SoftLayer reveals per-CPU VMware pricing

SoftLayer's pricing for VMware-as-a-service has emerged and the IBM outfit has scored a deal for per-CPU licences.

VMware and SoftLayer teamed up earlier this year in a deal that looked good for Virtzilla which, having more-or-less abandoned ambitions to build its own globe-spanning cloud, recognised that SoftLayer could get it to scale as well as anyone. SoftLayer, for its part, quite liked Virtzilla's original cloud plan of giving dedicated VMware users an end-to-end vSphere experience.

There's two items of note in SoftLayer's VMware offering.

The first is that it now goes beyond vSphere Enterprise Plus 6.0. Some time in 2016's second quarter you'll also be able to rent vRealize Operations in most variants, vRealize Log Insight, VMware Integrated OpenStack, Site Recovery Manager and vRealize Automation.

Intriguingly, SoftLayer will also offer VSAN-as-service, in three tiers (0-20TB, 21-64TB and 65-124TB). El Reg's virtualisation desk finds that offer intriguing because the idea of a virtual SAN in a cloud seems like one navel-gaze too many. Let's also remember that of late VMware has been pushing VSAN as its principal hyperconverged offering. Yet SoftLayer's emphasising storage capability. Even with that little nugget of dissonance, ponder the idea of hyperconverged systems now stretching into hybrid hyperconverged across on-premises bit barns and the cloud.

The second item of note in SoftLayer's announcement is a move to per-CPU licensing and claims it's th only cloud able to do so and thinks it is a decent idea as it “allows customers to more accurately budget how much they spend”. The company currently offers vSphere at US$85 per CPU per month.

VMware has more than 4,000 cloud and/or hosting partners, so forgive us if we don't verify SoftLayer's claims. If correct, SoftLayer will if nothing else get VMware users to crack open spreadsheets galore to test the lower-cost claim.

More interesting that Excel syntax, by far, is whether other VMware cloud collaborators decide to match SoftLayer's plans. Or if VMware lets them. ®