Veeam Data Cloud and cloud workload licensing covers two different ways Veeam charges for protecting cloud data. Workloads that run in AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud and are protected by Veeam software count against the Veeam Universal License (VUL) under the End User Software Licensing Policy, which is part of the Veeam EULA.[1] Veeam Data Cloud, Veeam’s hosted backup service, is not licensed under the Policy at all: the Policy states that “All Veeam Data Cloud and related Veeam-hosted service offering agreements” are published separately on Veeam’s legal page.[1] Those agreements are the Veeam Data Cloud Service Agreement, its Fair Use Policy and, for storage, the Veeam Data Cloud Vault Service Agreement.[5][6][7] On-premises VUL counting is covered in Veeam Universal License and Veeam Data Platform licensing.
Editions
| Offering | Delivery | Contract | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veeam Backup for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud | Customer-run software | EULA and Licensing Policy | License Instance, subscription, packs of 10 VUL |
| Veeam Data Platform (protecting cloud VMs with agents or plug-ins) | Customer-run software | EULA and Licensing Policy | License Instance (VUL) |
| Veeam Data Cloud (Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Salesforce and others) | Veeam-hosted service | Veeam Data Cloud Service Agreement | Set in the order form; Fair Use Policy allowances per licensed user |
| Veeam Vault (Foundation, Advanced, Archive) | Veeam-hosted storage | Vault Service Agreement and EULA | TB of storage |
Sources: Licensing Policy s.1.2 and the three service documents.[1][5][6][7] Veeam Backup for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud are each listed as a Subscription “Offered in packs of 10 VUL licenses”.[1]
Metrics
Cloud VM under VUL
The Policy defines a Cloud VM as “An Amazon AWS EC2 instance, a Microsoft Azure VM, or Google Cloud VM that is backed up, replicated, copied, monitored, or otherwise consumed by the software”. In the VUL consumption table a VM or Cloud VM consumes one License Instance, the same as a server.[1] Rule: VUL License Instance consumption per workload type. A License Instance is “the calculated value representing the total ‘value’ of all Licensed objects” the customer may protect or manage.[1]
Protected instance (cloud plug-ins)
The user guides for the AWS, Azure and Google Cloud plug-ins count protected instances, each consuming one license unit. An instance is a single cloud resource, and it is protected “if it has a restore point (snapshot or backup) created by a backup policy during the past 31 days”.[2][3][4]
| Cloud | What counts as one instance |
|---|---|
| AWS | An EC2 instance, RDS resource, DynamoDB table, Redshift cluster, Redshift Serverless namespace, EFS or FSx file system |
| Azure | An Azure VM, Azure SQL Server, Cosmos DB account or Azure file share |
| Google Cloud | A VM, Cloud SQL or Cloud Spanner instance |
Sources: the three user guide pages.[2][3][4]
Counting / floors
What does not count
- Manual snapshots. An instance that has only manually created snapshots or backups does not consume a license unit on any of the three clouds.[2][3][4]
- Network configuration. Protected Amazon VPC configurations do not consume license units.[2]
- Azure SQL databases. Databases do not consume separate units: all protected databases on a licensed Azure SQL Server use that server’s unit.[3]
The 31-day window
Because the test is a policy-created restore point in the past 31 days, an instance can go on counting for up to 31 days after a policy last created a restore point for it, for example after it has been removed from the policy.[2] Each user guide lists a “Revoking License Units” procedure for this situation.[2][3] A count of cloud instances should therefore be taken from the licence view of the backup appliance, not from the cloud inventory on a given day.
Free and paid editions
Each plug-in’s backup appliance has a Free edition that protects up to 10 instances at no charge. It applies only to appliances no longer managed by a Veeam Backup & Replication server, and leaves out some resource types: on AWS, for example, DynamoDB tables, Redshift clusters, Redshift Serverless namespaces and FSx file systems.[2] The Paid edition protects as many instances as there are units in the VUL installed on the Veeam Backup & Replication server, and an appliance managed by that server uses the server’s licence.[2][4] For AWS and Azure, “only the Subscription license type is supported” when VUL is used.[2][3] Cloud instances therefore draw on the same VUL pool as on-premises workloads.
