Microsoft to tweak virtualization licensing policies
The software maker plans to announce some changes on Tuesday, CNET News has confirmed. It's another effort to adjust to a world in which software can move freely among both physical and virtual machines.
In its continuing effort to adjust to the realities of virtualization, Microsoft plans on Tuesday to announce new licensing and support policies to address how software can be used across multiple virtual and physical machines.
The software maker confirmed the planned move to CNET News, but declined to go into details ahead of the Tuesday announcement. However, Network World speculated that the company may ease up on a licensing requirement that ties software in a virtual machine to running on a particular server.
That poses a challenge in a world in which virtualization software, such as that from VMware, allows companies to seamlessly move virtual machines from one physical server to another, based on demand needs.
Although it has had challenges of its own keeping pace with changes in the way server software is run, Microsoft has led the way in some new frontiers of licensing, such as how to deal with multicore processors.