[AusNOG] AWS and MS SPLA

Matthew Zobel matthew.zobel at gmail.com
Fri Nov 16 14:36:45 EST 2012


I've been told by Microsoft directly that RDS is their preferred method for cloud providers. VDI is the one they don't like and have been cracking down on legally. 

Offering RDS under SPLA is perfectly legal for application delivery (excluding office). 

Sent from my iPhone

On 16/11/2012, at 2:30 PM, "Joshua D'Alton" <joshua at railgun.com.au> wrote:

> This is what a certain software company was trying to get around with offering their own RDS service a few months ago, unfortunately M$ lawyers bopped them on the head in the end. 
> 
> On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Power, Nicholas (Highway 1) <nicholas.power at staff.highway1.com.au> wrote:
>> David is correct. RDS is separately licensed. You need to purchase a RD licenses for each user when running in Terminal Services mode.
>> 
>> Only customers with a Microsoft licensing with Software Assurance may import and export their licensing (license mobility). Otherwise you'll have to buy SPLA from the cloud provider. All providers (I.e. Ultraserve , OrionVM, ZettaGrid, MacTel, CloudCentral) using the standard SPLA would all be bound this way. I can only assume AWS would work the same way.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of David Hughes
>> Sent: Friday, 16 November 2012 7:14 AM
>> To: Ryan Finnesey
>> Cc: AusNOG Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [AusNOG] AWS and MS SPLA
>> 
>> 
>> Sorry Ryan, that is not the case.  RDS is licensed separately from Windows.  You cannot move RDS CALs onto a 3rd party server using LM.  It may be possible to use your own SPLA to provision licenses onto EC2 but there's conflicting doco.  Microsoft marketing blurb says yes but the terms of the SPUR don't back that up.
>> 
>> 
>> David
>> ...
>> 
>> 
>> On 15/11/2012, at 8:02 PM, Ryan Finnesey wrote:
>> 
>> > RDS is part of Windows and not a separate product.  Windows has LM with SA.  So has long as you have RDS CALs I think you will be fine.
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Ryan
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of David Hughes
>> > Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 10:32 PM
>> > To: Matthew Zobel
>> > Cc: AusNOG Mailing List
>> > Subject: Re: [AusNOG] AWS and MS SPLA
>> >
>> >
>> > AWS has a SPLA.  They offer the underlying OS (no doubt licensed under SPLA) as part of the product.  They do not however offer their clients access to other Microsoft licenses (such as RDS SALs) via their SPLA.  They state that you need to bring your own.  And I don't think LM covers that.
>> >
>> > So unless I have this wrong, potential clients could not bypass traditional Aussie VPS providers and use EC2 for replacing their multi-user RDS based office server or citrix farms etc.  (well, not legally).
>> >
>> >
>> > David
>> > ...
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 14/11/2012, at 1:57 PM, Matthew Zobel wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hosted services can only legally be licensed via SPLA. License Mobility requires a signed agreement between the client, service provider and approval from Microsoft, and SPLA.
>> >>
>> >> Having been through this with Microsoft in detail, to the best of my knowledge (IANAL) there would be no legal way to run windows on the platform without SPLA.
>> >>
>> >> Sent from my iPhone
>> >>
>> >> On 14/11/2012, at 2:04 PM, David Hughes <David at Hughes.com.au> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> One thing that I find interesting is that AWS does not appear to offer any SPLA licensing.  Their doco implies you need to bring your own licenses which implies using the provisions of Microsoft's License Mobility.  Unless I'm mistaken, license mobility does not allow the migration of anything other than certain server software licenses (exchange, sql, lync, sharepoint etc).
>> >>>
>> >>> So as far as I can see, it is illegal to run a windows based EC2 server with more than the default 2 Remote Desktop Services user licenses.  Also, those 2 users cannot run MS Office or other MS desktop apps as the licensing is not covered under Licence Mobility.
>> >>>
>> >>> Am I missing something?  Anyone here have more MS licensing clue than me (which wouldn't be hard by the way).
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> David
>> >>> ...
>> >>>
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