Today, July 1, is the first day of Microsofts fiscal 2012 year, and is also the day that some new cloud-focused licensing changes from the company commence.



From All About Microsoft:

“License Mobility through Software Assurance” is one of these volume-licensing program changes. As the program name indicates, this allows customers with Software Assurance contracts “deploy certain server application licenses on-premises or in the cloud in a shared hardware environment with the ability to assign your existing licenses to a authorized Service Provider.”

License Mobility kicks in as of July 1. Server applications that can be licensed under the program include SQL Server, Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server, System Center servers, and Dynamics CRM. Windows Server isn’t eligible for inclusion, and Windows Server operating system licenses “remain assigned to customers’ on-premises hardware with their applicable license terms,” according to Microsoft’s overview of the program.

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