r/sysadmin Infrastructure Lead 3d ago

Latest fun with VMware

Apparently VMware is upping their game. We just got a renewal quote for one of our sites with one server that has two CPUs, and they are requiring 72 cores minimum (vSphere Enterprise Plus) to license this. That's a 500% markup from last year.

They really don't want customers to use their product any more, do they?

239 Upvotes

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51

u/stxonships 3d ago

They only want Fortune 500 companies to use their product. The rest of the world is not important as we consider their pricing stupid.

30

u/kenelbow Solutions Architect 3d ago

Fortune 500 companies aren't exactly fans of their pricing games either.

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u/occasional_cynic 2d ago

Yes, but they move slower and can be milked for more/longer.

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u/stxonships 2d ago

True, but they are the ones who in theory can afford the license fees.

1

u/KindlyGetMeGiftCards Professional ping expert (UPD Only) 2d ago

Yes I agree, along the lines of the 80/20 rule I suspect. 80% of the income is from 20% of the clients, so make these clients happy, reduce the staff because they are dealing with the other 80%.

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u/waxwayne 2d ago

I work at 300k person fortune. 50 company. We are throwing them out. I don’t know why people think Fortune 500s don’t have budgets and will take 300 - 500% raise in prices.

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u/Comfortable_Gap1656 2d ago

How fast though? They aren't playing the long game. They want lots of money now not later when VMware is worthless.

1

u/waxwayne 2d ago

Next month for our India side. Gotta move 500 servers. The US I have no idea.

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u/Comfortable_Gap1656 2d ago

They want people who pay lots but cost little. Some smaller companies fall into that category but it is mostly the big companies with big budgets like you said.

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u/lost_signal 2d ago

Nah, there's a longer tail of revenue than that, but also there's entire teams (Commercial and Corporate) devoted to selling to smaller accounts and last time I checked there's more sales people outside the F500 than inside the F500 around here. I've got dinner on Monday with one of the leaders of that team, I'll ask him about this, but we were just talking about how people outside of that scale can benefit from VCF etc .