Microsoft’s consumer versions of Windows 10 have been out since July this year, and just got their first major update last month in Version 1511. An upcoming release from Microsoft, however, is barely getting its pricing. Microsoft’s Windows Server 2016, both the Standard and Datacenter Editions, have gotten pricing officially set for companies to prepare for. The two versions of server software are set to release in the latter half of 2016, but today Microsoft published various documents detailing a change in the way they will be pricing Server 2016.
Previously, Microsoft had a model for licensing that was cost per-server. The Client Access Licensing model, known as CAL for short, has a different pricing scheme than the new to-be-implemented per-core model. Both, however are different than the to-be-defunct per-server model. What is important to note is that the new pricing model, according to Wes Miller, Research VP at Directions on Microsoft, will be utilizing a CAL and per-core model, instead of a CAL and per-server one. Miller also notes on Twitter that “Client-side licensing of Windows Server 2016 is effectively unchanged. This is a Per-Core+CAL model, where it was previously a Server+CAL.”
Miller also told ZDNet that “The change won’t likely have much of an impact for most customers,”and that the largest portion of people to be affected by the change are those with older servers that utilize many processors with a low per-server core count and those with high core-counts. This pricing datasheet that Microsoft provided on the Server 2016 page shows a small table of comparative aspects of the Standard and Datacenter Editions. The table is below, but the gist of it is that the Standard Edition will cost $882 while the Datacenter Edition will be $6,155 to license 16 cores. Microsoft is also, according to ZDNet, set to share more details regarding licensing and pricing on Windows Server 2016 in the Q1 of next year, so more information will be coming soon.
