VMware Broadcom's Impact on End Users: What Now?

Q: When is Perpetual Licensing Not Perpetual?

A: When it is no Longer an Option for Purchase.

Like it or not, the IT industry’s latest trend will be hitting the newly acquired VMware, now officially called VMware by Broadcom.

Under the older perpetual licensing model, the predictable expense of paying for something once and having supported access to it indefinitely (assuming you continue paying any support costs), is no longer available for sale.

VMware customers with perpetual licenses and active support contracts can continue using them. VMware "will continue to provide support as defined in contractual commitments," wrote Krish Prasad, Senior Vice President and General Manager for VMware's Cloud Foundation Division. But when customers' SnS terms end, they won't have any support.

More than 400,000 customers, including all Fortune 500 and 100 companies, use VMware technologies and services. More than 80% of virtualized workloads and a large percentage of business-critical applications are running on VMware technology.

There are now four distinct product lines for vSphere. Generally speaking, it is based on the size of infrastructure run and features used. It requires a decision maker to ensure the cost of hardware lines up to the cost of software. Strategically, is your hardware TCO maximizing your software subscription? The two most common areas of concern are below:

1. Core count alignment: For example, VMware subscription licensing is a minimum 16 cores per CPU. If you have 10 cores per CPU, you are required to still license 16 cores. That is an overage for software subscription that you cannot use but must still pay for.

2. Are there features you use today that are not required? Nth can help ensure there is operational functionality and parity with feature set purchase with what is implemented. Avoid owning "shelf-ware" where the subscription is being paid but sits unused.

Is your organization accounting for all cores used and managed in your environment? Here is a step-by-step algorithm to help ensure you aren’t missing any cores to paid for.

Figure 1: Core Count for vSphere environment 

Which license level is appropriate for your organization?  

There are four license levels for vSphere:  

1. VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) 

2. VMware vSphere Standard (VVS) 

3. VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 

4. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) 

Products & Support Services includes: 

• vSphere Essentials Plus  

• Maximum of 3 hosts with up to 96 cores 

• vCenter Server Essentials 

• vSphere ESXi 

• Production Support Service 
  

VMware vSphere Standard (VVS) 

Products & Support Services includes: 

• vSphere Standard 

• vCenter Server Standard 

• vSphere ESXi 

• Production Support Service 

VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 

Products & Support Services includes: 

• vSphere Enterprise Plus 

• vCenter Server Standard 

• vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime) 

• vSphere ESXi 

• vSAN Enterprise (*includes 100GiB per CPU Core per host as free trial) 

• Aria Suite Standard 

• Aria Suite Lifecycle 

• Aria Operations 

• Aria Operations for Logs 

• Production Support Service 

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 

Products & Support Services includes: 

• SDDC Manager 

• vSphere Enterprise Plus 

• vCenter Server Standard 

• vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime) 

• vSphere ESXi 

• vSAN Enterprise (includes 1TiB per CPU Core) 

• NSX Enterprise Plus 

• Aria Suite Enterprise 

• Aria Automation 

• Aria Operations 

• Aria Operations for Logs 

• Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise 

• HCX Enterprise 

• Activation & Upgrade Support Service 

• Select Support Service 

• Support Account Manager (SAM) Support Services (highly recommended) 

In addition to the four offerings above, there are add-ons available for certain features depending on which offering is the base.  

Available Add-Ons for purchase for VVEP and VVS 

• VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR) 

  • Sold as protected TiB and Per Protected VM 

• VMware Ransomware Recovery (RWR) 

  • Sold as Per Protected VM 

• VMware Site Recovery (SRM) 

  • Sold as pack of 25 VMs 

There are four license levels. Which one is appropriate for today, and strategically for your organization for the next few years? What is the minimum or maximum number of hosts required for each solution? Which technology feature is driving your selection?  

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) 

VMware vSphere Standard (VVS) 

VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 

The decision is in front of you to make. There is a lot to consider as the core of your business IT will impact your Backup Restore and DR options as well. Let Nth Generation assist you into the subscription-based future. Let’s discover how we can leverage SaaS subscription offerings to solve your current and future business and technical challenges to maximize your ROI and lower your TCO. 

Learn more + contact Nth Generation here: https://www.security.nth.com/