Microsoft Has Warned Cloud Services Firms, Such as OnLive, Windows 7 in Cloud May Be Out of Bounds

Posted by at 4:13 pm on March 8, 2012

Microsoft has warned its partners and cloud services firms that certain forms of Windows 7 in cloud services might be out of bounds. In most cases, the partner’s customers themselves must hold valid Microsoft license agreements. The advisory has come in the wake of allegations that software-as-a-service provider OnLive may be using Windows and Office illegally in the way it streams from servers to users.

In its posting, Microsoft was passive and reminded partners that it was appropriate for them to host Windows 7 in a virtual desktop, but that the hardware on which the OS resides must be dedicated to a specific customer and not shared with other customers. Microsoft has similar requirements for the delivery of hosted services for Microsoft Office.

OnLine began offering its Desktop for iPad service in January. Through it, the company began providing cloud-based services for Windows 7 and three Microsoft Office apps for free with a 2GB storage account. The apps need to communicate with a server-based version of Windows. Earlier this month, OnLive expanded its Desktop app to Android tablets. It also began offering a premium service, Desktop Plus that adds Internet Explorer and Adobe Flash and PDF support to the Microsoft Office apps.

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