Win Server 2016 now core based!
Windows Server 2016 is finally released to the public after development testing releases – is it worth it?
Well, the big shock was that Microsoft moved it to Core based licencing, rather than the previous CPU based. So more like SQL Server – and we know how expensive that can get if unfettered! So plenty of unease, especially when they further announced that each physical server would require a minimum of 16 core coverage!
However, not as painful as it seems – as the price is reasonable per 2-core pack. We sell Standard Edition at UK currently £84.40 x 8 = £675.20, which is actually less than the £695.00 for 2012R2. So that’s good.
The point of this change is to allow easier licence management across the cloud – especially hybrid scenarios where you have a mix of on-premises and cloud Azure servers. You always needed Software Assurance (bit of a drag) to licence on 3rd party owned hardware and the same applies to Azure or any cloud or datacentre. This still applies, and more so – because nowadays you may well want the flexibility of shifting your licenced cores to the cloud as and when you need. We’ll keep an eye out as to whether that does in reality save money from Azure licencing 😉
Of course, there will be plenty of other updates and improvements in the new version (Containers, software networking, new deployment options, security layers etc) – we’ll see what value that presents going forward, although ultimately all new servers are best based on this platform now (even though you can download previous versions when you buy).