Running Server Applications in Azure Virtual Machines

The Azure Virtual Machines service offers Microsoft-hosted virtual machines (VMs) in a subscription model. Most recent Microsoft server applications are supported for use within an Azure VM, but two different models for licensing the applications may prove confusing. Businesses will need to carefully consider the costs and complexities of properly licensing applications in Azure Virtual Machines when planning use of the service.

What Is an Azure Virtual Machine?

The Azure Virtual Machines service offers subscribers persistent VM instances running production workloads on Windows Server or Linux. Subscribers can provision VMs with required computing resources and software, and they are responsible for the maintenance and management of all software within the VM instance. Azure Virtual Machines is an alternative to running Microsoft’s Hyper-V or solutions from VMware on premises, and it competes with other Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings such as Amazon Web Services EC2 and Google Compute Engine hosted virtualization services.