vSphere 4.1 Throws Bone to SMBs
Virtualization Review Editor Bruce Hoard points out in
this post that VMware has trimmed costs on some of vSphere 4.1 suite’s offerings. It helps SMBs and is a huge step in the right direction.
I want to focus specifically on the Essentials Plus Kit offering of vSphere, which has the following features:
- ESXi host memory up to 256 GB
- Up to 6 cores per processor
- Up to 3 servers with up to 2 sockets
- Thin provisioning of VMDK files
- VMware Update Manager
- vStorage APIs for Data Protection and Data Recovery
- vMotion and High Availability
This offering, again for up to six sockets across three servers, is $2,995. It's not priced per processor like other offerings we may be familiar with, and does not include VMware’s Support and Subscription (SnS).
At that price and without the SnS offering, it's still perfect for smaller data centers. Especially for organizations that may have a mix of small and large datacenters. The smaller datacenters that may be remote, have limited staff; yet administrators want to deliver the same functionality and availability that we have come to know and love with larger vSphere installations.
Notably missing from the Essentials Plus Kit compared to 'traditional' vSphere administration are DRS, FT and Storage vMotion. While the kit does include vMotion, the virtual machine migrations will be manual instead of invoked by vCenter. For many environments that are dealing with smaller, remote datacenters; I see this as a perfect fit.
The lack of Storage vMotion likely is not much of an issue either, as chances are there are only one or two LUNs in place for smaller environments.
Does this new offering make a big difference in provisioning virtualized servers for smaller environments in your organization? I think it does. Share your comments here.
Posted by Rick Vanover on 07/15/2010 at 12:47 PM