Microsoft announced that starting October 1, 2019 there will be an update to the licensing of dedicated hosted cloud services. Currently, there aren’t any specific rules for dedicated cloud services in place. In the scenario of dedicated hosted cloud services, currently the same rules as for on-premises servers apply. The existing terms say, that as long as the hardware is dedicated to a customer, the customer can use his own licenses to license dedicated hardware in hosted cloud services. There is no requirement for Software Assurance or any other sort of eligibility criteria. The rights for licenses acquired before October 1, 2019 remain unchanged.
Licenses purchased after October 1, 2019 will underlay new rules when used with dedicated hardware from the following hosting organizations defined as “Listed Providers”: Microsoft, Alibaba, Amazon, and Google. Basically, you’ll now need Software Assurance on your licenses. The License Mobility benefit is updated to include both multi-tenant and dedicated services from these providers, and the Azure Hybrid Benefit is updated to include deployment to the newly announced Azure Dedicated Host.
For the Microsoft announcement, where you can also download an extended FAQ document on the bottom of the page, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/updated-licensing-rights-for-dedicated-cloud.