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VMware vSphere 5 Update (August 2011) |
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| VMware’s announcement on July 12 touting a new pricing model for the latest version of their flagship product, VMware vSphere 5, has stirred much discussion among VMware’s growing user base of 250,000 customers worldwide. The pricing model shifts from a socket-based model to a model based on allocated memory, or vRAM, plus server sockets. VMware says the new pricing model will be at parity with what roughly 96% of their clients pay today and will more closely align with a cloud-based model. |
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After the initial announcement, there were cases identified where the new licensing model was less than ideal. In response to customer and partner feedback, VMware quickly revised the new model, which will address most of the issues. |
These updates, announced August 3rd, include:
• Raise vRAM entitlements addressing more aggressive virtualization scenarios – increased vRAM entitlements to 96/64/32/32/32 (they were initially announced as 48/32/24/24/24). This doubles the entitlement for Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, and raises it by 33% for Standard, Essentials, and Essentials Plus.
• Enact vRAM cap for the largest business critical workloads addressing the virtualization of extremely large business critical workloads (virtualized Tier 1 apps) – vRAM will be capped at 96GB per VM. Any VM with more than 96GB of allocated vRAM will only count as if it had 96GB.
• Usage will be based off of 12-month average addressing short-lived VM scenarios such as test/dev – vRAM will be calculated on a 12-month average vRAM calculation instead of a high water mark.
• vSphere for Desktops – announced previously, VMware will allow customers to convert existing vSphere 4.x licenses to vSphere for Desktop licenses. This license is simply called ‘vSphere for Desktops’ and will allow for very competitive pricing of the vSphere hypervisor in environments where another virtual desktop solution will broker the connectivity.
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Here are a few useful resources related to the new vSphere 5 pricing structure:
• VMware Licensing, Pricing, and Packaging Whitepaper
• License Validator – we recommend using the steps described below to get a baseline for how the new pricing model will affect your environment
• Install PowerCLI
• Download License Validator v1.3 Script
• Run the Script
• Script will detail each license type and tell you how much vRAM you will be entitled to and how much you are using.
Lost in the discussions around pricing for vSphere 5 are the industry-leading new features available now in vSphere 5. This new version is packed with new enhancements, and here are a few of the favorites from the Sirius Virtualization Practice:
• ESXi Convergence – much thinner footprint, better security, and simplified deployment, configuration, patching, and update process
• Ultra Large VM supports – support for VMs with 32 vCPU and 1TB of vRAM enables support for the largest workloads
• Auto Deploy – rapid provisioning and patching and better management of vSphere hosts
• vSphere 5 File System - support for 64TB data volumes for better flexibility and performance
• Storage DRS – ability to recognize storage I/O bottlenecks and recommend moves to other data volumes for improved performance
• View Accelerator – ability to cache data on a vSphere host rather than hitting the storage array; incredibly valuable in minimizing desktop boot times during boot storms |
Additional vSphere 5 Resources:
• VMware Unveils vSphere 5 and the Cloud Infrastructure Suite
• vSphere Product Page
If you are looking for expert guidance in understanding the impact the new VMware vSphere 5 licensing will have on your unique environment, Sirius is here to help. Please reach out to your Sirius client executive to schedule some time with a Sirius VMware licensing expert or a Sirius Virtualization Practice engineer to review the effect and, more importantly, the vast opportunity vSphere 5 functionality delivers. |
Sirius has over 30 certified virtualization engineers with over 225 years of combined virtualization experience. As a Premier VMware Solution Provider and Gold VMware Authorized Consultant, Sirius has been teaming with VMware since 2001 to enable our clients’ virtualization journey with solutions that harness the power of the cloud while ensuring security and preserving the value of their existing technology investments.
If you’re planning to attend VMworld 2011 in August, please inform your Sirius client executive who will be glad to arrange a meeting with one of our Virtualization Practice team members who will be in attendance.
>> Click here to learn more about VMware solutions from Sirius
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