This is information which came out as a bomb yesterday and we have already tweeted that. VMwarePer-CPU pricing is going up. Imagine that you want to go for a new infrastructure VMware and that you like the new AMD EPYC™ 7742 CPUs from AMD which has 64 cores. Well, you just find out that you'd have to pay Two VMware CPU licenses instead of just one.
Yes, this looks like a bad dream. Like a joke from VMware which suddenly wants to limit you with your hardware choices. If not you'll pay the double price for your CPU socket. This suddenly reminds me of the vRAM TAX that VMware wanted to charge several years back but then seeing the bad effect, it's been rolled back.
Why it is different this time and why it “might” just works for VMware this time? It is because so far, 64 core CPUs are very new and not affecting existing clients. Remember in the past the vRAM TAX would affect all clients immediately by limiting the number of vRAM per host and per VM.
Blast from the past:
“vSphere Essentials, Essentials Plus and Standard will receive 24 GB of vRAM per CPU license, while vSphere Enterprise will get 32 GB and Enterprise Plus will get 48 GB per CPU license”
And it was only Paul Mauritz who said afterward that it was a mistake:
“Yes, it is an admission that we made things only more complex, and we are rectifying that,”
What exact restrictions VMware prepared and why you will not like it?
Q. Can you help me understand the new model?
A: Under the new model, one CPU license covers up to 32 cores in a single CPU. If the CPU has more than 32 cores, additional CPU licenses are requiredQ: What existing VMware products already use CPU cores as the key licensing metric?
A: VMware Enterprise PKS and VMware NSX Data Center subscription are examples of some of the products that use CPU cores as the licensing metric.
Thoughts:
This is exactly what the competitors were waiting for. Another tax from VMware. Another tax which is too many, to change for Hyper-V or KVM? New migrations in perspective? Time will tell. So far if you're fast enough and manage to buy your AMD EPYC CPU's and install VMware vSphere before 30 th April, you'll get one license for free on each CPU socket (the same pricing as now)…
VMware is playing with fire. The fact that they have already tried this once in the past, and then they had to roll back, does not really help. The only thing which can help here that this fact is not affecting existing customers on a CPU socket which has less or equal 32 cores. But future installation based on cores counts over 32 will be “taxed”.
Even if you have a 48 core CPU you'll still pay for x2 license! (to be verified as the examples shows only 32 and 64 cores)
Screenshot from VMware blog post.
And additionally, to benefit from the offer expiring the April 30th and having a possibility to claim the free licenses, VMware is rather restrictive and will charge you for SnS on those free licenses when renewal time will come anyway.
Judge by yourself:
- Servers and VMware licenses must be purchased before 11:59 pm PST U.S. April 30, 2020
- The request for additional licenses must be submitted before 11:59pm PST U.S. on January 29, 2021. Proof of server purchase prior to April 30, 2020 will be required
- Customers must be on active VMware support (SnS) contracts at the time of the request for additional licenses.
- Note that customers will be charged for Service and Support on the additional free licenses at the time the customer’s Service and Support contract for the existing licenses renews.
Source: VMware
Well, this is not a very bright future for going with EPYC architecture and VMware indeed. What's your thoughts?
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Hi Vlad. Thanks for the article. Does the new pCPU Core tax apply to current versions of vSphere or only to the ‘still in beta’ vSphere 7? If current vSphere, what edition / Update level does it start at and are older version exempt from the pCore tax?
I ask because my next server refresh is likely to be based on Epyc pCPUs.
I wonder how much of a hand Intel had in this decision (if any) as one high-core count Epyc is intended to replace to Intel Xeons.
It is for the purchase of new licenses only. Not for existing you already own. For the future release of vSphere NEXT yes, you’ll get charged x2 for 64 cores (if that’s the EPYC CPU you plan to purchase). Which edition? All vSphere editions are affected by this, including Essentials or Essentials Plus.
I don’t think Intel has something to do with that as they also do some high-number CPU cores Xeons out there.
It’s no different than what Microsoft is doing with it’s Server 2019 licensing. At least VMware is going to 32 cores as Microsoft licensing is at 16 cores (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/windows-server-pricing).
Historically, VMware has done things differently from other software vendors. However, the hardware evolution (inevitable) has made them “swap” this model now before 64 core CPUs become mainstream. After it would have been too late and the risk that clients will “migrate” to alternative hypevisorts, greater.
The problem is simply that VMware forgets it is in competition with Microsoft’s Hyper-V and with open-source hypervisors like KVM.
But the really big problem is that the hypervisor layer is being commoditized by the cloud paradigm – do the end customers care about whether its VMware running their applications or the much cheaper kvm hypervisors? I doubt it.
The way to verify all of this is to check out the job boards looking for VMware-to-HyperV or VMware-to-Cloud migration projects because VMware looks like an expensive option unless you are in a highly secure niche.
That’s not a recipe for expansion but for decline into irrelevance.
I hope VMware changes its mind.