Running vSphere Hypervisor on Remote Offices: A Costly Proposal

As a vSphere administrator, I’ve been exploring the possibilities of running vSphere Hypervisor on remote offices, also known as vessels. While the free version of vSphere Hypervisor is quite usable, I was hoping to have all my off-site installs appear in my vCenter client. However, I quickly realized that this isn’t possible with the free edition, and I would need to purchase VMware vSphere Standard licenses for all the vessels to achieve this goal.

The cost of licensing 20 vessels with vSphere Standard is $26,360 USD, which is simply not feasible in my current situation. This got me thinking – have you, VMware, considered this scenario at all? I’m sure I’m not the only customer looking to deploy vSphere Hypervisor in remote locations where I only need to run a single VM and manage them all from a single console.

I propose that VMware consider offering a “vCenter Connector” license for vSphere Hypervisor, which would allow customers like me to connect their free vSphere Hypervisor installs to an existing licensed vCenter instance. This would provide the ability to manage all my remote offices from a single console without having to purchase the full vSphere Standard license.

While I understand that VMware wants to get paid for their enterprise products, and I’m happy to do so in most cases, I feel that the cost of licensing all these vessels is simply not justified. The return does not warrant the cost, especially when all I need is the ability to connect my remote offices to my existing vCenter instance.

I hope that VMware will consider this proposal and provide a more affordable solution for customers like me who only need basic management features for their remote offices. Until then, I’ll have to explore other options to manage my remote offices, which may not be as efficient or cost-effective as vSphere Hypervisor.