Earlier this month at VMworld 2014 in San Francisco, VMware introduced the VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard and Advanced Editions. Today, we are excited to announce the availability of these new vSphere editions, designed specifically for IT infrastructure located in remote, distributed sites. These new offerings will allow us to provide new and existing customers of all sizes with enhanced service level, standardization and availability capabilities for remote and branch office locations (See a short 3 minute Product Video).
- vSphere Remote Office Branch Office offerings will be available in packs of 25 Virtual Machines priced at $3,000 for the Standard edition and $4,500 for the Advanced edition (Note: All reference pricing above is suggested MSRP for the US, in USD. Regional prices will vary)
- These new offerings feature a per virtual machine licensing metric that offers customers the flexibility to deploy only the number of workloads required at each remote site. A customer can distribute a pack across multiple sites.
- These new offerings are replacing existing vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits for Retail and Branch Offices (ROBO). Existing customers who purchased these kits can avail of a free conversion to the new editions by raising an SR ticket through their My VMware portal. Regular Essentials/Essentials Plus Kits (i.e., non-ROBO) sold in 6-CPU packs remain unaffected.
Learn more about the Value of Virtualizing Remote Offices and Branch Offices with the IDC Analyst Connection, sponsored by VMWare.
To learn more about the new vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Editions and compare them, go to: http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/compare.html
Announcing availability of vSphere 5.5 Update 2
vSphere 5.5 Update 2 is available. The new release offers support for new processors, guest operating systems, and 6TB hosts. Learn more at ESXi 5.5 release notes and vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 release notes and the associated vSphere Blog Post
Brett Sinclair
Thanks for the article. The links at the bottom are broke due to a missing “:” in the http prefix.
Sai Gopalan
Thank you Brett
blake
Hello,
Thanks for the article. I’m curious about the upgrade. If we’re using a lot of VMs across our three hosts, say more than the 25 will we get multiple license upgrades for free? We paid for the no VM max license on three hosts and now we’re being pushed into a far more expensive 25 VM max license model. This seems unfair especially since vCenter is no longer included and we don’t need the extra high availability features for these sites for us.
How do we proceed?
Sai Gopalan
Hi Blake – If you are an existing customer of “vSphere Essentials or Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Office” you will have an option to convert your licenses to the new vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Editions free of cost. If you do not wish to make use of this option, you can continue to run your “vSphere Essentials or Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Office” licenses without hindrance. Please reach out to your partner/authorized VMware reseller or your VMware rep.
lrh
If the main location/head quarters is currently running essentials plus (using all 3 esxi servers and about 30 virtual machines spread across them) and they now want 5 branch offices to have say 1 esx servers and 5 or less virtual machines per location (so a 25 pack works) what should be done to Vcenter Server? Is there an upgrade path to Vcenter server essentials to vcenter standard or do you have to scrap and get a new Vcenter server license?
Thanks.
RP
I have a 10CPU vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Office license bundle, I have been advised that I can convert this to the newer vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard or Advanced Editions without incurring any additional costs. Can you please assist with some questions I have:
1) How many licenses will I end up with, after the conversion?
2) Will the new license model work with post 5.5U2 ESXi version hosts?
2) Can the same vCenter instance be used for HQ and all remote sites?
Adil Ansari
I understand its an old post but would appreciate a response on few questions on ROBO pack.
1. So I can have 25 VMs distributed among multiple sites. Even if these 25 VMs are dispersed among 25 sites (1 per site)?
2. What constitutes a site here?is it a one single bldg, A LAN, multiple sites connected via MPLS, Fiber channel, VPN?
I mean what do i understand by a remote site here when i consider the licensing for ROBO?
3. I read on VMware blog that there is a limitation on purchasing ROBO pack per site? if yes what’s the limitation?
4. Is there any challenge in deploying other licensing methods (std, ent or an essential kit) at remote site where I have deployed ROBO pack?
5. How do i implement SRM here, As I need vCenter to receive the replication at DR site and DR automation, will i have to purchase vcenter for this purpose?
6. Do i use a single vCenter instance to manage all VMs under ROBO or I can have multiple vCenter as well with linked mode at different sites?
7. If I have a vCenter STD @ a remote site, can I manage vSphere hosts which haven’t been licensed via the ROBO pack at that site and configure them for replication at a DR site onto a host which is licenses via ROBO?
Would truly appreciate a response on this
Thanks
Adil
guru bijak
I have a 10CPU vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Office license bundle, I have been advised that I can convert this to the newer vSphere Remote Office Branch Office Standard or Advanced Editions without incurring any additional costs. Can you please assist with some questions I have:
1) How many licenses will I end up with, after the conversion?
2) Will the new license model work with post 5.5U2 ESXi version hosts?
2) Can the same vCenter instance be used for HQ and all remote sites?