VMware ESXi for Free

VMware has announced that ESX i (hypervisor version of ESX) will be available for free starting the week for July 28th.

http://blogs.vmware.com/partner/2008/07/important-produ.html

For those that do not know ESX i is has the same VI3 functionality as the full ESX server version minus the service console. Wich in my opinion is long over due, the services console has done nothing but confuse ESX with some sort of Linux based operating systems. When in fact ESX is and always has been a hypervisor and the service console is just a virtual machine used to manage the hyoervisor.

ESX i did not launch with all the VI3 features (VMware HA, VCB) and that was one major reason why a lot of customers/admins did not move forward. That combined with people using the services console for things other then management, I.E. backups, third party agents ect.

But with the latest updates to ESX i you can now fully deploy it into a VI3 environment (assuming your operation process do not relay on third part agents running in the services console).

I for one am excited about this announcement, I've been working/planning the migration away for ESX server to i since it was announced last September (2007). Now with pricing on my side and the features matching that of ESX server, I have a more clear path to deploying ESX i into production.