HPE offers free virtualization software for one year in bid to capture disgruntled VMware customers
Tags Enterprise · Infrastructure
Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced at its HPE Discover event in Las Vegas that new customers can use its HPE Morpheus Software — VM Essentials offering for free for up to one year, along with a year of HPE Zerto for $1 to support migration. The platform, described as a 'VMware alternative,' includes a hardware virtual machine hypervisor and unified management console that can manage both VMware ESXi and HVM clusters. The promotion targets organizations frustrated by Broadcom's pricing changes since acquiring VMware.
Technical significance
HPE's aggressive pricing strategy exploits a genuine pain point: Broadcom's VMware acquisition has driven significant price increases, pushing enterprises to evaluate alternatives. The ability to manage both VMware and HVM clusters from one console lowers the switching cost for organizations considering migration. For the broader virtualization market, this intensifies competition and could accelerate the shift away from VMware's dominance in enterprise infrastructure.