Amazon EC2 Now Supports Windows Licenses

Lots of news from Microsoft as of late, ey? Their new pilot program, The Microsoft Windows Server License Mobility Pilot, allows customers with Enterprise Agreements to migrate their existing Windows Server licenses to Amazon EC2. This means users can leverage their already-purchased licenses and reduce the cost of running Windows instances in the Amazon cloud.

BYO License

Reportedly, running EC2 Instances on your own Windows Server licenses works exactly the same as any other instances , including their ability to use Amazon EC2 features like Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon CloudWatch, Elastic-Load Balancing, Elastic IPs, and existing Windows-based AMIs.

Once enrolled in the pilot, users can run their licenses in Amazon EC2 for the next 12 months. After that, Microsoft will determine whether or not to continue offering license mobility based on customer feedback. 

But one question remains: Are you eligible?

To participate in the pilot, you must meet the following criteria:

• Your company must be based (or have a legal entity) in the United States
• Your company must have an existing Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) that is valid for a minimum of 12 months after your entry into the pilot
• You must have already purchased Software Assurance from Microsoft for your EA Windows Server licenses
• You must be an Enterprise customer (Academic and Government institutions are not covered by this pilot)

Portable Cloud Love

Obviously, this is an opportunity for some to sink their teeth into Amazon's cloud. And if the program takes off, well, that's certainly good news for Windows. The cropping up of new Windows servers would expand the Microsoft ecosystem as well as represent added value--even if there is very little revenue in it to begin with. 

For more information, including a pricing plan and sign-up process, head on over to Amazon's site here.