When it comes to running Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft SQL Server in AWS, there are currently two options regarding licensing:
- Simply pay the normal AWS fee for Windows Server instances (on-demand, spot, reserved). These fees are typically more than same-sized instances of other operating systems. The same is true if you want to use MS SQL Server instances in RDS—they cost more than open source RDS instances. https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/#launch
- We can provision an AWS Dedicated Host (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/) and use the existing Cornell Microsoft licensing. This is because the existing Cornell Microsoft licensing is limited to computers “owned” by Cornell. Microsoft considers instances running Windows software running on Cornell-provisioned AWS Dedicated Hosts as “owned” by Cornell (not so for instances running elsewhere on AWS). https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/#dedicated