In its announcement, Microsoft says it will make the offer available for Cloud Solution Providers. From September, customers purchasing Windows 10 Enterprise will get a subscription offering for virtualization. For customers who do not need virtual offerings, Microsoft will continue to sell Windows 10 Enterprise E3. “For some business customers, Windows virtualization is the solution that best meets their productivity, security, and IT infrastructure needs,” Microsoft explains. “This may mean PCs connecting to Windows client VMs running on dedicated or multi-tenant hardware enabling users to freely move from device to device, through to scenarios where a particular app or data set requires an additional layer of separation from the end-user device achieved through virtualization.” Microsoft is limiting which CSPs can offer Windows 10 Enterprise virtualization. Hosting providers must be Qualified Multitenant Hoster certified. This means they can run virtual machines on dedicated or multitenant hardware.
Availability
The addition means Windows 10 Enterprise VMs can be hosted on Azure. Microsoft points to the following changes coming in September:
Windows 10 Enterprise E3 will be available with or without virtualization use rights Windows 10 Enterprise E5 will be updated to include virtualization use rights A new Windows 10 E3 VDA offering will be created for customers that require access to Windows VMs on non-Windows Pro devices Customers purchasing or already subscribed to Microsoft 365 Enterprise (formerly known as Secure Productive Enterprise) via CSP will automatically receive Windows 10 virtualization use rights at no extra cost
Enterprise E5 will be updated automatically with compatibility for virtualization. The same will happen to Microsoft 365 Enterprise, while Enterprise E3 will come with or without the ability.
