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VMware makes vSphere licences portable to crimp EVO:RAIL costs

Buy for old-skool servers, transfer to hipstercoverged boxen, irritate Nutanix et al

VMware has announced what it's calling a “vSphere Loyalty Program” that allows vSphere users to “apply their licenses to the purchase of VMware EVO:RAIL appliances from our nine Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners.”

The program's pretty simple: if you have vSphere licences and buy an EVO:RAIL rig, VMware will let you move those licences across to the new box.

VMware says “With the introduction of this new global loyalty program, we are offering existing customers an easier way to acquire and consume these appliances through their preferred Qualified EVO:RAIL Partner.”

That's code for “when customers looked a the price of EVO:RAIL, their jaws hit the floor and not in a good way.” And so customers jaws ought to do have done: EVO: RAIL's price includes licences, support and everything one needs to run virtual machines. For organisations that already run vSphere, having to effectively re-purchase licences made EVO:RAIL rather pricey.

This loyalty scheme takes care of that problem and also brings EVO:RAIL into line with VMware's other licences. The company's licensing regime requires users to nominate a host, as its licences are sold according in differing capacities. But as pages like this one explain, one can detach a licence from a host and re-apply it to another.

Licence assignment happens in vCenter. But EVO:RAIL's over-the-top interface sublimates vCenter. The new program therefore makes it possible for would-be EVO:RAIL buyers to tell their hardware provider of choice to cook them up a quote without licences, which will bring down their quote nicely.

And get up the noses of hyperconverged rivals who also sell vSphere bundled with their appliances and will have to quote higher prices unless they can find a way to squirm through a loophole. ®

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