Rumors about changes in Microsoft Licensing

Microsoft's licensing rules have been the focus of quite a bit of negative comments for as long as I can remember. The company has different licensing rules for its operating systems, server software, development tools, productivity tools. This makes it difficult for a company that is doing its best to comply with the web of requirements and limitations.

In the world of virtual machine software, Microsoft's requirement that an operating system be married to a specific piece of hardware for at least 90 days (if my memory serves me correctly), has become an issue that both Citrix and VMware have focused on in their blogs and other public comments. They would point out that this limits an organization's ability to orchestrate and automate their own IT infrastructure. They would also point out that this makes it nearly impossible to deploy a disaster recovery/high availability plan that is based upon tools such as VMotion or XenMotion.

It is increasingly likely that Microsoft is going to open up its licensing requirements to allow virtual machines that contain its operating systems to be more mobile. It is not at all clear what the company will do.

If you were one of the team making the decision about licensing in a virtualized environment, what would you do to fix Microsoft's Ts and Cs and licensing rules?