In what amounts to a significant, albeit necessary shift in licensing policy, Microsoft appears to be investigating ways to restructure their enterprise licensing agreements.  A move like this would remove one more obstacle for ASP's and full infra service outsourcers to create appealing and financially viable offerings. 

This would likely have significant impact on revenue projections for Microsoft, but more importantly, it could signal that MS recognizes that Utility Computing is going to be a dominant model for consuming computer resources in the future.  Further, Microsoft likely wants to show their enterprise customers that they are flexible and willing to work with them.  Also, Microsoft likely sees this as another way to stem the flow of customers away from Windows to Linux.

Microsoft Corp. officials are mulling potential changes to the company's enterprise volume licensing program that could let large systems integrators and service providers license software on behalf of their largest customers.