Plain Virtualization

A big congratulation to all the vExpert accredited for year 2024 that is  announced ! This year we have a total of 1226 vExperts and you can find them here . Those who didn't make it or miss the application, fear not. The 2nd application period will be in Jun 2024. You will have time to make up if you are missing some activities to proof your worth. I am fortunate enough to be part of list. Also as a vExpert Pro helping with the application was not easy.  Having been assessing the applications with many other Pros, here are some of the do's and don'ts when applying: Don't be lazy and submit your past application details as it is. Assessment for vExpert for the year look at your past contribution to the VMware community over the last 6-12 months. If you are just submitting as it is, your activities will be unlikely be recent at all. Provide evidence of your contribution. Do not just state them. It will be impossible to verify what you say. If it is a blog please provide

With the announcement of the end of perpetual license for VMware products moving forward, there are also other changes especially in regards to the free ESXi. As per KB on 12th Feb 2024 states, the free ESXi or free vSphere hypervisor is no longer made available. This came as a surprise to me. In fact, many of our home lab and evangelist are using the free hypervisor to learn VMware solution. With this gone, this will definitely affect the fan base and results in many to use alternative. Didn't expected this to come. But understandable that Broadcom might want to stop those who are leveraging on free hypervisor for commercial use. Which I know of some who does. I would rather they change the EULA and make it fully personal license, which mean Broadcom can actually use legal action if found anyone using it for commercial reason.  But sadly, this got to happen. At least the free ESXi has a good run.

VMware has been trying to transit to subscription licensing for a long time which what all other software companies have already done. With Broadcom acquisition, the perpetual licensing availability is no longer available as announced  here and a KB on this. There is a good blog article that just got release to show where each product packaging is replaced with. There are just some things I like to highlight. vCenter Server is no longer available as it is no longer selling as a standalone product but it comes free as part of the new subscription licensing. Another item, vCloud Director, which will only be available to Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and not to end user which this article is addressing to. Many might say that why is VMware by Broadcom removing the perpetual licensing. Let's take a moment, it has been a long overdue move that just got accelerated. In fact, if not all, software companies such as Microsoft, Citrix, etc. are all on subscriptions and VMware has been one