The long awaited virtual switch for VMware, the Cisco Nexus 1000V, is finally available for the broad public.
In the past months virtualization.info published details of its architecture, its features and its implementation. Now it’s time to try it with the free 60-days trial that is available here.
Cisco priced the virtual switch at $695 per CPU, which has to be added to the vSphere 4.0 license.
To plug into the new VMware platform, Nexus 1000V in fact needs the vNetwork Distributed Switch feature that it’s only available in the new vSphere Enterprise Plus license.
Some VMware customers are arguing that the current packaging and price may negatively impact the sales of Nexus 1000V, which becomes now much less attractive.
Starting May 21, we’ll see if the customers will really consider the Cisco virtual switch a must-have and will gladly pay the premium price to replace the basic VMware virtual switch they used for so many years now.
As usual in virtualization, it really depends on who’s your interlocutor inside the corporate. The guys at the security department may have a slightly different opinion on this product than the virtualization guys.