On July 12th Microsoft released an announcement regarding the licensing of their Windows 2003 Datacenter Edition.

“Unlimited virtualization rights: Starting October 1, 2006, new servers licensed with Windows Server Datacenter Edition (and previous licenses with new version rights) will have license rights to run an unlimited number of virtualized Windows Server instances. By simply licensing the server’s processors with Windows Server Datacenter Edition, customers will be able to run Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition or a mix of the three editions without having to track the number of virtual machines or pay for additional Windows Server licenses.”

This is great news for customers who have started virtualizing their datacenters. Now only will customers be able to save on hardware, but also save money on Windows Licensing costs.