*Update: from Azure Stack HCI version 23H2, Azure benefits are referred to as ‘Azure verification for VMs’: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/deploy/azure-verification?tabs=azureportal
The intention of this post is to clarify the difference between ‘Azure Benefits’ and ‘Azure Hybrid Benefit’ for Azure Stack HCI.
For those who know it’s obvious but, since the terminology is very similar, this might help clarify it to other people.
Azure Benefits
Azure Benefits extend capabilities designed only to be run on Azure to Azure Stack HCI. Since Azure Stack HCI is delivered as and Azure service, it is possible to run Azure-exclusive workloads outside of the cloud and in your own Datacentre’s. This is one of the biggest benefits to running Azure Stack HCI as it is almost the only way to bring true Azure workloads on premise.
Examples are:
- Windows Server Datacenter: Azure Edition
- Extended Security Update (ESUs)
- Azure Policy guest configuration
- Azure Virtual Desktop
Please follow this link to the official Microsoft documentation to find out more: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/azure-benefits
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Azure Hybrid Benefit is a program that helps you reduce the costs of running workloads in the cloud. This is a way of licensing your Azure Stack HCI Clusters and maximising the value of your on-premises licenses.
If you have Windows Server Datacentre licenses with active Software Assurance, you can activate Azure Hybrid Benefit for your Azure Stack HCI cluster. You simply exchange 1-core license of Software Assurance-enabled Windows Server Datacentre for 1-physical core of Azure Stack HCI.
This benefit waives the Azure Stack HCI host service fee and Windows Server guest subscription on your cluster.
To put it another way, with Azure Hybrid Benefit, you are leveraging the subscription option to license your Cluster and workloads. This means that you can always run any of the latest version of Windows Server in your VMs (Evergreen), access all the latest Azure Benefits (see above), automatically activate VMs without needing a host-side key, and do not require any CALs (for Windows server VMs).
Please follow the below link for more details on Azure Hyrbid Benefits for Azure Stack HCI: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/concepts/azure-hybrid-benefit-hci?tabs=azureportal