Applying Volume Licenses to Multitenant Cloud Workloads

Thousands of service providers offer customers access to Microsoft software on multitenant hardware, meaning the hardware is shared among multiple customers. Customers have the option to apply many types of perpetual licenses with active Software Assurance (SA) and many types of subscription licenses to workloads hosted at multitenant service providers, including Microsoft’s own Azure. However, special provisions unique to Azure permit customers to apply a broader set of product licenses to workloads at Azure compared with third-party service providers.

SQL Server and Other Server Applications

An SA benefit called License Mobility through SA permits most types of SA-covered licenses for on-premises server applications to be reassigned to cover workloads running at an authorized partner (called a “License Mobility through Software Assurance Partner”) which includes Amazon, Google, Alibaba, and over a thousand other service providers. Product licenses offering this SA benefit include core licenses and other server-side licenses for SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Exchange Server, and System Center.