Save $14,970 on VMware ESX management

April 20, 2009 in Virtualizationism | 9 comments

Are you looking for an easy way to avoid unnecessary IT spending?  Here is a cost-saving tip that may not be too obvious:  Do not use System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM) to manage your VMware ESX environment.

What?

SCVMM is licensed by the number of physical hosts under management — which includes both the Hyper-V and ESX hypervisors.  And, by the way, if you intend to use the “PRO Tips” or any of the other features that require integration with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (SCOM), you will need to buy the System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise (SMSE) for $1497 per physical host.

For example, if you have 10 VMware ESX servers in your environment and you decide to integrate SCVMM, you will owe Microsoft $1470 x 10 = $14,970.

When you look closely, the cost of all that free virtualization really starts to add up.

Related posts:

  1. When does your “free” Hyper-V Server cost $1304?
  2. VMotion from physical ESX 4 to virtual ESX 4
  3. Deceptive Microsoft SCVMM Advertising
  4. SCVMM to VMware: You will be assimilated
  5. SCVMM 2008 Management Pack Finally Released

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9 comments

  1. Craig’s avatar

    Craig on April 20, 2009 at 7:12 am

    absolutely agree with you as it will be more expensive when we been locked in to the micro$oft licensing model. For my opinion, the SCCM and SCVMM is just not the best products from the market.

    1. Eric Gray’s avatar

      Eric Gray on April 22, 2009 at 8:57 am

      Thanks for your support, Craig.

    2. Vladan’s avatar

      Vladan on April 28, 2009 at 9:45 am

      How about Xen with their free version of Xen Server with vMotion …… Clearly the SMB market will go tht Xen’s way….. I’m afraid

      I’m a bit afraid for Vmware…….

      1. Eric Gray’s avatar

        Eric Gray on April 28, 2009 at 7:57 pm

        Interesting perspective, Vladan. Don’t be afraid.

      2. GaryH’s avatar

        GaryH on January 11, 2010 at 6:16 am

        Your argument holds no water at all.

        The current list price for VMWare ENT Plus is $4,369 per cpu.

        10 vSphere hosts with 2 cpus = $69,904

        So with the $70k I’d have saved I could buy many SMSE licenses.

        You also forget to mention that SMSE covers more than 1 product.

        1. Eric Gray’s avatar

          Eric Gray on January 11, 2010 at 1:44 pm

          Gary, I’m talking about using SCVMM to manage ESX hosts. You need to pay both companies in this case — it’s not a case of one or the other.

          And oh, by the way, Microsoft just increased the price of SMSD by 75 percent.

          1. GaryH’s avatar

            GaryH on January 12, 2010 at 7:52 am

            My math was totaly wrong there, 10 hosts would add up to $87380 for ESX.

            My point is that you are arguing the point of cost with VMWare when it is an argument that VMWare will never win on.

            Sure System Center adds cost to a ‘free’ Hyper-V solution, which MS try to hide, but you forget that customers who take the SMSE licensing deal cover all guests for SCOM, SCCM, SCDPM etc so you are getting a lot of bang for your buck.

            Virtual Centre is great for managing ESX/vSPhere but it is only good at this one thing, it lives in a virtual bubble neglecting the physical world which dominates our datacentres, e.g. why would you use Vcentre to patch virtual windows guests then use another mechism like WSUS/SCCM to patch physical servers? double admin for no gain.

            The point MS are focusing on is the overall management package. Sure they have not got it right yet as its too expensive and quite disjointed but it will come with time and buying up smaller companies.

            VMWare know this and this year you will start to see them acquire smaller service management companies to boost their reach outside the virtual bubble.

            Whoever gets the whole dynamic datacentre package out to market end-to-end the quickest will win the next ‘management’ battle.

            I am not favouring either solution over the other I find it quite exciting to debate these things instead of all the old intel/amd MS/Linux debates.

          2. Todd’s avatar

            Todd on August 7, 2012 at 11:47 am

            >>you will owe Microsoft $1470 x 10 = $14,970

            Step 1: Math.

            1. Eric Gray’s avatar

              Eric Gray on August 7, 2012 at 12:42 pm

              Ha ha, thanks. That was 3 years ago, but if I recall the proofreader had the day off.

              Anyway, the new price is $3,607 per host if you want multi-hypervisor management nirvana.

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