enterprise license stopping?

[dcoz]

Hi guys,

Not sure the best place to out this post.

I heard on the communities roundtable yesterday that the enterprise license will be stopped at the end of the year.

Did i hear this correctly?

If so how does this affect your current licensing and current support agreements etc?

cheers

D

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VMware will stop Selling the Enterprise license at the end of the year. If you have the licenses already, with SnS then you will get the appropriate licenses for vSphere. If however, you need to buy a new license after the end of the year, you get to choose from Advanced or Enterprise Plus. Your existing licenses will not expire, etc. But you will not be able to purchase more Enterprise licenses.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
====
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
SearchVMware Pro|Blue Gears|Top Virtualization Security Links|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[jrr001]

We learned this also this week. I am a BIG VMware FAN for over 10 years now..but I think the licensing needs more work, especially with the coporate pressures from the other competing virtualization vendors. Granted, I would only want to have VMware and have been using ESX for about 9 years now.

One problem with the new licenses. We are enterprise licensed now. It goes away at the end of the year. I am also a VCP on ESX 2.x / VI 3. But with the new licensing, if we don't upgrade to Enterprise Plus licensing, I will not be able to keep up skills with "Distributed Virtual Switch", host profiles, or third party multipathing, which would hurt my continuing experience level with these new technologies.

Vmotion is only offered with the Advanced/Enterprise Plus starting in 2010 and DRS only with Enterprise Plus starting in 2010. These resistrictions while the competion is beating at the door offering similar features for "free"...not that anything is really "free" when you look closer, but you get the point.

It's just for me VMware is making it harder and harder for us to fend off the competition by these type of restrictions.

[Texiwill · Accepted solution]

Hello,

If your SnS is expiring you have til the 21st of May to fix that. Yes it is soon, but hey renew now and keep enterprise... As for having the other items on which to play with, that is something entirely different. Are they needed for your VCP or are they really needed by the company. That is the real question I would have to ask. You can play with them with demo licenses anytime, the question is does your company need to spend the extra funds.

If it was me I would get SnS updated/extended, or take advantage of the almost half price upgrades you can make between now and the end of the year.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, DABCC Analyst
====
Now Available on Rough-Cuts: 'VMware vSphere(TM) and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment'
Also available 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise'
SearchVMware Pro|Blue Gears|Top Virtualization Security Links|Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[dcoz]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies.

I think i will have to start talks about getting the the sns upgraded whilst the deals are on.

I dont think advanced is an option for me as if i have a cluster i want

DRS. To me this is a a core feature now along with HA and Vmotion.

On the points about keeping the competition from creeping in the door.

I think having vmotion present the lower tiered licenses would certainly keep them off. Im hoping vmware will do this in the near future.

Cheers

D

P.S. texiwill - Really enjoying your security roundtables keep them going

[hicksj]

There seems to be a misunderstanding here that "Enterprise no longer being for sale after 12/15" == "I am no longer entitled to Enterprise if I do not upgrade"

Folks, you cannot downgrade nor will you be forced down to Advanced. If you are at Enterprise, you will REMAIN at Enterprise licensing. When you renew, whether it be prior to 5/21, after 5/21, or after 12/15, you will still renew your SnS at the existing Enterprise level. If you have incremental hosts after 12/15, you cannot purchase Enterprise licenses for those hosts. At that point, you will need to decide what is the best fit for those new hosts.

If you decide you need the features provided at Enterprise Plus, you can and should upgrade prior to 12/15 to take advantage of the promo pricing. But if you have no use for the features or wish not to pay for them, you're entitled to remain right where you are. In other words, nobody is forcing you to change existing licenses.

Regards

[lmhealthcare]

Am I the only one who can't get through to anybody in contracts to renew SnS?

Entering the zip code on the phone doesn't work, just goes in a loop. Then I sit on hold for hours waiting for somebody to pick up.

Meanwhile the renewal ticket I created on the we has been open three weeks, and my contracts expire in two days.

What a great way to frustrate your customers vmware.

[hicksj]

FYI, I too have a number of contracts that expired this week. The renewal order was placed by our VAR, but I have yet to see our contracts renewed, and in fact they have now expired.

Recently I had some licensing "database issues" with VMware's online contract manager and a message sent to vi-hotline was not processed into a SR unitl 10 days later. Apparently they are overloaded due to the recent vSphere announcement. However, I had other license generation issues last fall, and their automated response was that it may take up to 10 business days to process. To me, it appears their license/contract management systems didn't scale very well. I hope they correct this when the new vSphere licensing model is introduced.

Something tells me things are going to be ugly on the 21st!

[lmhealthcare]

This is ironic. I was on hold yesterday for a bit over an hour, I placed the call on hold to make another call. I then forgot to go back to the VMware call. When I got in this morning I saw the blinking light on my phone, I picked it up. I was still on hold with VMware.

18 hours!

Thank goodness it was an 800 number, so they can pay the bill, not me.

[Rumple]

This seemed like a relavent thread to update:

Vmware Reverses Enterprise License Phaseout