VMware releases vSphere Express for virtualization on up to 128 cores

Winning back SMBs

Returning focus to a streamlined low-end virtualization product is an about-face for VMware, which has largely focused on enterprise-size customers since Broadcom’s takeover. This focus shift has been evident as the tech giant has reduced the number of channel partners that it works with, bundled its product lineup into a small number of expensive SKUs, and canceled plans to take its biggest clients direct.

While VMware has been financially successful under Broadcom, vSphere Express suggests Broadcom may worry about losing business from smaller organizations and, more broadly, that its changes are pushing customers of various sizes to explore their options.

In September, while teasing what would become vSphere Express, Paul Turner, VCF’s chief product officer, told The Register that Broadcom issued sales incentives that pushed its sales team to sell VCF. He said that VMware had “too big a focus on VCF.”

Nick Watson, chief technologist at UK-based tech advisory firm C4C Group, told TechTarget today: “My reading is that Express exists because customers looked at VCF, did the sums, and started packing. This is Broadcom putting a door back on the building.”

Migrating off VMware can be very costly and time-consuming, making matters particularly complicated for SMBs. For organizations that can’t currently juggle a migration alongside other projects and/or have limited resources, vSphere Express can be a much simpler and…