VMware Site Recovery provides customers with first-class Disaster Recovery as-a-Service (DRaaS). We are constantly working on simplifying our DRaaS offerings and making them easier for customers to consume. We asked our customers for feedback on what we could improve, and they asked us for pricing options that would simplify their budget planning, and for a lightweight professional services offering that would help new customers deploy disaster recovery for the first time. I am happy to let our customers know that we have listened and acted on their requests.
Since its launch almost two years ago, the Site Recovery add-on for VMware Cloud on AWS has been available for on-demand consumption only. The on-demand model provided customers with maximum flexibility. However, high levels of flexibility sometime mean less control, and indeed we have customers who allocated budget upfront for disaster recovery, but since this budget was consumed on a monthly basis, they ended up spending it on other purposes, resulting in no budget for DR.
Starting November 2, 2019, our customers will be able to buy term subscriptions for VMware Site Recovery, charging upfront for one or three years, in addition to the on-demand option. These options will be charged per VM, and do not include the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC that customers need to deploy. To make the transition smoother, the 50% introductory promo has been extended until November 21.
The new pricing options can be viewed in the diagram below: Note that prices can vary between VMware Cloud on AWS regions and different currencies.
In addition to simplifying our prices, we are also simplifying the on-boarding process with a new Professional Services offering. VMware’s DRaaS offering builds on VMware Site Recovery Manager(SRM) – our widely popular DR orchestration tool. SRM uses pre-defined runbooks to automate failovers, failbacks, non-disruptive DR testing, and planned migrations. Some of our customers are familiar with the on-premises version of SRM and would like some more guidance before moving to the cloud. Other customers are deploying DR for the first time and can use a helping hand in using the product for the first time.
The new offering is provided both onsite or remotely (saving on travel and expenses) by VMware’s Professional Services Organization. The service is sold in addition to Site Recovery and includes setting up one protection plan that covers 25 VMs, to make the offering as lightweight as possible. Of course, customers who want a more comprehensive PSO engagement can customize the offering to their preferences.
VMware Site Recovery is designed to simplify DR deployment, reduce DR costs, and provide a more reliable DR solution. With these new offerings, Site Recovery simplifies DR and reduces the service costs even more. We continue to work hard, and VMware customers can expect many exciting innovations soon.