We’ve gotten some questions recently about what impact VMware’s decision to make ESXi free will have on the market.

The short answer is – not much.

First, we’re pleased to welcome VMware to the party. It’s taken them a long time to get here.

But it's important that customers look beyond the punch line to what they're actually getting. First, if you want support, you need to purchase an ESXi maintenance subscription -- reasonable enough. Next, if you want to manage ESXi using Virtual Center -- which is a must in my opinion for anything more than a single server, you need to purchase at least the Foundation Edition for $995.

And if you want advanced capabilities such as HA, it will cost you still more money.

Unfortunately for VMware's customers, although they're getting religion that the hypervisor should be free, their prices for basic virtual infrastructure are still in the stratosphere. I guess that's what they mean by cloud computing.