Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
Whats frustrtating to me is, you can have 10 Windows 10 Pro instances running in a rack on 10 servers, and be fine to offer everyone their own desktop to access over RDP. But if you merely want to combine that onto a slightly more powerful server for VDI, the licensing isnt available or ends up costs many times more.
The cost difference here would be you purchase VDI licenses for like $130/yr per session.
If you have 10 PCs that cost $1000/ea, that's 10K and includes the Windows `10 Pro license.
The question is, can you build a server that will run those same users for less than $10K. Thing to keep in mind, you'll pay $1300/yr for the Windows licenses.
Sure on the surface this looks like it might be more expensive, but when you consider many fewer power supplies, likely less power consumption, single device to manage, etc.. it might be worth it for you.
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller You have an example link or SKU?
It's just the Software Assurance add on.
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller So I virtualized server 2016 server (on Vultr) can run a VDI/RDS setup?
Of course. I mean... as long as you are the only user, it's VDI by default! RDS is just a role you install on top of that if you want that additionally.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
On the licensing side, MS is the only vendor with VDI licensing and it only exists for the exclusive scenario of Windows desktops virtualized.
lol - 'nix is free, so of course no cost here, and again, Apple only allows MAC OS to run on apple hardware, so a non option.
So while what you say is true, it puts MS in an unfair bad light.MS is moving everything they can to a subscription license. So while it would be better for customers, I'm not surprised when the license basically becomes divorced from the hardware in VDI, they only want a subscription service for this.
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@Dashrender said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
On the licensing side, MS is the only vendor with VDI licensing and it only exists for the exclusive scenario of Windows desktops virtualized.
lol - 'nix is free, so of course no cost here, and again, Apple only allows MAC OS to run on apple hardware, so a non option.
So while what you say is true, it puts MS in an unfair bad light.Not really unfair, it is what it is. They can offer their products for free or for cheap or in cheap ways for VDI if they want. Any bad light is one that they voluntarily take on. And *nix is not free, no idea where that idea came from.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller You have an example link or SKU?
It's just the Software Assurance add on.
That's one option, and an option that required VL, must buy 5 licenses to start a VL. You can also buy VDI license direct.
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The reason that Windows has VDI licensing is from a weird bit of complexity that no other vendor has. Has nothing to do with their pricing models, it has to do unnecessary complexity and a cultural complacency towards broken or unreliable software ecosystems.
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@Dashrender said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller You have an example link or SKU?
It's just the Software Assurance add on.
That's one option, and an option that required VL, must buy 5 licenses to start a VL. You can also buy VDI license direct.
You mean the VDA license? One is for users, one for hardware.
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller So I virtualized server 2016 server (on Vultr) can run a VDI/RDS setup?
If you use the RDP connection to the 2016, you are acting as VDI. You can do that all you want.
The same goes for Windows 10. If you can build a Win 10 VM in Vultr, it's VDI. Vultr might not have an ISO/base image to use in their cloud, so that would be on them to resolve. But if you can upload your own ISO to build from, you could have VDI there as well. Now licensing is it's own thing. You can use those Windows 10 Pro machines in VMs either through your Software assurance license or through the VDI license.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@Dashrender said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller You have an example link or SKU?
It's just the Software Assurance add on.
That's one option, and an option that required VL, must buy 5 licenses to start a VL. You can also buy VDI license direct.
You mean the VDA license? One is for users, one for hardware.
Right, but you can't buy Software Assurance on it's own. That requires a Volume License (unless there are changes I'm unaware of). But I think anyone can buy a VDA license if they wanted.
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Is TS licensing (or RDS, whatever) now also annual?
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
Is TS licensing (or RDS, whatever) now also annual?
not that I know of. VDA is annual. Software assurance is 2 or 3 years.
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
Is TS licensing (or RDS, whatever) now also annual?
No. RDS has really never changed, at all. Yes, they changed the name from TS to RDS long ago. That's it. Literally nothing else has changed about it.
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
Is TS licensing (or RDS, whatever) now also annual?
VDI isn't either.
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@scottalanmiller what @Dashrender was saying above about $130/desktop/yr is just software assurance then?
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller what @Dashrender was saying above about $130/desktop/yr is just software assurance then?
No, it's VDA
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@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller what @Dashrender was saying above about $130/desktop/yr is just software assurance then?
No, that's VDA, which is an option but basically one that no one would consider. It's an old system that predated the modern, logical VDI licensing options and exists for very special "hardware licensing" situations. It would be very surprising if it was applicable to you.
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@Dashrender said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller what @Dashrender was saying above about $130/desktop/yr is just software assurance then?
No, it's VDA
and more specifically, as Scott said, it's not computer dependent, it's user dependent. So if you only have 5 users, you only need 5 VDA. if you have 20 users, and only 10 computers used, you still need 20 VDA licenses.
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Microsoft's "spin" or "take" on their VDI licensing is that they've always encourage everyone to license Windows 10 Enterprise and get Software Assurance on it so that you are always getting updates and all of the available features. When you do this, VDI is a free add on that they just include for you.
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@scottalanmiller said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@bigbear said in Has Windows 10 VDI Licensing changed yet?:
@scottalanmiller what @Dashrender was saying above about $130/desktop/yr is just software assurance then?
No, that's VDA, which is an option but basically one that no one would consider. It's an old system that predated the modern, logical VDI licensing options and exists for very special "hardware licensing" situations. It would be very surprising if it was applicable to you.
There is a problem with this, you can't license an Ipad with software assurance, so you have to have a VDA license to access a VDI from something other than a WIndows Pro/Enterprise device that has Software Assurance.
