Clearly, the new licensing costs are going to cause some organizations to rethink their standard operating procedures. I know one outfit that built its server templates with Windows
Data Center edition and 16GB of RAM assuming that VMware’s memory over-commit would let them run VMs even if they over-allocated memory. Now that they’re paying for allocated memory, that doesn’t look like such a good idea anymore. Curious how VMware’s licensing cuts into the value of memory over commitment now that Microsoft’s added dynamic memory to
Hyper-V and it’s no longer a major vSphere differentiator.
Virtualization management vendor vKernel is giving away CapacityView, an application that will show the average and peak memory utilization for VMs so you can trim over-allocated memory now that it costs money.
In addition to boosting some users' costs, the new model will reduce the cost savings from virtualizing the larger servers now running on dedicated hardware. If you have to pay $20,000 in VMware licensing to virtualize a 150GB SQL Server, you might be tempted to just buy a new server and leave it physical.
Were I running VMware, I would have set the vRAM allotment for Enterprise Plus at 128GB. And, rather than making users that need more vRAM allotment buy additional processor licenses and the associated service and support contracts, I’d have a 64GB vRAM add-on for Enterprise Plus, only at a lower price. After all, I want to incentivize Enterprise Plus because it has all the features the competitors don’t. It will be hard to switch to Hyper-V after you’ve seen Paree.
I think ESG’s Exhalted Grand High Poobah Steve Duplessie said it best: "All software companies are hated for the way they license. Really, which companies are loved for their licensing except those who give their stuff away free?" After all, the whole idea of any licensing/pricing structure is to maximize revenues over the long run.
As Oracle has shown, having your customers think of you as a minor extortionist might be the most profitable strategy. Of course, when your customers think you’re really blackmailing them, they may start looking for alternatives. And while I think vSphere is clearly superior to Hyper-V and Xen today, the gap is closing. After all, Microsoft is very good at the incremental improvement thing.
