HPE offers year of free VM software to lure VMware users

Key Takeaways

• HPE is offering VM Essentials free for one year, plus Zerto migration tools for $1, to attract VMware refugees
• HPE claims VM Essentials can cut virtualization costs by up to 90% compared to Broadcom's VMware pricing
• Channel partners are split on impact: DRAM shortages limit hardware availability for migrations, but some expect pipelines to quadruple

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is betting that free software will pry enterprise customers away from VMware. At HPE Discover 2026 in Las Vegas, the company announced that new customers can use its Morpheus VM Essentials virtualization platform at no cost for up to one year, with Zerto migration tools available for $1 during the same period.

The promotion takes direct aim at Broadcom, which has faced sustained backlash since acquiring VMware and eliminating perpetual licenses in favor of expensive subscription bundles. HPE's pitch is blunt: its website describes VM Essentials as a "VMware alternative" that lets administrators manage both VMware ESXi and HPE's own HVM clusters from a single console.

What does HPE VM Essentials actually cost?

After the promotional period ends, HPE recommends pricing VM Essentials at $600 per CPU socket per year. That figure alone represents a significant shift from Broadcom's approach. VMware vSphere now bills per core, which dramatically increases costs for customers running high-core-count processors, the norm in modern data centers.

HPE claims the difference can translate to 90% cost savings, though that figure comes from HPE's own estimates and likely reflects best-case scenarios. Jeremiah Jenson, VP of HPE's North American channel and partner ecosystem, didn't mince words about the opportunity: "Customers are feeling quite a bit of pain in the change that some of the virtualization companies have put there, specifically Broadcom."

Why aren't all VMware customers jumping ship?

Migration sounds simple in press releases. In practice, enterprises run into two walls: time and money. Running two virtualization platforms simultaneously during transition means double expenses. Fidelma Russo, HPE's EVP and CTO, acknowledged this directly: "As customers are going through this journey on transforming their operating model, you end up with double expenses."

Then there's hardware availability. Dean Colpitts, CTO of Canadian managed services provider Members IT Group, told Ars Technica that DRAM prices and constraints are choking migration plans. His company was cut from VMware's reseller program after 19 years of partnership, so he has every reason to root for alternatives. But he doesn't expect HPE's promotion to move the needle much.

"All our clients work on three, four, or five-year life cycles and generally roll that purchase into their initial buy," Colpitts said. The servers that would host VM Essentials simply aren't available at the scale needed for mass migration.

Channel partners see mixed signals

Not everyone is pessimistic. Nth Generation, one of HPE's largest channel partners, told CRN it expects its VM Essentials pipeline to quadruple because of the promotion. "These additional free licensing and migration capabilities are going to drastically lower the risk of moving to VM Essentials," said co-president and CTO Dan Molina.

HPE is also sweetening the deal for resellers directly. Partners who earn the Private Cloud with Virtualization competency by year-end will receive free VM Essentials licenses for three years. Support costs remain on the partner's tab, but the licensing itself costs nothing.

Colpitts called the partner program "a step in the correct direction" but criticized HPE for limiting it to 600 partners. "They need to fling VM Essentials as far and as fast as they possibly can to immediately gain traction and draw ISVs to them," he said. His point: a hypervisor without broad software vendor support is a harder sell, regardless of price.

How does the VMware-to-HPE migration actually work?

HPE is bundling Zerto, its data protection and migration toolset, at $1 for the first year to support what it calls "non-disruptive migration." The platform lets administrators run VMware ESXi and HPE's HVM hypervisor side by side, moving workloads gradually rather than in a single cutover.

Community reactions on r/sysadmin and Hacker News have been cautiously optimistic. Many administrators see value in having a credible exit strategy from VMware, but they're waiting to see whether Zerto performs as smoothly in production as it does in vendor demos. Marketing claims are cheap. Production migrations expose every edge case.

HPE has also been running a parallel promotion from March through June: customers who buy an AMD server with a one-year VM Essentials license can get a full rebate on the software. The catch, as with most HPE virtualization products, is that VM Essentials is only available through channel partners. Broadcom, by contrast, has slashed its reseller network, cutting partners like Members IT Group after years of relationship.

What Broadcom isn't saying

Broadcom declined to comment on HPE's promotion. The company has largely stayed quiet as competitors circle VMware customers. That silence speaks to a calculation: Broadcom acquired VMware to extract maximum value from existing enterprise agreements, not to compete on price with every challenger. Whether that strategy holds depends on how sticky VMware deployments actually are.

Surveys suggest meaningful VMware churn is coming. Multiple third-party studies have found large percentages of customers planning to reduce or eliminate VMware use over the next few years. But planning and executing are different things. Colpitts' observation about hardware availability suggests the real constraint isn't willingness to migrate. It's capacity to do so.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is HPE VM Essentials free?

New customers can use VM Essentials at no cost for up to one year. Zerto migration tools are available for $1 during the same period.

What does HPE VM Essentials cost after the free year?

HPE recommends pricing at $600 per CPU socket per year, compared to Broadcom's per-core licensing model for VMware vSphere.

Can I manage VMware and HPE hypervisors together?

Yes. VM Essentials lets administrators manage VMware ESXi and HPE HVM clusters from a single console, enabling gradual migration.

Is HPE VM Essentials available for direct purchase?

No. VM Essentials is only sold through HPE channel partners, not directly from HPE.

What is HPE offering reseller partners?

Partners who earn the Private Cloud with Virtualization competency by year-end receive free VM Essentials licenses for three years, though they still pay support costs.

Source: Ars Technica