In the European Economic Area, vSphere Standard and Enterprise+ will remain available for purchase until October 31, 2027. VMware has just announced this, alongside the unveiling of a vSphere Express edition.
One more year in Europe for vSphere Standard and Enterprise+
Regarding vSphere Standard and Enterprise+, this is merely a contractual reprieve. Both offerings stay tied to the vSphere 8 lineage. Billing continues on a per-physical-core basis, with a floor of 16 cores per CPU. Extended support for active subscriptions will end no later than October 31, 2028. All of this applies exclusively in the European Economic Area (EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).
A revival of vSphere Essentials Plus… at $9,600 per year
Marketed worldwide, vSphere Express is built on the vSphere 9 foundation. It is a fixed plan covering 128 cores, with a one-year contract priced at $9,600. Its contents align with the former vSphere Essentials Plus: the license includes ESX Standard, vCenter Standard, and the core resilience mechanisms (vMotion, HA, Quick Patch, Distributed Switch). It is indivisible (no portability or sharing with other tenants) and does not grant access to any add-ons. A strategy to curb migrations of smaller virtual environments.
Broadcom won’t know which clouders backed the EU Court filing
The contract reprieve comes as Broadcom remains under pressure in Europe. Brussels has opened an antitrust proceeding against it. There has not yet been a formal investigation; we are at the information-request stage… for eight months now. And the reason is that the American group opposed the request. It turned to the EU Court, invoking professional secrecy. Simultaneously, it sought to identify the European clouders who joined the appeal filed with that same jurisdiction to overturn the decision by which the European Commission authorized the VMware acquisition.
The CISPE association, which represents these providers, had asked that their names be kept confidential to shield them from reprisals. The judges granted the request, concluding that there was indeed a risk given Broadcom’s hostile conduct.
vSphere Enterprise+ had disappeared from VMware’s catalog for a while
As a standalone offering, vSphere Enterprise+ disappeared from VMware’s catalog in December 2023, shortly after Broadcom’s acquisition. vSphere Standard remained, but many functional extensions were removed. Pricing per socket was dropped at that time.
The company reintroduced the standalone vSphere Enterprise+ in November 2024. While reaffirming the continued existence of vSphere Standard, both would nonetheless remain fixed on the vSphere 8 branch.
