Broadcom‑owned VMware has unveiled vSphere Express, a new low‑end virtualization product designed for small‑to‑medium businesses that need “cost‑effective essential virtualization” on up to 128 cores.
The launch follows a wave of complaints from SMB customers who said VMware was pushing them toward its flagship private‑cloud bundle, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). VCF bundles a wide range of features that many small organisations find unnecessary and carries a higher price tag.
vSphere Express is positioned as a more affordable alternative to VMware’s previous entry‑level offering, vSphere Standard. Some SMB users have reported that sales representatives had told them vSphere Standard was no longer available.
“Cost‑effective essential virtualization,” the company said in its announcement of vSphere Express.
With the new product, VMware aims to regain the trust of its long‑time SMB clientele after the perception that it had alienated smaller customers by encouraging them to adopt more expensive, feature‑rich solutions.
<small>Source: Ars Technica — read the original story there.</small>
