For all the flexibility server vitalization affords today’s IT departments, there’s one type of flexibility IT managers would love to have but aren’t likely to get: the ability to save money on Microsoft software licenses. Even when carving a physical server into multiple virtual machines, customers using vitalization probably won’t find any way to circumvent the licensing terms set by Microsoft for software running on virtual machines, Forrester analyst Christopher Voce said at Forrester’s IT Forum in Las Vegas Friday.
“If you are getting any benefit from Microsoft’s software, you need to have a license, whether that benefit is for physical machines or virtual machines,†Voce said in a session titled “Microsoft Licensing in a Virtual World.†“You cannot engineer your way around licensing requirements. You can’t use the technology as a way to cut corners around licensing.â€
Full article – http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/052308-customers-frustrated-over-microsoft.html?fsrc=netflash-rss
