When you’re looking to leverage the Azure Hybrid Benefits, especially after migrating your infrastructure into Azure, knowing what licenses are applicable is crucial to ensuring your remain compliant.

The initial implementation of Azure Hybrid benefits was to help Enterprise customers mitigate cost loss on up front purchased licensing with software assurance by allowing them to take the licensing into Azure with them. The major stipulation on this was an Active Software Assurance agreement on all licensing. The flexibility and agility was a great boon as it allowed for a more controlled lift into Azure without sunk cost.

As an MSP however, you’re not likely transacting the equivalent Software Assurance sku’s to leverage these savings. The risk however is when you use an Azure Migrate appliance/project it will not validate your licensing upon moving up so you’re likely attesting that you have the correctly licensed systems because they were licensed and working on premise. This is a common trap I see partners fall into and it’s not fault of theirs. The minefield of license compliance with Microsoft is vast and complex. As a result, I like to break it down for partners as such:

The licensing is compliant in Azure if:

1. It has an active software assurance agreement.
2. You’ve purchased the associated Software Subscription licensing via CSP.

Option # 2 is likely the ideal path for Service Providers but it needs to be quoted up front when building out your proposal on the project.

Now here are some interesting “grey areas” around the licensing:

1. Windows USER CALs are no longer required when you move into Azure
2. Windows Remote Desktop User CALs still are, and need to be repurchased as software licensing to remain valid, despite the licensing server not rejecting the previous licenses.
3. Software Subscriptions for Windows Server Standard can be used to cover the Datacenter deployments in Azure
4. Windows Server Standard with Software Assurance Cannot.

At the time of writing this, the above ring true however licensing is a nebulous topic so I always refer my partners back to the official licensing documentation found here: Microsoft Product Terms

You can scope out any changes as well by adjusting the versions at the top.

If you’ve recently performed an Azure Migration it may be worth assessing if your licenses are valid before an audit comes down the line.