Traditionally Windows VMs (virtual machines) in Azure would include a Windows Server Datacenter license. The cost of this license was built into the hourly/monthly fee for that VM. This made systems easy to roll out using the GUI wizards and made licensing a cinch. If you are moving existing virtual machine workloads to the cloud, this can be expensive since you paying again for licenses you’ve already purchased.
According to their new announcement, Microsoft says “now you can move your existing Windows Server licenses to Azure when you extend your datacenter to the cloud. With the Azure Hybrid Use 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.” Continue reading