Simplicity Across Clouds Is Rare
91% of executives are looking to improve “consistency across [their] public cloud environments."
Applications Need to Be Modernized
68% of developers want to expand use of modern application frameworks, APIs and services.
Distributed Work Models Are Here to Stay
72% of enterprise employees are working from non-traditional environments.
Security Is a Top-Down Concern
Risk related to security, data and privacy issues remains the #1 multi-cloud challenge.
Give developers the flexibility to use any app framework and tooling for a secure, consistent and fast path to production on any cloud.
Deliver security and networking as a built-in distributed service across users, apps, devices, and workloads in any cloud.
Operate apps and infrastructure consistently, with unified governance and visibility into performance and costs across clouds.
Empower your employees to be productive from anywhere, with secure, frictionless access to enterprise apps from any device.
Run enterprise apps and platform services at scale across public and telco clouds, data centers and edge environments.
Get on a Faster Path to Prod
Build and deploy quickly and securely on any public cloud or on-premises Kubernetes cluster.
Simplify Kubernetes Operations
Build and operate a secure, multi-cloud container infrastructure at scale.
Pair with App Development Experts
Unlock value by modernizing your existing apps and building innovative new products.
Build, run, secure, and manage all of your apps across any cloud with application modernization solutions and guidance from VMware.
11 Security Practices to Manage Container Lifecycle
Get recommended practices for DevSecOps teams that desire a more modern app methodology.
Connect and Run with Confidence
Reduce time-to-value, lower costs, and enhance security while modernizing your private and public cloud infrastructure.
Enhance Digital Experiences
Securely, reliably, and optimally connect applications in the cloud and at the edge to deliver unique experiences.
Run enterprise apps at scale with a consistent cloud infrastructure across public clouds, data centers and edge environments.
VMware Research: Multi-Cloud Strategies
Learn why enterprises find multi-cloud strategies critical for success.
Deliver an Engaging Experience
Put employees first with device choice, flexibility, and seamless, consistent, high-quality experiences.
Secure Today’s Anywhere Workspace
Ease the move to Zero Trust with situational intelligence and connected control points.
Automate the Workspace
Manage to outcomes — not tasks — with intelligent compliance, workflow and performance management.
Enable any employee to work from anywhere, anytime with seamless employee experiences.
Remote Work Is No Longer Optional
Shift from supporting remote work to becoming an anywhere organization.
Secure & Connect Workloads
Operationalize consistent security and networking across apps, users, and entities with transparency built into our tools.
Protect APIs — the New Endpoints
Increase app velocity and centrally manage, secure, connect, and govern your clusters no matter where they reside.
Be Future-Ready
Get built-in threat intelligence spanning users, endpoints and networks to evolve your protection in a dynamic landscape.
Deliver security and networking as a built-in distributed service across users, apps, devices, and workloads in any cloud.
Protect Your Multi-Cloud Environments
Discover the unique characteristics of malware and how to stay ahead of attacks.
Work with a VMware Partner
Partners deliver outcomes with their expertise and VMware technology, creating exceptional value for our mutual customers.
Become a Partner
Together with our partners, VMware is building the new multi-cloud ecosystem positioned to become essential to our customers.
With thousands of partners worldwide, we are positioned to help customers scale their business, drive innovation and transform their customer experience.
Working Together with Partners for Customer Success
See how we work with a global partner to help companies prepare for multi-cloud.
As IT continues to virtualize and move towards IT-as-a-Service, software licensing needs to evolve to account for actual product consumption rather than arbitrarily licensing the physical hardware from which consumption is abstracted. With virtual machines now being the new unit of consumption, IT organizations need flexible deployment and licensing options that are more usage-based versus server-based.
Since September 1, 2010, VMware has begun offering some Infrastructure, Management, and Application Platform products using per VM licensing.
Moving to Per VM Licensing
Per VM licensing is more flexible. Rather than requiring licenses for every server deployed, you only need licenses for the average maximum number of virtual machines that are managed. Let’s look at an example:
VMware vCenter CapacityIQ, vCenter Chargeback, vCenter Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations, vCloud Director, and vFabric 5 are licensed per managed VM. A license will be required for each managed VM – this is based on the number of VMs that the specific product is managing. VMware vCenter Server will provide information on actual license usage for each of the products, and will alert you if average usage has exceeded the number of available licenses.
The table below summarizes how managed VMs are measured for each product.
Product | Managed VM Definition |
---|---|
vCenter Site Recovery Manager | Any VM that is part of a SRM protection group, regardless of power state (defined as a “Protected VM”) |
vCenter CapacityIQ | Any powered-on VM managed by CapacityIQ |
vCenter Chargeback | Any powered-on VM in a Chargeback hierarchy |
vCenter Operations | Any powered-on VM managed by vCenter Operations
|
vCloud Director | Any powered-on VM deployed in a vCloud Director organizational virtual datacenter
|
vFabric 5 | Any powered-on VM managed by vFabric 5
|
To simplify purchasing of per-vm licenses, licenses are generally sold in packs so that customers don’t need to purchase new licenses for every new VM that is onboarded. License keys are managed through vCenter Server. vCenter Server 4.1 or later is required to support per VM licenses. It will also support per processor licenses for all products. vCenter Server 4.0 and earlier versions will not accept per VM license keys for the products mentioned above.
Additionally, per VM licenses cannot be combined with per processor licenses for the same product on the same vCenter Server instance. You will need to use either per VM or per processor licenses for a given product.
If you have previously purchased per processor licenses for any of these products, you can continue to use the per processor licenses you already own. You can continue to renew VMware Support and Subscription (SnS) for the per processor licenses using your regular renewal terms. VMware will also provide a transition plan that allows you to exchange your current per processor licenses for ones that are based on the new per VM licensing model. If you own per processor licenses for the above products as of September 1, 2010 you will be able to exchange them for per VM licenses per the ratios stated below.
Product | Number of VMs for each Converted Per Processor License |
---|---|
vCenter Capacity IQ
(per VM pricing available late 2010 / early 2011*) |
10 |
vCenter Chargeback | 20 |
vCenter Site Recovery Manager | 5 |
For example, if you own 6 per processor licenses for Site Recovery Manager and would like to convert to per VM, you will receive 6 license packs that contain 5 VMs each for a total of 30 VMs.
To initiate a conversion request, you should complete a Licensing Service Request. When you submit your request, please provide:
Alternatively, or if you have additional questions, call 877-4VMWARE and choose licensing support. (You can also visit the VMware Phone Page to find international phone numbers.)
Have additional questions? Read the FAQ.