Rod Edwards works to save some money:
Our SQL servers have specific loads, patterns and resource requirements. We’ve monitored them, we know what they are inside and out. You know that x number of CPUs, and y GB or RAM means that your DBs happily sweat the hardware, but are sized to perfection to make sure it has just enough resource to complete what it needs to do. The negotiations with your Infra team in command of the VM resources were tough, but you’re not greedy… you appreciate that other VMs may require resource as well…
Now you have to migrate to Azure, and SQL on Azure VM is your only option. Great, loads of different types/flavours of VMs out there, one of them must be in the the goldilocks perfect porridge zone right? Right?
Licensing around this gets a little weird. Basically, Rod is absolutely right that an E64-16, for example, would require 16 cores of SQL Server, and that can save a good bit of scratch. For the OS, however, you’re paying for 64 cores, so keep that in mind while you’re rolling in a bed of the cash you’ve saved on SQL Server licensing.