I'm looking for some guidance on migrating my on-premises VMs to Azure. I heard that for Windows Server licensing, you need to have Software Assurance to be compliant. Is this requirement only relevant if I want to take advantage of the Azure Hybrid Benefit for cost savings, or does it apply to compliance in general, even for perpetual licenses? I'm struggling to find clear information in Microsoft's documentation.
1 Answer
You're right about needing Software Assurance for compliance when you're leveraging Azure, and it definitely applies if you want to use the Azure Hybrid Benefit for cost savings. But if you're just trying to migrate without those benefits, it gets a bit complicated. You might be technically out of compliance if you use a perpetual license without Software Assurance but Microsoft’s documentation can be pretty vague about it.
That makes sense, but what if I just need to run it on Azure without any benefits? Am I completely off the hook compliance-wise?