We’ve just finished the second episode in our quarterly series on Updates to the VCPP Pricing, Metering and Reporting! Joined by over 400 users across the world in our live sessions, we discussed what partners needed to know now, and what they needed to prepare for down the road.

August 2020 Update!

Pricing Updates:

  • Product Usage Guide for Q3 is now available!
  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer Basic
    • As part of Flex Core, partners are entitled to an edition of the NSX Advanced Load Balancer, which includes the same features as the native NSX Load Balancer. Take a look at the Product Usage Guide for more information.
  • VMware Cloud Foundation (Cores Pricing)
    • New pricing and packaging for VCF on cores! Lower price, vRealize Suite included in some editions, and editions without vSAN! Please note that HCX Advanced is no longer included with all editions.
  • Cloud Provider Pod EOA and EOL
    • As discussed in another blog post, Cloud Provider Pod is going away, and we are aligning with SDDC Manager and VCF as the automation strategy for partners.
    • End of Availability on September 31, 2020
    • End of Support on December 31, 2020
  • Professional Services and General Support Services
    • If you’ve wanted to utilize your Rental Contract for PSO services, nows your chance! Check out the Product Usage Guide for more information.
  • Kubernetes!
    • vSphere with Kubernetes, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid+ pricing is now available in the Product Usage Guide!
  • HCX
    • As mentioned in the Cloud Foundation point, HCX is no longer included in VCF core-based product bundles.

Metering Updates:

  • Usage Meter 4.2 released!
    • Closer to feature parity with UM 3.6.1. UM 4.2 added several new collectors and brought back some old ones to help close the feature parity gap. Only three products left.
    • New collectors: NSX-T with feature-based metering, vRealize Network Insight, VCF on Cores model (SDDC Manager on vRAM coming later), and Horizon DaaS 9!
  • Usage Meter 3.6.1 End of Life!
  • Usage Meter 4.1 End of Life
    • With the updated architecture, comes faster releases. Partners running Usage Meter 4.1 should update to 4.2 now, because 4.1 will go end-of-life on September 17.
    • Check Product Lifecycles on this PDF
  • Usage Insight
    • With UM 3.6.1 end-of-life coming in March 2021, partners will need to adopt UM 4.X soon, and with that Usage Insight since the service is required for metering to work (Also requires Flex). If you need help getting started, head over to the product website to learn more: https://cloud.vmware.com/cloud-provider-metering
  • What about vSAN, SRM, and vRA for feature parity?
    • We are working on these for the next version scheduled for October release.

Reporting Updates:

  • 5pt Bundle Reporting
    • If you still see “Standard Bundle” showing up in your monthly report, we’ve added a temporary transition SKU called “Standard Bundle EOL (Charged as Advanced Bundle).” Use this for now while you change your host license keys. Eventually, after changing the host licenses, you won’t see that bundle appear on your Monthly Usage Report. Follow this video to see how to change host license keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7D-Ry6Z4B4 
  • MSP Threshold
    • Aggregators can now increase the spend threshold on MSP service contracts. If you need to increase usage or have hit a limit in how much of a service you can use, reach out to your aggregator to increase that spend limit.
  • UX Enhancements
    • Task Search
      • You can now use additional filters for searching for tasks (like MBO’s)
    • Support Module
      • You can filter support tickets opened by you or others.
  • Flex Add-Ons restricted to Flex Partners
    • Commerce Portal originally showed Flex Add-ons for non-Flex partners. This is no longer the case. If you want to use Flex Pricing Model Add-ons, then you need to join Flex. Make sure to do so before you have to when UM 3.6.1 goes End of Life.

Recommendations for Partners:

With all of these updates, there are Three actions that Partners can do right now to prepare for the future.

  1. If you see “Standard Bundle” (not Standard Bundle with X) on your Monthly Usage Report from Usage Meter, then you need to replace the license keys you use on your physical ESXi hosts! Follow this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7D-Ry6Z4B4
  2. Adopt the Flex Pricing Model. If you don’t report against a custom point per unit product, or a custom bundle, then there is no reason to wait. All pricing matches. Partners with custom pricing need to work with their VMware Sales Rep to help migrate to Flex Pricing Model.
  3. Adopt Automatic Reporting. Usage Meter 4.X requires Usage Insight. With the UM 3.6.1 End of Life right around the corner, it would be best to start using the auto-reporting service right now! Usage Insight has no effect on price. It just helps you automatically fill out your Monthly Billing Order in Commerce Portal.
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That’s all for August 2020! We’ll do another update in November as the next Product Usage Guide is published! If you want to join us live or get notified about the recording, make sure that you have access to the Commerce Portal at vcp.vmware.com!

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