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MattG
Expert
Expert

vSphere Enterprise Plus position? Enterprise to be discontinued on 12/15/09?

There are only a handlful of features that are exclsuive to Enterprise Plus licenses:

  • Centralized virtual network management. Simplify provisioning and administration of virtual networking
    through a centralized interface. Create and manage a single distributed switch with distributed virtual port groups
    than span a Datacenter wide array of ESX/ESXi hosts.

  • Support for Private VLANs

  • Network VMotion.

  • Bidirectional Network Traffic Shaper.

  • Third Party Distributed Virtual Switches.

  • vStorage APIs for Multipathing.

  • 8-way Virtual SMP™.

Centralized virtual network management seems to the one that stands out the most as I thought this would be a Enterprise feature.

I am pleasantly surprised that FT is in every product except for Standard. I thought that this feature would be an add-on above Enterprise.

I am guessing this license is geared towards large environments that have been clamoring for enhanced Storage and Network management features. But does it really warrant a new license type?

-MattG

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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

SnS is no longer being sold.

As far as I'm aware, that is not true. If your SnS renewal is up post-12/15, you may continue to maintain SnS at the same Enterprise level. You just cannot purchase additional licenses of Enterprise.

And, as I've stated before, long time customers who have virtualized most workloads are now exiting their "server consolidation" efforts and will be moving into "host consolidation" mode. Primary factors drving this will be faster/cheaper/less-power-hungry hosts coupled with the VMware's continued license costs increases. Even for those enterprise customers who are not able to keep their application systems in check, today's (and the future's) hardware can power so much more. VMware should ultimately expect less revenue per existing customer. Look at this as an opportunity! You can do more with less, so start formal plans to reduce the number of hosts in your environment... Don't plan on 1-1 host replacements during hardware refreshes. Allow SnS contracts to be retired, decreasing your O&M budget.

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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

> kenner wrote: So the $295 appears completely bogus and certainly, in my opinion, constitutes false advertising.

Agreed, somewhat.

Thing is, you should not be paying for a "second year." List price for Enterprise and Ent+ are $719 & $874 respectively (for Platinum level). During the past major upgrade, a lot of customers held "VIN" licenses, which were ESX + VMotion. At VI3 upgrade time, there was a promotion to upgrade VIN licenses to Enterprise, at $1000 / host. However, those customers also needed to buy "support" on the upgrade, for 1-year... but it was the difference in what was paid for VIN and Enterprise SnS, not the entire Enterprise SnS cost!

Therefore, I would think you should only need to pay (list) $295 + $155, with $155 being the difference between the two SnS agreements. You should really contact VMware directly to confirm. Your reseller may not be fully clued into VMware's licensing scheme...

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kenner
Contributor
Contributor

Therefore, I would think you should only need to pay (list) $295 +

$155, with $155 being the difference between the two SnS agreements.

That would be more reasonable, but still not what they say on their web

promotion.

You should really contact VMware directly to confirm.

I did. It's not quite as bad as the dealer said, but still involves

substantial addition cost. You have to buy the full year of Ent+ in order

to be eligable for the upgrade, but 82% of the existing Ent support (and

the Ent+ level) is run before that new support takes effect. So if you have

300 days of Ent left, you have to buy 365 days of Ent+ and you end up with

611 days of Ent+. But still, the $295 is wrong by a factor of four.

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

That is not the cast it is a full year of Ent+ I have been in presentation where this has been explained by consultants in open forum with VMware representatives (VMUG's) and they have not gainsayed this. there are countless blogs on this issue and not one VMware response has said "well it is only the Difference between Ent and Ent+ you will be paying".

