While often overlooked, the software licensing costs associated with workloads that you move to the cloud are 3 to 4 times the costs of all other cloud operational costs (compute, network & storage). As a result, it’s imperative that you understand the licensing impact, both from a cost optimization and compliance perspective, for any new or existing cloud workload. The following are key dates to keep in mind for a couple of compelling events around Microsoft licensing for Cloud workloads:
SQL Server 2012 goes End of Life on July 12, 2022
Evolve performs hundreds of AWS funded Optimization & Licensing Assessments each year and it is astonishing how many 2008 R2 SQL Servers, which went End of Life on July 9, 2019, that we still see in company’s environments. These servers are either going un-patched, which is an open door to a ransomware attack, or require expensive Extended Security Updates from Microsoft (approximately 75% of the license cost per year) in order to be patched. This problem is about to be compounded with SQL Server 2012 hitting end of life on July 12, 2022. Here are a few ways that you can mitigate this security issue:
1) If you are carrying active software assurance on your SQL licensing, and the application will support a newer version of SQL, the simple solution would be to upgrade to SQL Server 2014 or higher to ensure this database will be patched & secured.
2) While very expensive, you can opt to pay for the Extended Security Updates from Microsoft. Keep in mind this is a one-year commitment, renewed annually
3) You can switch to a License Included subscription model through your Cloud Provider. This should be a strong consideration if you are not paying for software assurance, looking to shut the server down or modernize away from Microsoft SQL in the near future. License Included would give you the ability to deploy up to SQL Server 2019 (soon to be SQL 2022 as it is in preview) without the long-term commitment of purchasing a full new license.
4) Modernize – Microsoft SQL licensing can take up 50-75% of the total cost of the workload. Many customers are realizing that software licensing is very expense and exploring moving this workloads to options like Postgres/Aurora which does not require software licensing. While at one time this was very challenging due to the required code changes needed, technologies like AWS Babelfish are making it much easier for customers to make this transition.
October 1, 2022 will be three years removed from Microsoft major rule change from October 1, 2019
As many know by now, Microsoft made a significant rule change that went into effect on October 1, 2019. While you can read about this rule change in greater detail here, the gist of the change was to make it more difficult to BYOL your existing Microsoft volume license investments to AWS & GCP, while making it more advantageous to BYOL that licensing to Azure. Most volume license agreements are on a three year term, and there was a grandfather clause if your three year cycle started before October 1, 2019, you had until the end of your agreement term to true up Windows Server licensing and maintain your BYOL rights to other clouds. With the exception of the small percentage of customers that are on 4 or 5 year Enterprise Agreements, we are coming up on the last four months for the remaining customers that haven’t renewed yet, to be able to purchase Windows Server licensing with BYOL rights:
1) If you are one of the lucky customers with an EA or SCE renewal between now and 10/1/2022, it may not be a bad idea to either add some additional Windows Server Datacenter licenses where you can, or step up unused Windows Server Standard licenses to Windows Server Datacenter. Also, do not under any circumstances allow yourself to be talked into converting your Windows Server perpetual licenses to subscription licenses. You will end up losing your BYOL rights to other clouds. If you are currently on an EA Subscription, you do have the opportunity to do a license buyout to preserve your BYOL rights past your renewal.
2) If you have already renewed your EA or SCE since 10/1/2019, you are still most likely fine, providing that you didn’t convert your licensing to subscription. Worst case you may have two buckets of Windows Server licensing now (one bucket with BYOL rights and one bucket that does not). Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot use these licenses in other clouds or that it will be more expensive. Evolve delivered over 300 AWS funded Optimization & Licensing assessments in 2021 alone. As part of those assessments, we were able to create BYOL models for AWS customers all while reducing the amount of SQL cores that needed to be licensed by 45% and reducing the amount of Windows Server cores that needed to be licensed by 78%.
If any of these above scenarios affect you, and you need some assistance with understanding your options, Evolve can assist. Evolve can contract directly with customers or potentially receive funding to cover the costs.