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Microsoft Private Cloud

This whitepaper offers a comparative look at the functionality, benefits and economics of private cloud solutions from Microsoft and VMware. This comparison is done by defining private cloud using industry standard concepts, explaining the Microsoft products needed to create a Microsoft private cloud solution and then defining the technology benefits a Microsoft private cloud solution provides.

Microsoft also examines how the licensing models differ between Microsoft and VMware and, in particular, how those licensing models will impact the ROI of investments you are making today and long into the future. Microsoft private cloud solutions are licensed on a per processor basis, so customers get the cloud computing benefits of scale with unlimited virtualization and lower costs – consistently and predictably over time. VMware private cloud solutions are licensed by either the number of virtual machines or the virtual memory allocated to those virtual machines – charging you more as you grow. This difference in approach means that with Microsoft your private cloud ROI increases as your private cloud workload density increases. With VMware, your cost grows, as your workload density does.

The analysis shows that a VMware private cloud solution can cost from five to sixteen times more than a comparable Microsoft private cloud solution over a period of one to three years. The reason for this significant cost difference is VMware’s per-VM licensing for private cloud products like VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite which charges $34,250 for 25 VMs (Enterprise Plus edition, U.S. suggested license list price) and drives this cost differential.

Economics has always been a powerful force in driving industry transformations and as more and more organizations evaluate cloud computing investments that will significantly affect ROI, now is the time to provide the information needed to make informed decisions, for today and tomorrow.