While software is in many cases supported by the vendor to be run on Microsoft Azure, there are some complications with licensing.

Basically, there are two scenarios. Customers can create a new virtual machine in Azure and one of the many available images. An image is a virtual machines that has operating system and application software preinstalled. The customer pays a fee for using the operating system and a fee for using the application; no hassles with license management here.

The second scenario is where the customer is either moving a current server or application from on-premises to the cloud including a license, or wants to create a new server in Azure using his own application license.

This second scenario called bring your own license is often very complicated. It is like your pension. Very important, but not sexy and very complicated. Many people trust that their pension is okay, but some will find out it is not when an audit is performed. When...