CISPE and Microsoft Settlement – What Does It Mean?

You might have heard that the Cloud Infrastructure ServicesProviders in Europe (CISPE), which has 27 members, filed a complaint againstMicrosoft in November 2022. If you recall, its complaint concerns the unfairadvantage of running Microsoft workloads in public clouds that are not inMicrosoft Azure.
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Microsoft “settled” (use of quotation marks because theyhave nine months to adhere to their commitment) that will allow a more enhancedversion of Azure Stack HCI for European hosters. What’s interesting to me isAzure Stack HCI forces customers to run Hyper V. Does this enhanced versionallow those hosters (almost every hoster I work with) who deployed VMWare theopportunity to partake in this offer? Does it lower licensing costs? What aboutthe USA? We’re a mess already. Can we at least get this Azure Stack HCI?

I am not sure this settlement matters as much. I spoke toone hoster who asked about Listed Providers (Google, AWS, Alibaba). Whatoptions will Microsoft provide to them? We laughed at the question because weknew the answer—not much.

Here’s my take on this for what it’s worth. For the past 24months, Microsoft has been promoting Azure to hosters, whether it’s Azure Stackto monitor everything from one panel to CSP Hoster or Flexible Virtualization.Although there are many different programs and options for hosters and endcustomers to participate in, licensing is increasingly becoming more difficult.Regardless of the settlement, my recommendation for hosters is to get your ownhouse in order before considering whatever Microsoft and the European courtsdecide. Here’s a small list of things to consider:

·      How do you know what is installed? (the processto report or purchase licensing each month)

·      Are you aware that different programs havedifferent use rights? Flexible Virtualization requires CALs, but CSP Hosterdoes not.

·      Flexible Virtualization requires ACTIVE SoftwareAssurance. How do you track end-customer licensing?

·      What kind of language is in your agreement withyour customers around software audits?

·      How do you know which cloud provider is the mosteconomical?

·      An end customer can have a CSP agreement, EAAgreement, SPLA through the Hoster, Open Value, and PAYG (Pay as you go)through publishers directly. How are you tracking this?

We have developed a new community at Octopus Cloud to helpservice providers uncover the complexity of these licensing scenarios.  Join us at community.octopus.cloud

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