It looks like the wait is completely over. VMware has made available vSphere 5 for download. Here is the download page:
Download vSphere 5
Here are some specific links to various pieces of the new release:
I can’t wait to see how quickly this new version is adopted. Now we will finally see just how bad the new licensing will affect the different customer deployments. Feel free to comment on your deployment experiences below!
So we all know who the big players in the VMware virtualization backup game are…Veeam, vRanger, PHDvirtual…to name a few of the more common ones. A new one has come into the mainstream, AppAssure. AppAssure has a product called Replay.
I had the pleasure of watching a short video regarding the solution which you can see below. AppAssure Replay is taking things a step further and attempting to consolidate both the physical and virtual backup worlds. Their product allows for restore on to either virtual or physical machines and even to different hardware in the physical world. I know from talking with some virtualization customers in the past that this is one thing that people think needs to happen. That is truly a matter for debate and a different post. My personal opinion is that if someone can do it and do it well…then by all means bring it! (Yes, I said bring it…like the movie Bring It On…)
After reading a bit about the product and watching the introduction video, I am excited to actually see it in motion. Some of the features that are exciting to see are the failover to virtual machine for physical servers, the snapshot compression and dedupe, and the automated application recovery validation. I also want to see if their claim to being the world’s fastest backup and recovery stands true. (Does that mean a possible post comparing different solutions?)
Check out the video below and I should have another post coming soon regarding my trials and tribulations with the product! You can also check out AppAssure’s site by going to http://www.appassure.com.
Today marks the birthday of vSential.com. On August 5, 2010, vSential.com was created and brought online to bring good content on virtualization to the wonderful community that I am a part of. It is because of the others in our wonderful virtualization community that have inspired me to write, such as:
The list could go on and on. I am so proud to be able to provide content regarding the technologies that we have grown to love and use so much. The year was filled with many ups and downs as I got off the ground and into the world of blogging. The highlight for me this year was definitely being invested the 2011 VMware vExpert Award for my contributions to the community. This has made me extremely proud of what I have done and I can only hope to build on this to bring even more to the community!
Thanks everyone who has supported me and vSential.com. We are hoping for another great year!
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.
VMware vExpert 2011/2012
VMware VCP5-DCV
VMware VTSP5/VTSP5-Cloud
