The Transition of VMware Licensing | How Can Current Users Adapt to The Changes, Financially & Operationally

VMware by Broadcom has been in the market spotlight over the last few months. Some being positive but a lot of focus has been placed onto the new licensing structure. How would these changes impact the cost for existing customers??

Bert Lim, Chief Technical Navigator of Cloudify.Asia, shared: “I had customers asking me for my opinion, on what should they do once their maintenance runs out in 1-2 years’ time, as they only use vCenter and vSphere Enterprise Plus in their environment, without the need for Aria and Tanzu. Here are some points to factor in:”

Which Licensing or Bundles Is the Best for Your Operational Needs?

Looking at the new licensing structure and bundles, if customers want to use the familiar vSphere Enterprise Plus, they need to purchase VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) license, that comes with additional Aria Suite Standard and Tanzu. Using Aria is beneficial if it is implemented correctly, and if the administrators utilise it.?

For my customers who are running small clusters (2-6 hosts and <200 VMs), however, do they need these extras they do not use today? With this increased licensing cost, how would they maintain it with the current budget?

Another option is to use vSphere Standard instead of the VVF bundle that comes with vSphere Standard and vCenter Standard. If you are using virtualization for just the basic needs of running VMs without needing the extra functionality Aria, moving to vSphere Basic will net you huge savings by sacrificing a few features.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmw-datasheet-vsphere-product-line-comparison.pdf

Comparing vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere Standard, the key features that customers will miss are:

1. Virtual Distributed Switch – The administrators will hate losing this but when managing a matured and stable environment, how many network changes are done on a regular basis??

1. Dynamic Resource Scheduler – Does this really help much? It does make it easier when deciding where to place the initial VM but is it a lot of work to balance 2 – 6 hosts? You would have to move 2-3VMs around a couple times a week.?

1. Fault Tolerance 2 core vs 8 core support – If FT is a critical feature to ensure your key workloads are running, then it is neccesary. However, how many customers actually use FT for anything??

1. SR-IOV – If you are building a cluster where you need maximum speed, then you will need to pay for the feature.??

1. NIOC/SIOC – Will this make an impact for customers where performance and contention for resources are not an issue?

Optimizing The Cost of Your vSphere-powered Servers?

I do advise my customers to seriously consider moving back to vSphere Standard and to look at their current environment to evaluate if and how they are using these features. The cost benefit can be quite substantial.

Bert advises customers to seriously consider moving back to vSphere Standard and to look at their current environment to evaluate if and how they are using these features. The cost benefit can be quite substantial, let us demonstrate this:

• Calculations are based on list price for VMware licenses for a 3-year term.?
• We will assume each server will have 2 CPUs.

vSphere Standard = USD 50/core/year?

VVF = USD 135/core/year?

Minimum licensing by Broadcom = 16 cores/CPU?

For a single 2CPU server, they will save (135-50)*2*16 = USD 2720 per year.??

For a cluster of 4 servers, they will save USD 10,880 per year on licensing costs alone. Over 3 years this will equate to USD 32,640 or over RM155,000.?

This is a method in which customers can reduce their licensing costs by switching over to vSphere Standard.??

And for customers who are looking to convert their platform to an OPEX/PAYU model, Cloudify.Asia can offer a PAYU cloud, on their premise with managed services included as part of Cloudify.Asia motto of providing “Cloud Technology Financing Anywhere”. This private cloud allows customers to have full control and integrates into their existing toolsets and operations, with the difference on just paying for the resources consumed and letting Cloudify.Asia plan and expand the resources when needed.