Windows Azure Remote Desktop Services

Great news for the Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) types out there: as of July 1, Microsoft now allows Remote Desktop Services (formerly called Terminal Services) licenses in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. Prior to this licensing update, you were only allowed to connect to the console of your VM for administrative purposes, and only up to two users at a time. With this new licensing modification, customers can now connect as many users as they have system capacity, and of course, licenses.

For complete details about licensing, please see:

• The Product Use Rights (PUR) documents from the Microsoft Volume Licensing site.
• The Virtual Machines Licensing FAQ.

The short version:

• RDS Client Access Licenses (CALs) that are part of a a VL agreement are NOT eligible for license mobility rights, per the FAQ.
• Windows Client desktops (Windows 7 or Windows 8) are also not allowed in Windows Azure, or any other Service Provider (Amazon, Rackspace, etc.) as multi-tenant hosting is not covered by PUR.
• To increase users beyond the two administrative sessions you need to purchase RDS Subscriber Access Licenses (SALs) through the Microsoft Services Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) for each concurrent user accessing the VM. SPLA licenses are obtained through SPLA Resellers.

Common use cases include:

• Partner-Hosted Microsoft Office: running a VM with Microsoft Office installed.
• Thick-client application hosting (common RDP scenarios for complex, client-side applications).
• Demo, test and legacy environments.

This is a major benefit to cost- and maintenance-conscious IT professionals, and yet another reason to get into the Cloud!

I’ll see you there.