Oh Microsoft, are you becoming greedy? As far as I can tell this will help drive more business to VMware. Many people out there in the enterprise do not allow vendors to strong arm them into paying more money for no apparent reason. This, I think is just a cash grab for MS.
News of the increase was posted a while by datacenter virtualization and security specialist Aidan Finn, a six-time Microsoft MVP who works for Dublin-based value added reseller MicroWarehouse Ltd. and has done work for clients including Amdahl, Fujitsu and Barclays.
I couldn’t find anything on his site though, I am guessing he pulled it?
Datacenter allows an unlimited number of virtual machines to run on the server. The Standard edition will keep its current price of $882 per processor plus the cost of CALs. Customers with current Software Assurance coverage will get transitional licenses that will allow them to upgrade at no additional cost for the server, though both Standard and Datacenter editions will still require a CAL for each user and device.An Essentials edition supporting no more than two processors and 25 users will cost $501, but doesn’t require additional CALs.The increase caps off a year filled with a record number of price increases for Microsoft enterprise software, according to a Tweet yesterday from Microsoft software licensing analyst Paul DeGroot of Pica Communications.
This can’t sit well with Microsoft’s Enterprise Partners, because this can mean a large increase in overall costs, if a client has 4 physical processors, that essentially over 8000$ in increases alone. I am not too sure how much renewals will be on existing licenses, and I am also not sure how it will affect clients in an ELA from Microsoft.
Thoughts? Share them in the comments.
