ESXi for free….
July 23rd, 2008
Filed under: News, VMware, esxi
VMware’s CEO Paul Maritz just announced that in the near future ESXi will be available for free, that’s right you can just download it. Support is optional and sold separately. ESXi will become available for free over the next couple of weeks.
Why is VMware doing this? Well I think because competition is growing and the hypervisor isn’t what the war is about. The war is about Management products and that’s where VMware can make a difference with products like Lab Manager, Stage Manager, Lifecycle Manager, Site Recovery Manager and VirtualCenter. Giving away your hypervisor for free is also a great way to have companies adopt virtualization!
July 23rd, 2008 at 07:56
Nice idea to make ESXi available for free. What about the VirtualCenter agent? Is the agent included in the free ESXi or is it sold seperately, too?
July 23rd, 2008 at 08:56
I don’t think so. Virtualcenter is an add-on to the hypervisor. Can’t give away everything for free…
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:14
Sounds like a promising step forward. What was the source of the information?
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:32
VMware’s CEO announced it to the analysts during the Earnings Report. There will be a statement online soon. And it should be available as of 28th of July.