I have a business. We host our website, our mail, and an application which users need to access from the outside. I have a 2008 server, IIS, exchange, and 10 RDS licenses. We have slow internet and it is becoming an issue for RDS connections. I'm trying to lease dedicated server with a 100Mbit connection to resolve this. That way all users can log in from wherever and have a nice pipe to work over. The host requires SPLA licensing of Windows Server and the associated licenses, so they want to tack on extra per user per month. I feel that's ridiculous since I own the software and RDS licenses already. Is there any way around the stupid SPLA licensing when we are talking about a pre-loaded dedicated server? I am looking at GoDaddy, OVH, and Razor servers. Both OVH and Razor said microsoft requires SPLA licensing for dedicated hosted servers. GoDaddy said "Windows is included in your server and it is fully functional, but if you want extra stuff like RDS, you have to purchase your own licenses", although that sounds like they aren't using SPLA, the better chance is that I was just talking to an idiot who is not familiar with my question. The only thing I could think if is totally ridiculous. I figure I could get it loaded with free linux, load some VM software, then run my server virtually with my own license. The only problem there is that virtual machines take extra overhead, so I'm basically losing power to compensate for avoiding the extra surcharge, and it adds an extra layer of troubleshooting to everything. I really want to avoid that possible scenario. I didn't see any previous posts here at MyDigitalLife about SPLA, thus my reason for asking. Thanks in advance.
Well that's a disappointing result. But thanks guys. @Michaela Joy no I had not seen that, interesting reading material. Thanks. @vymrdal From my discussion with the server companies we WERE looking at (OVH, GoDaddy, and Razor), they implied that any "reputable" hosted services would not allow the use of FPP licenses, and would require SPLA licensing due to Microsoft partner agreements. So that sucks. I HAVE a server now that I own. My issue is limited upstream bandwidth from my location, thus moving my server to a hosted solution. Since there is no apparent way around SPLA licensing on a hosted server, I guess I'll have to look at the cost to increase our upstream by possibly switching to symmetrical fiber or something...it's just so much more expensive in our area than getting a hosted server.