VMware releases vSphere Express for virtualization on up to 128 cores

“We started listening to a lot of our lower-end customers," VMware exec says. “We started listening to a lot of our lower-end customers,” VMware exec says. After alienating many long-time small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers, Broadcom’s VMware is trying to appeal to its smaller customers. Today, the virtualization company announced vSphere Express, a lower-end virtualization offering for organizations that require “cost-effective essential virtualization.” vSphere Express comes after many customers reported that VMware was pushing them to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), the flagship private cloud bundle that has many features SMBs don’t need and is expensive.

Some SMB users have reported that VMware sales representatives previously told them that vSphere Standard, VMware’s prior entry-level virtualization offering, wasn’t available anymore. A VMware spokesperson told The Register that VMware will sell a per-core subscription license at a price that will be “significantly lower” than the VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) bundle and VCF but wouldn’t provide a price quote. IT distributor TD Synnex