Azure Reserved VM Instances (RIs)

The Discussion

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  Links not working for anyone else? The just redirect to the MS home page for me.

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  @Travis: Fixed. My Bad.

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  This is a great plan for Microsoft and for customers! They're basically giving people a discount on pre-paying for a server because they know that 3 years later, you'll be able to get a much bigger server at a much lower rate.

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  This is great! Big big big discount(s). 

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  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/news/windows-sql-server-through-csp

  So, done some research:

  Reserved Instances are only available to you if you have a Windows Server Subscription

  Which you only get if you particiapte in the Cloud Solution Provider progam

  Which you can only subscribe to through a Microsoft certified license provider

  Which you can only join if you are a Microsoft Partner.

  Good luck!

  https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-solution-provider (Open with Edge - otherwise a big browser warning 'Better with Edge' appears)
  
  

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  @OzBobWa - Reservation are available for virtual machines compute usage for all customers, Windows server subscription is not a prerequisite.
  
  Windows Server Software assurance or Subscription is only needed for getting discounts on the Windows OS usage. (i.e. AHUB discounts). You can be eligible for AHUB discounts by purchasing subscriptions through CSP or by purchasing software assurance through EA.