Dell Technologies understands that there are certain situations where Dell Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI may not meet an organization’s requirements. That is why we will also continue to offer Dell HCI Solutions for Windows Server in our Microsoft HCI Solutions portfolio. The current integrated system comes pre-installed from the factory with Azure Stack HCI, version 22H2. The Windows Server HCI solution arrives with Windows Server datacenter 2022 OEM pre-installed with downgrade rights to Windows Server 2019 (EOL June 30, 2023) on AX-640 (EOL March 31, 2023), AX-740xd (EOL March 31, 2023), AX-6515, and AX-7525. After March 30, 2022 the new AX nodes will not be sold with Windows Server 2019 (EOL June 30, 2023) factory installed. These operating systems can also be manually installed. The following figure depicts the differences between the Windows Server operating system and Azure Stack HCI operating system.

The Azure Stack HCI operating system is a new product line and is forked from the Windows Server operating system main development branch. All innovation and investment in the Azure Stack HCI operating system focus on supporting and further enhancing the software-defined capabilities of Hyper-V, Storage Spaces Direct, and Software Defined Networking. The Windows Server operating system remains a general-purpose operating system running the full complement of Windows Server roles and features such as IIS, DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory. The Windows Server operating system will also remain the runtime for the massive install base of Windows applications such as Microsoft SQL Server. Applications running on Azure Stack HCI will run inside of Windows or Linux-based VMs and containers.

Licensing is also different when comparing these operating systems. Windows Server host and VM licensing will continue to use Windows Server Data Center and Windows Server Standard licensing options. In contrast, Azure Stack HCI uses an Azure subscription-based billing model at the host layer. The cost at this layer is $10 per core per month. However, the Windows Server VMs running on the Azure Stack HCI platform still require Windows Server Data Center or Standard licensing.

In October 2022, during Ignite, Microsoft announced general availability for Azure Hybrid Benefit for Azure Stack HCI, which basically allows customers to bring their existing on-premises licenses to the cloud and significantly reduce the costs of running workloads in the cloud. Eligible customers with active Windows Server Software Assurance can now leverage Azure Hybrid Benefit to reduce costs on:

• Azure Stack HCI host fee: from $10/physical core/month to $0
• Windows Server unlimited virtualization on Azure Stack HCI: from $23/physical core/month to $0
• Windows Server unlimited virtualization on Azure Stack HCI: from $23/physical core/month to $0

This is a game changer for Azure Stack HCI, making it very cost effective for very high-level hybrid capabilities with Azure.