Grace period
When the licence expires, each plug-in allows a 31-day grace period with full functionality. After it, the appliances stop processing all instances and disable scheduled backup policies.[2][3][4]
Virtualization & partitioning
A Cloud VM is counted per instance; there is no host, socket or vCPU count for cloud workloads.[1] Legacy per-Socket licences do not reach cloud VMs. In a merged Socket and VUL key, Sockets protect VMware and Hyper-V VMs, while “VUL Licenses will cover Cloud VMs” and the other workloads.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Software pre-installed on a Veeam-published marketplace image may be used “only in VMs in the marketplace deployed from a Veeam-published image”, and any operating system on the image is governed by that operating system’s own EULA.[1] Rule: Veeam-published marketplace image: use only in VMs deployed from it.
Programs
Veeam Data Cloud Service Agreement
The agreement is with Veeam VaaS Corporation, and Veeam Data Cloud services “are provided on a subscription basis only”.[5] Key terms:
- Use right. During the Subscription Term, the customer and its Authorized Users may use the Services within the limits of the order form, for internal business purposes only. Authorized Users include employees, agents and third parties, including affiliates, that the customer authorizes.[5]
- Term. The Initial Term is set by the order form. Renewal Terms of the same length follow only “upon the parties’ mutual agreement”.[5]
- Fees. Fees are payable to the selected authorized reseller, billed in advance, and “will include overage charges from the previous billing period”. They are non-refundable except as required by law or stated in the agreement.[5]
- Service credits. Credits for missed availability are applied at renewal against overages of storage, egress or retrieval, are capped at two months of Services per year, and give no right to a refund.[5]
- Exit. Self-service copy of the whole dataset outside the Services is not permitted, except under the EU Data Act annex. After termination the customer has 30 days to request a billed assisted data copy, after which data is permanently deleted unless the law requires retention.[5]
Fair Use Policy
The Fair Use Policy offers “unlimited storage” with a monthly Data Allowance per licensed user: 100 GB for Microsoft 365, 15 GB for Microsoft Entra ID and 5 GB for Salesforce. Use above 300% of the allowance across all users is excessive, and Veeam may then charge for the extra storage.[6] For Entra ID, excessive use is more than three enabled Entra ID member users per licensed Microsoft 365 user, and Veeam may charge for additional Veeam Data Cloud bundles. The Policy’s example is 100 Microsoft 365 users with an allowance of 300 enabled Entra ID member users.[6] Customers are notified in advance when they approach or exceed their allowance.[6]
Veeam Vault
Veeam Vault is charged by the TB of storage purchased. Veeam accepts data beyond the purchased capacity and notifies the customer at 75% use. Above 100%, the customer must buy more capacity in 1 TB increments for the rest of the term, or Veeam may limit the service to read-only.[7] The editions differ in retrieval allowances:[7]
| Edition | Included restore and retrieval | Minimum storage duration |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Up to 20% of subscribed capacity per year | 30 days |
| Advanced | Up to actively consumed capacity per month | 30 days |
| Vault Archive | None; all retrieval is chargeable | 180 days |
Foundation and Advanced may store only data generated by Veeam Data Platform or Veeam Kasten licensed from Veeam, all uploaded data must be fully encrypted, and the EULA’s audit provisions apply to the Vault terms.[7]
Out of scope
- Veeam Data Cloud and Veeam Vault prices, which are set in the order form.
- Self-hosted Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and Veeam Backup for Salesforce, licensed per User under the Licensing Policy.
- VCSP rental licensing of cloud workloads by service providers.
- Veeam Kasten per-Node licensing for Kubernetes.