Licensing VMware – Further Reading

As I already wrote in my article TOP vSphere 5.1 features where you had the possibility to learn about some cool new features introduced in vSphere 5.1. In addition, no more vRAM – good news. Just per-CPU-licensing…

But there are other changes to the licensing of other products especially with the announce of the vCloud Suite, where vCloud Director 5.1 plays the main part.  The vCloud Suite will be licensed per processor as well, and also there are some news for existing vSphere Enterprise Plus customers.

Licensing VMware – What's happening for customers that are on vSphere Enterprise Plus?

Currently licensed customers of vSphere Enterprise Plus will be able to upgrade (during a certain time period) to VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 Standard for free or upgrade to vCloud Suite 5.1 Enterprise by paying lower than the list price.  The vCloud Suite 5.1, together with vSphere 5.1 is expected to be available for download the Sept. 11, 2012.

The vCloud Suite has 3 editions – Standard, Advanced and Enterprise.  and will include VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vCloud Director(vCD), VMware vCloud Connector (vCC), VMware vCloud Networking and Security(vCNS) , VMware vFabric Application Director (vFAD), VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite (vCOPs) and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM).

(PDF) vCloud Suite Pricing and Packaging whitepaper

SMB Customers

SMB customers not only they got rid of the unpopular vRAM limitations, but they got new, more robust backup product and the Essentials plus kit has been beefed up with additional products as well.

vSphere Replication (VR) – SMB customers, in case they purchase Essentials Plus kit, they got vSphere Replication, which is quite a new product, introduced in vSphere 5.0 and can be used for DR scenarios. Basically it replicates VMs over the LAN/WAN to another site or building to protect the main site. The RPO can get as short as 15 min. No agents in VMs are necessary.  No need to have the same hardware SAN device on both sides. Can replicate from/to  local storage as well. Read my detailed post about vSphere Replication here.

VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP)  – Based on EMC's  Amavar's technology, but it's not Amavar. It's directly embedded into vSphere, into the new vSphere 5.1 Web client. Two year of secret project has finally come up to the light. VMware vSphere 5.1 will include new backup and recovery capabilities which enable users to quickly set backup policies within VMware vSphere.  Make sure that you read my detailed post about VDP (there is also Chad's demo video embedded).

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance 5.1 – VSA 5.1 does transforms the servers internal storage into shared clustered storage. With More Disk Drives per Node –  up to 27 TB across 3 hosts (previously only 9TB). You can configure up to 12 disks  (up to 16 disks can now be supported in an expansion chassis or JBOD) per host (previously only 4) with RAID 5 (previously only RAID 10 or 6) support as well. You can also increase capacity by addin/replacing drives.  Read more (technical) about VSA 5.1 here.

VMware vShield Endpoint – the agentless VMs. No antivirus agents inside virtual machines, offloading of antivirus and anti-malware functions to hardened, tamper-proof virtual machines delivered by VMware’s partners.

VMware Go Pro – based on Shavlik's technology for patching VMs and Applications, this offer for SMB helps automate the process. For a limited time, VMware will include VMware Go Pro free with VMware vSphere 5.1 Essentials and Essentials Plus purchases.

All those news which has been delivered during VMworld 2012 in San Francisco this week there is many changes at the licensing level, but also at the packaging level. With additional new products that will be available the 11th of September.

VMware has proved once again that they listen to their customers, and they can change unpopular licensing rules.

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vSphere 5.1:

• VMware vSphere 5.1 – Virtual Hardware Version 9
• vSphere Data Protection – a new backup product included with vSphere 5.1
• vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) 5.1 new features and enhancements
• vCloud Director 5.1 released – what's new
• vSphere Web Client – New in VMware vSphere 5.1
• VMware Enhanced vMotion – New in vSphere 5.1
• vSphere 5.1 Networking – New features
• VMware SRM 5.1 and vSphere Replication – New release – 64bit process, Application Quiescence
• Top VMware vSphere 5.1 Features
• vSphere 5.1 licensing – vRAM is gone – rather good news, any more?
• Coolest VMworld Videos
• Licensing VMware – Further Reading – This post
• ESXi 5.1 Free with no vRAM limit but physical RAM limit of 32Gb