AWS Bring Your Own License

Owned by Steve Baer (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 24, 2022 by Dave Laing
5 min read

 

Introduction

Cloudamize now includes the ability to calculate savings associated with moving workloads to the Amazon Web Service cloud without any additional software licensing fees. For customers with License Mobility through Software Assurance, Cloudamize can now show you the potential saved cost by bringing your own licenses.

Note: SQL Data is only captured using agents and the agentless data collector. This feature is not available for nodes assessed with vCenter-only and Hyper-V-only installations.

License Cost

After launching the Cloudamize platform, license cost for all AWS assessments will be reflected in the Infrastructure Summary chart in the center of the Assess Dashboard.

 

This summary information provides you with the total SQL license cost for all assessed machines (1) as well as the annual cost including licenses (2).

Licensing information can also be found under the Compute tab. Here Cloudamize provides two new columns: Cost with License and Cost w/o License. Information provided is as follows:

Cost with License

  1. Total Annualized Cost - This is the sum of the Annual Hourly Cost and the Upfront Cost over the Duration of the Reserved Instance. Reserved Instance durations are set at one year or three years.

  2. Annual Hourly Cost - The hourly Reserved Instance cost remaining after Upfront Costs are paid.

  3. Upfront Cost - The amount of the Reserved Instance cost paid Upfront.

  4. License Cost - The cost of the SQL license.

  5. Annual Dedicated Instance Fees - Total cost of the dedicated per region fee.

  6. Region - The AWS region selected for the assessment.

  7. Pricing Plan - The selected pricing plan for the assessment.

  8. License Mobility through SA - Details whether or not License Mobility has been applied. Values for this column are as follows:

    1. N.A.

    2. Not Applied

    3. Applied

  9. License Cost Reason - Details the reason why License Mobility was or was not applied. Values for this column are as follow:

    1. N.A. 

  10. License Mobility through SA is Applied

  11. License Mobility through SA is Not Applied

Cost w/o License

  1. Total Annualized Cost - This is the sum of the Annual Hourly Cost and the Upfront Cost over the Duration of the Reserved Instance. Reserved Instance durations are set at one year or three years.

  2. Annual Hourly Cost - The hourly Reserved Instance cost remaining after Upfront Costs are paid.

  3. Upfront Cost - The amount of the Reserved Instance cost paid Upfront.

  4. Annual Dedicated Instance Fees - Total cost of the dedicated per region fee.

  5. Region - The AWS region selected for the assessment.

  6. Pricing Plan - The selected pricing plan for the assessment.

License Tab

The License tab provides a quick glance look at all the same information found under the Cost with License columns found under the Compute tab. 

Designer

Pricing Plan

Using the Designer, Cloudamize allows you to build custom scenarios to view the costs and potential savings associated with a range of AWS Instance options.

  1. Multi-Tenant SQL Server License Mobility through SA: View the savings associated with BYOL licenses to standard, Multi-Tenant EC2 Instances as part of the customer’s current Software Assurance agreement.

  2. Dedicated Instance: View the cost and performance of moving the selected machine to a Dedicated Instance within AWS.

  3. Dedicated Instance with BYOL: View the savings associated with BYOL MSDN or SQL licenses to Dedicated Instances in AWS.

  4. Dedicated Host with SQL: View the savings associated with BYOL MSDN or SQL licenses to Dedicated Hosts in AWS.

License Optimization

Optimize the cost and performance of the assessed infrastructure by reducing the number of hardware threads and/or disabling Hyperthreading where possible. This, in turn, can lead to a decrease in Compute costs while ensuring any SQL licensing requirements are met.

  1. Optimize Cost and Reduce Number of Threads: Reduce the number of hardware threads or disable hyperthreading to lower cost will still ensuring the necessary performance benchmarks are met.

  2. Optimize Number of Threads: Suggests an instance with the fewest number of hardware threads necessary to meet the performance needs of the assessed workload.

  3. Disable Hyperthreading: Will only recommend instances where Hyperthreading is disabled by default. Useful in scenarios where a customer is concerned about any potential security issues related to Hyperthreading.

Pricing Plan

Cloudamize now includes a range of new pricing plans including all Reserved Instance 1-year and 3-year options currently available from AWS.

Advanced Filtering

Two new filters allow you to gain deeper insight into the assessed infrastructure and further ensure that migrations are as efficient and cost-effective as possible.

  1. BYOL for Microsoft Software: Searches for all machines with applications installed that are covered under Amazon’s BYOL license program including the following:

  2. Microsoft Exchange Server

  3. Microsoft SharePoint Server

  4. Microsoft SQL Server

  5. Microsoft System Center

  6. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

  7. Microsoft Skype for Business Server

  8. Microsoft Dynamics products

  9. Microsoft BizTalk Server

  10. SQL With Less Than 4 Threads: Searches for all machines running SQL server where the number of observed CPU threads is less than four. These machines are candidates for further optimization to lower SQL license cost.

 

SQL Server and License Usage

 

Using the Migration Planner, Cloudamize now provides a more in-depth look at the SQL servers found in the assessed infrastructure. The information provided within the SQL Server and License Usage machine allows you to gain further insight into the on-premise licensing data and view a comparison of host-based versus VM-based SQL licensing. This new feature also provides an overview of necessary on-cloud SQL licensing.

SQL Server

Provides a breakdown of the SQL instances assessed and provides an overview including the number of licenses utilized and SQL database information such as size, edition, version, location, and more.

On-Cloud License Usage

Provides a breakdown of license usage on-cloud including information such as the On-Cloud Instance Type, Number of Hardware Threads, SQL Edition, and whether or not the SQL license is part of the BYOL program.

On-Premise Physical

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise configuration and Cloudamize recommended cloud instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU information, and Number of Required SQL Enterprise of Standard licenses. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services

On-Premise VMware

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise VMware configuration and Cloudamize recommended cloud instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU information, and Number of Required SQL Enterprise of Standard licenses. Also provided is a summary of the VM-based and host-based SQL licenses broken down by Standard and Enterprise editions. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services

On-Premise HyperV

View how many SQL licenses are needed on-cloud based on the observed on-premise Hyper-V configuration and Cloudamize recommended cloud instances. The chart also includes information such as the Number of Hardware Threads, CPU information, and Number of Required SQL Enterprise of Standard licenses. Also provided is a summary of the VM-based and host-based SQL licenses broken down by Standard and Enterprise editions. This chart also informs you as to whether or not any of the following services are running:

  1. SQL Server Analysis Services

  2. SQL Server Integration Services

  3. SQL Server Report Services

  4. SQL Server Master Data Services