HPE Offers Free Virtualization Software for One Year to Lure VMware Users from Broadcom

Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced at its HPE Discover event in Las Vegas this week that new customers can use its VM Essentials virtualization platform for free for up to one year. The offer includes a year of HPE Zerto migration software for $1 and zero percent financing through HPE Financial Services.

The move directly targets users and resellers frustrated by Broadcom's pricing since its 2023 acquisition of VMware. Broadcom eliminated perpetual licenses, bundled products into expensive packages, and shifted vSphere licensing from per-socket to per-core pricing. HPE's website explicitly markets VM Essentials as a "VMware alternative."

90 percent cost savings claimed

Jeremiah Jenson, HPE's vice president of North American channel and partner ecosystem, told CRN that VM Essentials could deliver up to 90 percent cost savings compared to VMware. The platform includes a hardware virtual machine hypervisor built on KVM plus unified management tools. It allows users to manage VMware ESXi and HVM clusters from one console and migrate workloads when they choose.

HPE lists its own suggested pricing at $600 per CPU socket per year for VM Essentials. Broadcom now charges VMware customers on a per-core basis, a change that has drawn sharp criticism from enterprises and channel partners alike.

• New VM Essentials customers receive up to one year of free licenses.
• HPE Zerto is offered for $1 during the promotional period to support non-disruptive migration.
• Zero percent financing on software is available through HPE Financial Services.
• Between March 1 and June 30, customers who buy an AMD server and a one-year VM Essentials license get a free year via rebate.
• VM Essentials is only sold through channel partners, a deliberate contrast to Broadcom's reduction of VMware resellers.

Partner reactions mixed on scope

HPE also said it would give 600 reseller partners who earn its Private Cloud with Virtualization competency by year end free VM Essentials licenses for three years. Partners still pay support costs. Dean Colpitts, CTO of Canadian MSP Members IT Group, which VMware cut from its reseller program after 19 years, called the benefit "a step in the correct direction" but called the 600-partner cap "very shortsighted." He argued HPE should give all partners VM Essentials "to facilitate getting it into customer sites and displacing the competitors."

Broadcom's VMware acquisition has led to significant channel disruption. European customers have reported price increases of 800 to 1,500 percent. HPE's strategy appears designed to capture those disaffected accounts and resellers. The company has not disclosed how many customers have taken the offer since the promotion began.