The promotion of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) new virtualization software will likely pique the interest of end users and resellers who are unhappy with Broadcom's pricing of VMware.
During the HPE Discover event in Las Vegas this week, HPE announced that its customers could use the "HPE Morpheus Software – VM Essentials" offer for free for "up to one year," according to the press release.
HPE's website describes the virtualization platform as an "alternative to VMware."
It includes a hardware virtual machine (HVM) hypervisor, unified management, and allows users to “manage VMware ESXi and HVM clusters from a single console and migrate when ready,” HPE’s website states.
“New VM Essentials customers can get up to one year of free VM Essentials licenses, one year of HPE Zerto for $1 to support non-disruptive migration to HPE virtual machines, and 0% interest on software through HPE Financial Services,” HPE's announcement states, referring to HPE's team for supporting IT teams in management.
The free one-year subscription is cheaper than what Broadcom has been charging for VMware vSphere since it took over. VMware's prices have skyrocketed as VMware's parent company has phased out unlimited licenses and bundled products into expensive packages. Notably, HPE recommends charging $600 per CPU socket per year for VM Essentials, according to its website.
Broadcom has controversially shifted its pricing for vSphere per-core licenses. “Customers are feeling pretty bad about the change that some of the virtualization companies, and Broadcom in particular, have made,” told CRN Jeremiah Jenson, vice president of channel and partner ecosystem for HPE North America, said VM Essentials could deliver up to 90% cost savings compared to VMware, while also helping to “eliminate vendor lock-in and simplify hybrid IT.”
From March 1st to June 30th, HPE also offers one year of free VM Essentials through a discount to customers who purchase an AMD server and a one-year VM Essentials license. VM Essentials is only available through channel partners, in stark contrast to Broadcom's VMware approach, where the company has drastically reduced the number of resellers that can sell VMware products.
HPE's new offering aims to make customers consider moving away from VMware more deeply.
HPE also announced that it will provide 600 reseller partners who achieve the HPE Partner Program Private Cloud with Virtualization proficiency by the end of the year with three years of free VM Essentials software licenses. However, partners will be required to pay support costs.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
