Enterprise Licensing in a Virtual Environment

Virtualisation technology has been around since the 1960s and refers to the creation of a virtual rather than physical instance of computer platforms, storage devices, and computer network resources.

Deployment of server virtualisation has reached 92% saturation within businesses according to Statista (August 2020) and virtualisation in other areas such as desktops, applications, and network devices is set to continue its growth, either on-premises or in massively virtualised public or private cloud environments.

Why is Virtualisation So Popular?

Virtualising your server environment decreases the amount of physical hardware and therefore the amount of power, space, and manpower to run. This allows hardware assets to be very highly utilised, reducing costs across the board.  It also allows for much quicker and simpler provisioning with minimal hands-on management.  This all adds up to a considerable saving in ongoing costs making the decision to deploy virtualisation a straightforward one from a commercial perspective.

License Challenges in a Virtualised Environment?

Ambiguous and complex enterprise licensing terms for virtualisation can often unintentionally create licensing problems – clients can unwittingly drift into non-compliance, undoing, and potentially dwarfing, any cost-saving realised from their virtual environment.