Licensing Woes for Delivering Desktops as a Service

For years I’ve been talking internally (and some externally) about the horrible licensing situation Microsoft has around delivering desktops as a service. This started with VDI type of solutions and continues for cloud-based desktop delivery. I haven’t been able to write about it very much because my employer didn’t want a post to setup some sort of liability situation. Fair enough. So for the past several years I’ve just told people, “you really need to look at your licensing implications and a good place to start is Lady Licensing’s website” (thank you Emma for an awesome resource.

That all changes now. Thanks to Brian Madden and Gabe van Zanten there’s been a lot of talk about MS licensing woes for desktops. I’m glad the discussion is finally taking place and I really hope the community pressures Microsoft to adjust their desktop licensing policies just like they adjusted their server licensing policies to let customers actually use their software in a more effective way. Remember, it’s only you the customer that can make this change – typically other vendors don’t have the right pressure points to press on.

Make sure you go and read Brian’s latest post on this topic with all of the relevant links to the right information. Then go and contact your Microsoft rep and VPs and anyone else you have contacts for an press on them to start doing the smart thing here.

Mike out.