“Azure Dedicated Hosts provide you with visibility and control to help address corporate compliance and regulatory requirements,” said Ziv Raflovich, principal program manager, Azure Compute. “We are extending Azure Hybrid Benefit to Azure Dedicated Hosts, so you can save money by using on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance or qualifying subscription licenses. Azure Dedicated Host is in preview in most Azure regions starting today.” Users can access the new functionality via the usual Azure Portal, with some key benefits. Being hosted on a company’s physical servers, they’re more likely to meet security requirements, while providing host-level isolation. The service lets organizations deploy VMs with more control over the underlying hardware, processor brand and specs, and type and size of VM. At the same time, admins have full control over host maintenance, including 35 days maintenance deferral. You can currently deploy Dsv3 and Esv3 machines on Azure Dedicated host, with Fsv2 support coming soon. Microsoft says users can also use Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server/SQL licenses to lower costs. “With Windows Server Datacenter and SQL Server Enterprise Editions, you get unlimited virtualization when you license the entire host and use Azure Hybrid Benefit. As a result, you can deploy as many Windows Server virtual machines as you like on the host, subject to the physical capacity of the underlying server,” it explains. During the preview program, Azure Standard HDDs, Standard SSDs, and Premium SSDs are supported. Customers can find out more about pricing on the dedicated host page.
