With the release of vSphere 4.1, VMware has released a new licensing model.

The management products below change from a CPU-based pricing model to one that is VM-based.

• VMware vCenter CapacityIQ;
• VMware vCenter AppSpeed;
• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager;
• VMware vCenter Chargeback.

Until December 15th these product can be offered both ways, CPU-, or VM-based.

As of today VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager is end-of-sale.

This new licensing model has no impact on VMware vSphere licensing!

Update April 22th 2009: Today the rumor mentioned below was confirmed during the vSphere 4 launch.

Rumor in the VMware community has it that the next version of VMware ESX, vSphere, has very limited support for the VMware management and automation suite. vSphere will of course be available with vCenter for basic management and automation tasks but the rest of VMware’s great product suite is not supported in the initial release of vSphere.

So there won’t be support for:

• VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
• VMware vCenter Lab Manager
• VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
• VMware vCenter Stage Manager
• VMware View

In my opinion this is a mistake. I understand the pressure is on and VMware should  release a new version fast to challenge the competition. But releasing a product which does not support the majority of your former product suite is not a clever move.

From what I understand this is also a discussion within VMware so let’s hope VMware gets wiser and postpones the release or add support for the VMware Management & Automation suite soon.