Customers can also choose to assign multiple Standard Editions licenses to a single server, in order to increase VM density on that server. These release notes address the most critical issues and. And, the Standard Edition is ideal for servers that won’t be highly virtualized, providing two instances per license. This document provides information about installing the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system, including important steps to take prior to installation, supported upgrade paths for the release, and information about installing versions distributed as virtual hard disk (VHD) files. The Datacenter Edition licensing is optimized for highly virtualized environments, with unlimited virtualization rights and the flexibility to add or move virtual machines across licensed servers without tracking the VM count on a server. For example, with Windows Server Standard Edition and Datacenter Edition customers can determine the option that works best for them, based on their virtualization needs. 'Microsoft is making these changes based on market conditions and based on the overall increased product value and choice. I asked a spokesperson what is behind the 28 percent price hike and got this statement: In fact, that's what Microsoft officials are saying when asked about the reason for the price increase in the Datacenter edition with R2. The Datacenter edition does offer users unlimited installations of Windows Server on licensed hosts, which can be cheaper than licensing lots of VMs via the Windows Server 2012 and R2 Standard editions.

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