I previously presented my thoughts here regarding changes Microsoft made to its
Product Terms pertaining to the Self-Hosted Applications benefit
under Software Assurance.
After publishing that entry, Microsoft reached out to me to
clarify that the principal effect of the change actually is to
increase self-hosting rights by extending them to
deployments hosted by a third-party, License Mobility outsourcer
(at least for products other than Windows Server OS). Thus,
companies with, for example, SQL Server licenses enrolled in
Software Assurance now may use those licenses to support
customer-facing software solutions under the Self-Hosted
Applications benefit, and those solutions may be hosted on an
outsourcer's multi-tenant ("shared") infrastructure,
pursuant to the License Mobility benefit through Software
Assurance. Previously, any self-hosting had to be accomplished
either from the company's own servers or from outsourced
infrastructure that was physically dedicated
