You will see that we refer to the ever-changing nature of software licensing. Well, here is an example -Microsoft has made some changes to their licensing terms, with a whole seven days in between. The latest update was released in two documents: “Licensing Windows Server 2008 to Run with Virtualization Technologies” and “Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments.” In addition, their CAL requirement for “indirect access to Windows 2008″ were lifted.
What does this mean? You will only need CALs for Windows guest OSs and the applications that run within them. This was an issue previously impacting Hyper-V customers. If you are using Windows Server 2008 solely as a virtualization host, you will not be required to have a 2008 CAL as you did before. We were pretty surprised that they moved so quickly in response to customer complaints!