Windows Server 2012 brings our company’s experience building and operating public clouds to the server platform for private clouds. The new licensing and packaging makes it easier to manage workloads in highly virtualized public and private cloud environments. Windows Server 2012 will move to a consistent licensing model and will have common features enabling the reduction of editions.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/2012-editions.aspx?Search=true
These include:
- Two editions, Standard and Datacenter.
- Single licenses that cover up to two physical processors
- Editions differentiated by virtualization rights only (two for Standard; unlimited for Datacenter).
Both Standard and Datacenter editions provide the same set of features; the only thing that differentiates the editions is the number of Virtual Machines (VMs). A Standard edition license will entitle you to run up to two VMs on up to two processors (subject to the VM use rights outlined in the Product Use Rights document).
Continue At Source (Editions and pricing overview)