HPE set to lure VMware customers unhappy with escalating licensing costs -
but is VMware's moat too big to challenge?

Date:
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:25:00 +0000

Description:
HPE set to lure VMware customers unhappy with escalating licensing costs but VMware remains deeply entrenched in enterprise infrastructure.

FULL STORY ======================================================================HPE pushes Morpheus as VMware virtualization costs rise under Broadcom Socket-based pricing offers cost predictability for high-core system deployments Morpheus aims to compete but VMware remains deeply rooted in enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has looked to address growing rumblings from its customers about rising VMware licensing fees following Broadcoms acquisition of the virtualization company in 2023.

HPE is actively responding to these concerns, especially from those seeing major increases in virtualization costs, by pushing its Morpheus platform at its recent HPE Discover 2025 event.

HPE acquired Morpheus in 2024 and has since worked to develop it into a viable option for companies looking to reduce or end their reliance on
VMware. A choice of editions

Morpheus is being integrated into HPEs broader Private Cloud offerings, with two editions available to suit different needs.

The VM Essentials edition is geared toward smaller environments and supports management of local KVM clusters and VMware clusters through vCenter.

This edition has a much lower entry cost, priced around $600 per socket, and unlike Broadcoms per-core licensing, which some say penalizes scale, HPEs per-socket model remains fixed regardless of hardware configuration.

This could appeal to those with high-core-count systems and help
organizations better keep on top of their infrastructure costs.

For more advanced deployments, theres Morpheus Enterprise. This includes profiling and cost calculator tools to help compare cloud and on-prem
options. This version is priced at about $2,500 per socket.

HPEs goal appears to be giving customers a clearer path away from VMware, starting small and scaling up.

Whether thats enough to make a dent in VMwares deep entrenchment across enterprise environments remains to be seen, but HPE is clearly making the case.

ServeTheHome's Patrick Kennedy writes, We know many folks are struggling
with virtualization licensing costs. It seems like HPE sees the need. It was actually neat to see that HPE is aggressively trying to move customers off of VMware and the Morpheus booth was certainly busy today. For folks who are still looking for solutions, this might be one to look into especially if you are a HPE shop. You might also like This is the best virtual machine software available right now Companies switching from VMWare should expect high-cost high-risk journey HPE now allows customers to run its most powerful server on AWS



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/hpe-set-to-lure-vmware-customers-unhappy-with-es calating-licensing-costs-but-is-vmwares-moat-too-big-to-challenge


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