Year of free HPE software a “step in the correct direction” in VMware rivalry

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new software promotion during its HPE Discover event in Las Vegas this week, offering customers free access to its "HPE Morpheus Software—VM Essentials" for up to one year. This initiative is positioned as a direct response to customer dissatisfaction with Broadcom's pricing of VMware products. HPE's VM Essentials is described on its website as a "VMware alternative," featuring a hardware virtual machine (HVM) hypervisor and unified management capabilities. The platform allows users to manage both VMware ESXi and HVM clusters from a single console, facilitating a gradual migration process. New customers of VM Essentials are eligible for up to one year of free licenses, a year of HPE Zerto for $1 to aid in non-disruptive migrations to HPE virtual machines, and 0 percent interest on software financing through HPE Financial Services. This move by HPE aims to attract users seeking more cost-effective virtualization solutions and to challenge Broadcom's dominance in the market following its acquisition of VMware.