At Inspire, we are announcing Extended Security Updates (ESUs) enabled by Azure Arc. You will be able to purchase and seamlessly deploy ESUs through Azure Arc in on-premises or multicloud environments, right from the Azure portal. In addition to providing a centralized management of security patching, ESUs enabled by Azure Arc gives you more flexibility with a pay-as-you-go subscription model, compared to the classic ESU offered through the Volume Licensing Center which are purchased in yearly increments. You can also leverage additional Azure services that help better secure, monitor, and govern end-of-support servers in tandem with your Windows Server and SQL Server ESUs.
This feature is available now for SQL Server 2012 with billing starting in September 2023. If you sign up before September, you will see a one-time charge from July 12 to September. For Windows Server, this feature will be available in September 2023, but customers can connect to Azure Arc today to prepare. Learn more in the blog, documentation, and FAQ page,.