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Tom Howarth VCP / vExpert

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blog: www.planetvm.net

Contributing author for the upcoming book "[VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment|http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780136083214]”. Currently available on roughcuts

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

That is quite unfortunate. As an active contract holder, you should have the option to pay a prorated SnS contract fee. Otherwise, the varience proposed would blow people's budgets out of the water. Hell, the way they have this timed is quite bogus in itself as anyone that actually manages a budget (and is on a calendar year budget cycle) had no way to plan for the $295/cpu fee this year, let alone the additional SnS on top! (note: the last time with VIN upgrades, they did offer extensions of that program past the 12/31 deadline)

Therefore a solid course of action is to say "oh well" and just stay put on Enterprise.... take the couple bones they throw existing customers (like Thin Provisioning), but for most intents remain with the same standard feature set at the same SnS renewals. I can take the money and instead invest in new hardware, reducing hosts so we can drop licenses/support. (oh, and investigating alternative solutions bumps up a couple notches on the priority list as well)

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jguidroz
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Even if you look at the pricing to upgrade after 12/15, it's $685 plus support. I really do not like the fact that you to buy a full year of Enterprise+ support to get the $295. If that truly is the case, it'll be easier to budget next year for the increase, than try to find money this year, especially when our maintenance renews in July.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Even for those enterprise customers who are not able to keep their application systems in check, today's (and the future's) hardware can power so much more. VMware should ultimately expect less revenue per existing customer. Look at this as an opportunity! You can do more with less, so start formal plans to reduce the number of hosts in your environment... Don't plan on 1-1 host replacements during hardware refreshes. Allow SnS contracts to be retired, decreasing your O&M budget.

OK I've heard that excuse a few times... and don't believe it. Why is that? Well.. for starters you want to have more capacity so that you can grow, how often do you see computer rooms get LESS computers? It is similar to the old adage where you state that with computers you need less paper. True in theory, but in practice it just doesn't happen. We'll just get more power hungry software instead, more demands, because it can now be done. Take VDI, it is only now taking off because technology gives us a better experience.

Another reason is that with more virtualisation, you'll get more appliances, so need for more VMs...

Better separation per functionality by using appliances so easier to maintain if you do it right.. if appliance A -eg accounting- goes tits up you can continue using appliance B -manufacturing- Better security as well.. as the man on the floor has no chance of getting access to accounting, so it is what you want. At least to a certain degree..

For your FT you'll need extra hosts, for your SRM a whole extra data center... What do you mean with less licenses again?

Yes your statement CAN be true, but it won't happen for the majority of companies...

Well OK there will be more as one hypervisor per company due to budget constraints and bean counters not understanding the extra value of VMware virtualisation and differences between the words "quick" and "live" etcetera.. Oh don't you love marketing...



--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

Visit the VMware developers wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Full_Halsey
Contributor
Contributor

I would like to add my name to the list of folks with sticker shock. For some silly reason I thought I could get the upgrade to EP for just $295 a proc. Boy was I fooled. The quotes I just recieved are about 5 times that with support. I have 52 Enterprise procs I wanted to upgrade. I don't mind budgeting up for renewals but mid-year stuff like this kills me. I can't get a dime out of my finance department until Q1/2010 and by then I would have missed the discount.

In these tough economic time, my company has been giving steep discounts and broader services to keep customers. I know VMware can't operate for free but I would have like to have seen a different approach. Grandfathering existing Enterprise customers and getting the payoff on renewals or new customers could have been a way to go.

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Jasemccarty
Immortal
Immortal

Alright, I'm missing something... I haven't had a chance to go through this thread again, but the $295 isn't valid? It is smoke and mirrors?

I've got 48 procs licensed for ENT, and I could almost swing $295 a proc, but 5 times that with support? What gives?

I think we need some clarification.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct

Edit: I reread the thread... That's a pain in the @$$ that you have to add more SnS. Mine isn't up until January.

In fact, we have called VMware maybe 3 times in 4 years, and we pay a hefty price for our SnS support (as everyone else does). And we only have Gold, not Platinum. The only reason we seem to be paying, is to get upgrades. Unfortunately, it costs too much to buy new licenses every 2-3 years...

