VMTN Subscription Coming Back?

So there has been a spark of another conversation regarding the VMTN Subscription.  For those of you who are unaware of what this is/was, it was a service similar to Microsoft’s MSDN Subscription which allowed, for a flat yearly fee, users to be able to run VMware’s software within your lab environment.

Should VMware bring this back to light?  In my opinion, yes, this would definitely be a smart move.  Not only would this benefit those of us who have home labs, it would then be extended to others who could not originally do this.  It would allow companies to maintain a similar lab and also allow for even more exposure for VMware and their line of products.

It has been verified by Duncan Epping at Yellow Bricks that the message has been heard and the talks are stirring.  I urge you to follow both the above linked conversation on the VMTN forums and also follow the #VMTNrevolution hash tag on Twitter.  The more we push for it, the more likely VMware is to answer our call.  So don’t be shy, help start the #VMTNrevolution and support the push today!  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts!

vRAM Entitlements Changed – Thanks VMware!

Looks like VMware listened to all of the negative feedback and lashings they received from their customer base regarding the new vRAM Entitlement licensing model.  Though they didn’t move away from it, instead they increased the entitlements by 2X for all of the license levels except for Essentials/Essentials Plus and Standard, which went from 24GB to 32GB.  Along with the complaints from customers, there were also complaints from those of us who have unlicensed home labs and use vSphere Hypervisor.  The original entitlement for the free hypervisor was 8GB and is now being extended to 32GB.

What does this mean for the VMware community?  In my opinion this means that VMware cares enough to respond.  I know I sound like a fanboy but seriously, the company listened and compromised.  Compromise is better than sticking it to you…Many people have commented regarding that this doesn’t fix anything.  I am not so sure about that.

Another important change brought to the table for the licensing model is the change in calculation of vRAM usage.  Instead of consistent usage probing, it is now based on a 12-month average.  This is great for those of us using VMware for development environments which only spin-up a few weeks at a time.  This means that we will not be penalized for part-time VMs.

The biggest cost savings brought on with the change is the choice by VMware to cap the amount of vRAM that counts towards the customer’s entitlement to 96GB per virtual machine.  This allows someone, although not sure who would do this, to allocate a VM with one terrabyte of vRAM but only pay for 96GB from their vRAM entitlement.

What does this mean about VMware licensing?  Not quite sure except for the fact that we see that VMware is still a BUSINESS and not a charity.  Yes, technology has changed…yes, RAM is getting cheaper and machines are able to use more RAM than before…yes, we continue to push virtualization to its limits…but, VMware still needs to see that their future is cohesive with the movement of technology and that they keep a steady revenue stream.  This is not as bad as it seems, it may look that way but try to remember that they are a business and businesses need to make money.  They have attempted to answer the calls from the customers and have come to a compromise.  VMware has brought technologies to the table that have brought innovations into our datacenters and businesses.  Because of their technologies we are able to provide a better bottom dollar to our companies, just try to understand…

On a closing note, I definitely hope that VMware continues to look at what they have started with the new licensing and continue to make modifications and tweak the licensing enough for people to see more value.

The VPP? Answer to vRAM Entitlement Outburst?

On July 27, 2011 VMware announced a new licensing purchase program dubbed the VMware Volume Purchasing Program or VPP for short.  The VPP was created as a points based system that will entitle enrolled customers to discounts ranging from 4% to 12% off of MSRP.  To me this sounds a lot like Microsoft’s license tiering. VMware will have it broken into 4 different tiers, seen here:

VMware has published a document, VMware Volume Purchasing Program Guide, that describes the licensing framework.  It seems that the key benefits are much the same with Microsoft licensing in that you receive a higher discount the more you purchase.  One of the advantages to this would be that you will be able to simplify your licensing costs, so VMware says.  I, personally, have always found points based licensing schemes to be a headache.

The points earned are maintained through a rolling eight quarter accumulation period.  The discount received is good for a period of two years.  As with Microsoft Licensing, there is a minimum purchase requirement in order to qualify for the discount and to add to your accumulated points.  According to the document the minimum purchase is 250 points.

I found something very interesting in this document that I don’t actually recall seeing in any other licensing document from VMware.  They state in this document that they now reserve the right to audit at any time.  Now this is typically an understood deal with licensing and shouldn’t cause any ruckus but who knows these days.

A question now pops in my head, “Was this released in lieu of the response on vRAM Entitlements?”  Answer:  I don’t know but it sure does feel like it.  My belief is that this is to attempt to offset the costs that could be incurred by certain customers who may have to purchase additional vRAM Entitlements.  What do you guys think?

vSphere 4 & 5 License Calculator by VirtualVCP

I know that everyone is looking for a way to get a grip on the future license costs involved with going to vSphere 5 in the future.  Rynardt Spies over at VirtualVCP has created a real nice Excel spreadsheet which will help calculate the costs.  Here is a screen clip of the spreadsheet:

Go on over to Rynardt’s site and grab a copy for yourself and start playing with some numbers.  Here is the link to the post:

http://www.virtualvcp.com/download-tools/164-simple-vmware-vsphere-4-a-5-license-calculator

 

vSphere 5 vRAM Licensing Model

While everyone was excited to hear about the next generation of the dominating hypervisor, one particular piece has held a cloud (no pun intended!) over the head of the announcement of vSphere 5.  That cloud is that of the new licensing model VMware has placed in front of us.  VMware has decided to move away from the current entitlements of CPU cores and physical RAM to that of a virtualization-based entitlement referred to as vRAM Pooling.

The new licensing model is as follows:

One of the first questions that comes to mind is, “How does this affect my current virtual infrastructure?”  Here are a couple of example scenarios:

As you can see, I looked at specifically 2 CPU configurations. I know that the entire world doesn’t run only dual-proc hardware but I believe that once you see the above examples you will be able to come to your own idea of what it takes to get where you need to be.

When first looking at the above scenarios it seems that the sweet spot configuration would be that of 2 CPUs and 96GB of RAM. Although it is nice, most companies have followed the model of scaling up rather than out. With the ability to consolidate more machines with the newer processors and gobs of memory we can throw into our hardware, does this seem to make sense? Again, this is dependent on the direction your infrastructure is going and the end all dollar spend you can absorb.

In essence, there are a multitude of reasons why VMware feels the change to licensing was necessary.  From the customer perspective, without running numbers, it seems as though they are trying to limit us more than before.  Is this really true?  There are many blog postings out there regarding the cost analysis. This is why I decided to focus more on getting people to better understand the nature of the structure.

How does this affect your infrastructure and your future state plans?