VMware vSOM: What does it mean for vCops licensing?

A couple of days ago VMware introduced a new licensing option for vSphere customers which was called “vSOM” rather quickly in the VMware community. vSOM stands for vSphere including Operations Management using vCenter Operations Manager. VMware vSOM is about VMware vSphere Standard, Enterprise or Entprise Plus combined with vCenter Operations Manager Standard Edition. Introducing this new option has some impact on vCops licensing options which I will discuss in this article.

In an earlier article I wrote about a first change in the licensing model for vCenter Operations. This change included a shift of the available for features for vCops:vCops Advanced became vCops Standard, vCops Enterprise became vCops Advanced and vCops Enterprise Plus became vCops Enteprise. Enterprise Plus was dropped in the end. Along with this change, prices increased for the various vCops options. Now, vCops Standard is combined with vSphere in vSOM; because of the richer featured set inherted from what used to be vCops Advanced this is a really interesting option. Keep on reading why vSOM is attractive, especially (but not only) from a licensing perspective.In the new situation we have three licensing choices for vCenter Operations:

1. Traditional per OSI (OSI stands for Operating System Instance) licensing for vCenter Operations Standard, Advanced or Enterprise licensed per VM;
2. Choose vSphere Standard, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus combined with vCops Standard (vSOM) using per CPU licensing for both vSphere and vCenter Operations;
3. Choose the vCloud Suite Advanced, which includes vCops Advanced. Choose vCloud Suite Enterprise which includes vCops Enterprise. Both options are licensed per CPU; this counts for all the products contained in the vCloud Suite.Important note: vCloud Standard only includes the free vCops Foundation product, which has limited features available.

vCops Licensing & vSOM: What about pricing?

When choosing vSOM you pay per CPU for both vSphere and vCops. You can use vCops for unlimited virtual machines in this model; the virtual machines should be running on the licensed hosts of course. VMware already announced the new price for vSphere Standard combined with vCops Standard (vSOM), which is $1,745 per CPU with no core, vRAM or number of VM limit. This is less then the current price for the vSphere Standard Edition with Operations Management: $1,995. Compared to the price for vSphere Standard $995 per CPU, you pay $750 per CPU for unlimited vCops monitored virtual machines. Prices for vSOM using vSphere Enterprise or Enterprise Plus wil follow soon.

A simple calculation can now be made. The vCops Standard 25 VM package price is $3,125, which is $125 per virtual machine. Thus, when you run $750 / $125 = 6 or more virtual machines per CPU, not really a problem with a 4, 6 or 8 core processor,  vSOM is the more attractive option. If VMware extends this pricing model to the combination vSphere Ent/Ent+ & vCops Standard as well (thus $750 per CPU), it’s really getting interesting to incorporate vCops Standard by default in your environment.

A little disclaimer: I am assuming current vSphere prices remain the same and I did not include costs for support, which is relative percentage of licensing costs.

I think this new option will certainly drive the demand for vCops Standard. There’s a challenge remaining, at least from a licensing perspective, what about the situation you’re running vSphere Enterplus + with vCops Standard (vSOM) and you’re upgrading to vCloud Suite Standard? vCloud Standard only contains vCops Foundation, which would be a step back. I there’s any news on this, I will update my blog accordingly. You can subscribe to my blog by leavind your e-mail address in the box on the top right of this page.

Some additional reading is available here:

• VMware Press Release: VMware Introduces VMware vSphere® with Operations Management™ and VMware vSphere Data Protection™ Advanced
• VMware Office of the CTO: Bringing Together vSphere and Operations Management
• Compare vSphere with Operations Management Editions

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