4 VMs, according to Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft who looked at Windows Server 2012 licensing issues.
How do you dissect Microsoft licensing? Have you found any good resources? Care to share with the rest of the class at [email protected]?
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/03/2012 at 1:19 PM