Microsoft’s Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 aren’t due out until the second half of 2016, but Microsoft execs are starting to communicate some of the licensing changes coming to its next server operating system release.

One of the most noticeable changes will be a move from per-processor licensing to per-core licensing for Windows Server and System Center 2016 Standard and Datacenter Editions.
Microsoft officials are attributing the change from processors to physical cores to a desire to align the licensing of its public and private cloud offerings to be both per-core-based and thus simplifying licensing across multi-cloud environments. The change also will align Windows Server licensing with the per-core licensing already offered for SQL Server and BizTalk.

The change won’t likely have much of an impact for most customers. The change really just reemphasizes the fact that Datacenter is what you want to be using for high density virtualization.