Now that the dust has settled on VMware providing a free hypervisor - I feel its a good time for me to kick it up again. It isn't necessarily VMware's fault that when they announce something that everyone makes a big deal about it. But there really is no big deal with free ESXi and it doesn't change the economics of server virtualization.

First point - VMware is late in providing a free hypervisor - as my colleague Chris Barclay pointed out in his recent blog - "ESXi Free at Last?" Chris also reminds people that Virtual Iron has been providing a free hypervisor since 2006.

Second point - if you want to implement VMware with multiple physical servers and utilize Virtual Center - you still pay what you always paid. The list price for managing a 4-socket VMware environment is still nearly $20,000. I think Scott Lowe, an industry expert and blogger, hit the nail right on the head in his blog:

"... you have to remember that VMware is only releasing ESXi for free. They’re not releasing VirtualCenter for free. You’ll still need VirtualCenter and VI3 Enterprise licenses in order to do stuff like VMotion, Storage VMotion, VMware DRS, VMware HA, VMware DPM, etc. Just like Microsoft, whose System Center Virtual Machine Manager and the rest of the System Center suite will be “paid-for†products, VMware will continue to charge for VirtualCenter."

The news here is that there really is no news. Its not a bad thing that there is a free ESXi out there but it doesn't fundamentally change the economics of server virtualization. It is important for Virtual Iron to make this clear to any customers or channel partners that might get confused by all of the hype. Free ESXi is no big thang. Just keep doing what you are doing.