VMware pricing policy continues to disappoint

Quoting from SearchServerVirtualization:

For one thing, “they act like Oracle did in the 1990s — like they’re the only ones,” adding that “they’re still totally predatory on their pricing.”

His company has spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars with VMware and recently inked an enterprise license agreement (ELA) without seeing any savings from buying ESX licenses individually. “You’d think that if you sign a deal to spend a couple million bucks over the next two years, you’d get a discount,” he grumbled. But that hasn’t been the case. In fact, he continues to receive better price quotes from value-added resellers (VARs) than he does by going directly to VMware.

With the lack of mature virtualization alternatives on the market, the source said he is comfortable signing a two-year ELA, but no longer. In the next three or four years, other players may emerge with credible enterprise stories. “As soon as the critical point hits, people are going to switch [to other virtualization vendors] if they continue treating people this way.” …

Read the whole article at the source.