A friend of mine has had an EA with VMware for about a year (3 year EA). I wonder if they are going to jack his prices up. He's got a VI3 Golden Key, and can install as many ESX / ESXi / vCenter instances as he wants. I wonder how that plays into this licensing upgrade...

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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jguidroz
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

From earlier in the thread, it was stated that the $295 discount also required a full 1 year of support as well. Unlike with a regular upgrade from Standard to Enterprise where you would pay the difference in support for the remainder of your current maintenance agreement, you have to purchase a full year of support to get this discount even if you have a valid maintenance contract.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Regarding the question about maintaining Support and

Subscription (SnS) for VMware vSphere Enterprise:

The licenses for vSphere are perpetual licenses and customers can continue to

use the functionality without interruption. Customers wishing to receive Upgrades

and Updates and who wish to receive Technical Support, will need to maintain an

active VMware Support and Subscription (SnS) contract. This SnS contract can

continue to be renewed even after the licenses for vSphere Enterprise edition

are no longer available for sale and customers will continue to receive support

for any vSphere edition (including Enterprise) as long as VMware provides

support as published on the Software Lifecycle Policy.

Regarding the SnS fees for the VMware Enterprise Plus promotion

– there are three parts to this answer. 1) SnS Extensions and 2) 1 year of SnS

and 3) the cost to buy an upgrade with SnS.

SnS Extensions:

With the VMware Infrastructure 3 products, customers who

wished to upgrade from VI3 Standard to VI3 Enterprise, made an incremental

license and incremental SnS purchase. This meant two different SnS contracts

which needed to be managed and renewed separately.

Here’s the example:

Nov 1, 2008 : Purchase of VI3 Standard

List price for license: $2995 (2 CPU license)

List price for 1 year Platinum SnS on VI 3 Standard: $749

(for 2 CPU license)

Mar 1, 2009: Purchase of VI3 Standard to Enterprise Upgrade

List price for upgrade: $3500 (2 CPU license)

List price for 1 year Platinum SnS: $689

Total License Fees: $6495

Total SnS Fees: $1438

Two SnS contracts would need to be managed, invoiced and

paid.

With the introduction of vSphere, VMware introduced a new

process called the SnS Extension. This process was designed and introduced to

simplify the process for partners and customers to upgrade to a higher level

edition (e.g., vSphere Enterprise

to vSphere Enterprise Plus). This process provides customers credit for any

un-used SnS on their Original License (e.g., vSphere Enterprise). This credit will be in the form

of “days of SnS” that will be added on to the SnS on the New License (e.g.,

vSphere Enterprise Plus), extending the term of contract on the new license. Thus

resulting in only one contract to manage and renew. This process was introduced

to help eliminate pricing complexity for the channel, to simplify the upgrade

and SnS process for customers, to eliminate a number of SKUs that partners need

to maintain and manage, and to reduce the number of POs and renewal

transactions for customers.

An example of how this SnS Extension is calculated:

June 15, 2009: Upgrade from vSphere Enterprise (fulfilled from VI3 Enterprise SnS

agreement).

List price for 1 year Platinum SnS on vSphere Enterprise: $719 ($1438

for 2 CPUs)

List priced for 1 year Platinum SnS on vSphere Enterprise

Plus: $874

Customer with 100 days remaining on vSphere Enterprise decides to

upgrade to Enterprise Plus.

$719/$874 * 100 days = 82 days

These 82 days would be added to the new vSphere Enterprise

Plus contract thus extending the traditional one year term (365 days) to a

longer contract term of 447 days or a little less than 1 year 3 months in

duration.

New contract end date (approx): August 20, 2010

The dates are roughly correct. To see an actual calculation,

if you have an active account on the VMware website, you can log in and do an

estimate of the SnS Extension. You can find this estimator at:

; look under Other Resources and then find the link called: SnS Credit

Calculator (

).

