Microsoft releases Hyper-V licensing guide for hosting providers

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It’s more than clear that Microsoft is betting on hosting providers to demonstrate how well Hyper-V can perform on large scale virtual infrastructures.

The company is so committed to win the hosting market (something that Parallels should carefully watch) that just released a (much needed) licensing guide: Hyper-V Hosting Guidance: Using and Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Hyper-V Virtual Hosting Scenarios

The 28-pages guide covers every scenario, including:

  • Unmanaged dedicated server with Hyper-V
  • Virtual dedicated server (VDS) for Web scenarios (using Windows Server guests in anonymous mode)
  • Virtual dedicated server with line-of-business (LOB) scenarios (using Windows Server guests in authenticated mode)
  • Use of virtualization in shared hosting scenarios
  • Desktops as Hyper-V guests
  • End customers running Microsoft products using the customers own licenses on the guest OS

As the Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) is not exactly an easy reading this additional help is recommended.