VMware releases vSphere Express for virtualization on up to 128 cores

After alienating many long-time small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers, Broadcom’s VMware is trying to appeal to its smaller customers. Today, the virtualization company announced vSphere Express, a lower-end virtualization offering for organizations that require “cost-effective essential virtualization.”

在疏远了许多长期以来的中小型企业（SMB）客户后，博通旗下的 VMware 正试图重新吸引其小型客户。今天，这家虚拟化公司宣布推出 vSphere Express，这是一款面向需要“经济高效的基础虚拟化”的组织所提供的低端虚拟化产品。

vSphere Express comes after many customers reported that VMware was pushing them to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), the flagship private cloud bundle that has many features SMBs don’t need and is expensive. Some SMB users have reported that VMware sales representatives previously told them that vSphere Standard, VMware’s prior entry-level virtualization offering, wasn’t available anymore.

vSphere Express 的推出背景是，许多客户反映 VMware 一直在推动他们转向 VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)。VCF 是其旗舰级私有云套件，包含许多中小型企业并不需要的功能，且价格昂贵。一些中小型企业用户反映，VMware 的销售代表此前曾告知他们，VMware 之前的入门级虚拟化产品 vSphere Standard 已不再提供。

A VMware spokesperson told The Register that VMware will sell a per-core subscription license at a price that will be “significantly lower” than the VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) bundle and VCF but wouldn’t provide a price quote. IT distributor TD Synnex lists vSphere Express as costing $9,600 a year for running on up to 128 cores. The price doesn’t get cheaper with fewer cores, which still presents a challenge to the smallest use cases.

一位 VMware 发言人告诉《The Register》，VMware 将以“显著低于”VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 套件和 VCF 的价格出售按核心计算的订阅许可，但未提供具体报价。IT 分销商 TD Synnex 列出的 vSphere Express 价格为每年 9,600 美元，支持最多 128 个核心运行。该价格不会因核心数减少而降低，这对规模最小的使用场景来说仍然是一个挑战。

vSphere Express includes basic capabilities, like vMotion, for “live migration of running virtual machines with improved migration speed and efficiency,” and high availability for the “automated restart of failed virtual machines,” VMware’s announcement said. The product only supports discrete instances, and organizations won’t be able to manage them centrally, Prashanth Shenoy, VP of product marketing for VCF, said, according to The Register.

根据 VMware 的公告，vSphere Express 包含诸如 vMotion 等基本功能，用于“以更高的迁移速度和效率实现运行中虚拟机的实时迁移”，以及用于“自动重启故障虚拟机”的高可用性功能。据《The Register》报道，VCF 产品营销副总裁 Prashanth Shenoy 表示，该产品仅支持离散实例，组织无法对其进行集中管理。

“We started listening to a lot of our lower-end customers who didn’t really want the VVF but wanted the core virtualization capability, and [vSphere Express is] really meant for that market,” Shenoy said, per SDxCentral. Whereas vSphere Standard hasn’t seen a meaningful update in years, vSphere Express will be updated as frequently as VCF and VVF are, The Register reported.

据 SDxCentral 报道，Shenoy 表示：“我们开始倾听许多低端客户的心声，他们并不真正需要 VVF，但需要核心虚拟化能力，而 [vSphere Express] 正是为该市场量身打造的。”据《The Register》报道，与多年未见重大更新的 vSphere Standard 不同，vSphere Express 将与 VCF 和 VVF 保持同步更新频率。

Winning back SMBs: Returning focus to a streamlined low-end virtualization product is an about-face for VMware, which has largely focused on enterprise-size customers since Broadcom’s takeover. This focus shift has been evident as the tech giant has reduced the number of channel partners that it works with, bundled its product lineup into a small number of expensive SKUs, and canceled plans to take its biggest clients direct.

赢回中小型企业：将重心重新转向精简的低端虚拟化产品，对于自博通收购以来主要关注企业级客户的 VMware 而言，是一个重大的转变。这种重心转移显而易见，因为这家科技巨头减少了合作渠道合作伙伴的数量，将其产品线捆绑为少数几种昂贵的 SKU，并取消了直接服务其最大客户的计划。

While VMware has been financially successful under Broadcom, vSphere Express suggests Broadcom may worry about losing business from smaller organizations and, more broadly, that its changes are pushing customers of various sizes to explore their options. In September, while teasing what would become vSphere Express, Paul Turner, VCF’s chief product officer, told The Register that Broadcom issued sales incentives that pushed its sales team to sell VCF. He said that VMware had “too big a focus on VCF.”

尽管 VMware 在博通旗下取得了财务上的成功，但 vSphere Express 表明博通可能担心失去小型组织的业务，更广泛地说，其变革正在促使各种规模的客户探索其他选择。9 月份，在预告 vSphere Express 时，VCF 首席产品官 Paul Turner 告诉《The Register》，博通发布了销售激励措施，推动其销售团队销售 VCF。他表示，VMware 此前“对 VCF 的关注度过高”。

Nick Watson, chief technologist at UK-based tech advisory firm C4C Group, told TechTarget today: “My reading is that Express exists because customers looked at VCF, did the sums, and started packing. This is Broadcom putting a door back on the building.”

总部位于英国的科技咨询公司 C4C Group 的首席技术专家 Nick Watson 今天告诉 TechTarget：“我的解读是，Express 的存在是因为客户在审视 VCF 并计算成本后，开始准备离开。这是博通在为大楼重新装上一扇门。”

Migrating off VMware can be very costly and time-consuming, making matters particularly complicated for SMBs. For organizations that can’t currently juggle a migration alongside other projects and/or have limited resources, vSphere Express can be a much simpler and more easily attainable solution than changing virtualization platforms.

从 VMware 迁移出去可能非常昂贵且耗时，这使得中小型企业的情况尤为复杂。对于目前无法在处理其他项目的同时进行迁移和/或资源有限的组织而言，vSphere Express 可能比更换虚拟化平台更简单、更容易实现。

Some SMBs, though, including the thousands of firms that have already migrated to VMware rivals and firms whose preferred resellers no longer work with VMware, will be much harder to sway, though. “Broadcom has lost all credibility. No thanks. We have two more locations to migrate off VMware and we’re done with this nightmare. Not playing these games,” a Reddit user said last week in response to details shared about vSphere Express.

然而，一些中小型企业，包括数千家已经迁移到 VMware 竞争对手处的公司，以及其首选经销商不再与 VMware 合作的公司，将很难被说服。“博通已经失去了所有信誉。不用了，谢谢。我们还有两个地点需要从 VMware 迁移出来，我们就结束这场噩梦了。不玩这些游戏了，”一位 Reddit 用户上周在回应有关 vSphere Express 的细节时说道。

Speaking with Ars Technica in September, Dean Colpitts, CTO of Canadian managed services provider and former VMware partner Members IT Group, noted that even though migrating to the new low-end virtualization offering may be easy, Broadcom has “already shown both customers and partners they can’t be trusted.”

加拿大托管服务提供商兼 VMware 前合作伙伴 Members IT Group 的首席技术官 Dean Colpitts 在 9 月份接受 Ars Technica 采访时指出，尽管迁移到新的低端虚拟化产品可能很容易，但博通“已经向客户和合作伙伴表明他们不可信”。