There are four editions of Windows Server 2012: Foundation, Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. Foundation is for small businesses with up to 15 users and lacks advanced features. Essentials is also for small businesses but supports up to 25 users and features like Hyper-V. Standard is for small and medium businesses with no user limits and two virtual machines. Datacenter has no user or virtual machine limits and is for extensive virtualization. Licensing is based on servers for Foundation/Essentials and processors for Standard/Datacenter, which also require Client Access Licenses per user.

1. Windows Server 2012 Licensing
Season -3
By
Aravindan R

2. Edition in Windows 2012
There are 4 Edition available,they are

Foundation

Essentials

Standard

Datacenter

3. Foundation

Used for small businesses

Upto 15 users can access


Foundation edition can be implemented in
environments where features such as file
sharing, printer sharing, security and remote
access are required.
Foundation edition cannot upgrade to other
editions

4. Foundation

Advanced server features such as Hyper V,
dynamic memory, IPAM (IP Address
Management), hot add memory, windows
update services and failover clustering are not
available in the Foundation edition

5. Essentials

Used for small businesses

Up to 25 users can access


Unlike Foundation Edition it support features
like Hyper V, dynamic memory and hot
add/remove RAM
Cost of Essentials Edition is $425/server

6. Standard Edition

Ideal for small and medium business

No limits on number of users



Full windows functionality with two virtual
machines allowed
Advanced features such as certificate services
role, Hyper V, RODC (Read Only Domain
Controller), IPAM (IP Address Management),
failover clustering
Cost of standard edition is $882/ 2 processor
server

7. Datacenter





There is no functionality difference between
Standard and Datacenter edition
They actually differ virtualization rights
In standard there is only 2 virtual machine
allowed whereas in datacenter edition there is
no such limit.
Datacenter is ideal for environments with
extensive use of virtualization technology
Cost of Datacenter edition is $4,809 per 2
processor server

8. Licensing Model



Foundation : OEM (Original Equipment
manufacture) per server, need to buy license at
the time of purchasing the server
Essentials : OEM and in retail store (per
server)
Standard and Datacenter
+ CAL
: Processor based
Each Software license covers upto 2
physical processors on a single server

10. 

The standard and datacenter editions of Server
2012 support Client Access License (CAL)
licensing model.
When a CAL license is assigned to a user it
allow that user to access the server via any
device

12. Reference

Www.microsoft.com

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/data-center/micro
Let see about Types of CAL in upcoming week