Minimum of One Year of SnS:

VMware has a policy of requiring 1 year of SnS on all new

license purchases. So in the case of upgrading from the Enterprise to

Enterprise Plus Edition, a full year of SnS is required on the Enterprise Plus

Edition and then the credit is applied form the remainder of the Enterprise SnS

agreement. At the time of upgrade, if you order the 12 month SnS SKU, the

actual SnS duration once the order is booked will be greater than 12 months.

These “extra” days are to give you credit for any unused SnS on the Original

License. In essence you are paying for 12 months of SnS and getting something

greater than 12 months of SnS from VMware. This policy has not changed from VI3

– customers who purchased the upgrade in VI3 also paid a full year of SnS on the

incremental license purchase.

Cost to Buy the Ent Plus Upgrade

The upgrade to Enterprise Plus at $295 is a special limited

time promotion – after the promotional period is over the price will return to

its regular price of $685 with the required 1 year of SnS at regular rate of either

$734 for Gold or $874 for Platinum. For more information on the pricing for

vSphere, take a look at the Pricing and Packaging White Paper at:

Note: all pricing examples are in USD and at list rates.

Your pricing may vary.

VMware-GSS,

VMware Communities User Moderator

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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Thank you. That helps explain the process. However, I do have an issue with one of the statements:

> In essence you are paying for 12 months of SnS and getting something greater than 12 months of SnS from VMware.

In essence, you have paid for 12 months of SnS and now you must repay for an additional 12 months at the higher rate, tacking the prorated remainder of your original investment onto the new contract.

For customers who have loyally paid their maintenance fees, (especially those who have a balance of 300+ days on their existing contracts), the lack of an option to pay a prorated fee on the existing contract being upgraded seems a bit harsh. While VMware's policy is to require 1-yr SnS on any new licenses, I would venture to say most customer's policies are to pay SnS once per term.

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MattG
Expert
Expert

I guess the other option is to not upgrade exisitng licenses. Looking at the VMMark #'s, it does not appear that the similar configs that are running 4.0 vs 3.5 warrant the additional licensing and support cost for exisitng HW.

Maybe only new Nehalem (maybe Istanbul) server installs are the best fit for thevSphere price hike?

-MattG

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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

About the only real feature in "Plus" that aids performance is 3rd party multipath support. Perhaps there's a bunch of people out there looking for 8-way vSMP too... I dunno.

As you (and I) have said, the other option is to just not bother upgrading. The only thing I could take advantage of today, (if I were even willing to upgrade to a dot_zero release), would be the host profiles. That certainly is not worth the added expense... BTW, shouldn't Host Profiles really be part of the Virtual Center package anyway, not ESX.

Staying put seems like the best option at this point, reassessing as hosts hardware is updated.

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kenner
Contributor
Contributor

The only thing I could take advantage of today .. would be the host

profiles. That certainly is not worth the added expense...

That's also the only feature I'd use. I was willing to spend $295/CPU

on it, but not four times that. I suspect VMware is losing a lot of sales

due to this policy.

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sradnidge
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

And to think we canned development of statelesx () almost a year ago because we thought it would be killed by host profiles...

/me kicks self

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MattG
Expert
Expert

VMware extends vSphere Enterprise availability beyond 12/15/09:

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-enterprise-license-to-remain-past-2009-deadline

Thanks for listening.

-MattG

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

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hicksj
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Just curious, with the "upgrade promo" deadline approaching, what have most of you done?

a - Begged management for more money to feed the VMware machine

b - Analyzed the benefits and determined they're not worth asking for $$$

c - Budgeted for the upgrade, but only for specific hosts that require particular features

d - Determined that the money you did budget for might be better spent elsewhere.

e - Ripped out VMware and went to MSFT

We're some combinatioin of b/d. I could justify to management the additional expense, but for the limited value, and the expense going beyond what I budgeted, (due to VMware's +1year maintenance policy), I'm thinking our $ are better spent elsewhere.

The money I'll save over the next several years by NOT paying the elevated maintenance costs alone will pay for "Plus" if we end up with a configuration that requires "Plus" features down the road.

I guess not all enterprises are Plus-sized. Smiley Wink

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