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vSphere Express gives you a hypervisor. VMease gives you the platform.

One control plane, AI enabled autonomous operations and transparent pricing. See why VMease is the better choice.

What VMware announced

This week Broadcom made two announcements aimed at smaller VMware customers.

vSphere Express

A new entry level server virtualisation product, licensed per core and capped at 128 cores per instance. It includes vMotion, automatic restart of failed virtual machines, a distributed switch and non disruptive patching. Each instance is managed on its own, and VMware positions it for small deployments, pointing larger customers to VVF or VCF. It will be sold through distributor marketplaces. A price has not yet been published.

More time for vSphere 8 in the EEA

Customers in the European Economic Area can continue to buy vSphere Standard 8 and Enterprise Plus 8 until 31 October 2027. Extended Support is included in active subscriptions until the subscription ends or 31 October 2028, whichever comes first. Elsewhere, general support for vSphere 8 still ends on 11 October 2027.

What hasn't changed

Both announcements will be welcome to some customers. Before deciding to stay, it is worth comparing what they offer with what you get from VMease.

What you get with VMease

  • One control plane across every cluster, site and customer
  • AI enabled, autonomous operations: automated triage, smart patching and guided remediation
  • No core cap
  • Multi tenancy, resource control, metering and billing built in
  • Transparent per core pricing
  • A long term platform built on proven open source

vSphere Express and the extension

  • Each instance is standalone, with no central management across sites or customers
  • 128 core cap per instance; larger estates are still directed to VVF or VCF
  • No multi tenancy, metering or billing for service providers
  • No published price yet
  • The extension applies only in the EEA and ends by October 2028 at the latest

Express gives you a cheaper hypervisor.

VMease gives you one place to run all of them, intelligently.

How VMease helps

VMease Private Cloud Management sits on top of proven open source virtualisation, including Proxmox, and adds the operational layer that IT teams and service providers need.

  • Autonomous operations. AI assisted triage, smart patching, root cause analysis and remediation plans, so generalist IT teams can run their platform with confidence.
  • Built for service providers. Multi tenancy, metering and billing for cloud and managed service providers serving their own customers.
  • A non critical layer. VMease manages your environment without becoming a single point of failure in it.
  • European technology. Built in Europe, with a team based in Jersey, Ireland and the UK, and a partner network across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Caribbean.

Use the time well

If you are in the EEA, the extension gives you breathing space. If you are in the UK, the Channel Islands or elsewhere, the October 2027 date still stands. Either way, the best time to plan a move is before a renewal forces the decision.

Sources: The Register, VMware returns to low end server virtualization with vSphere Express (4 November 2026) and VMware quietly offers European users extended sales and support for low end vSphere (5 November 2026).

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