Zerto 5.0 Licensing Deep Dive

This article is part of a series of posts that deep dive into the new Zerto Virtual Replication 5.0 feature set. To view the other posts check out the index post here.

Overview

If you have known Zerto for any amount of time, you know that licensing is the easiest thing possible. For the longest time, there were probably only three SKU’s (I’m kidding of course), one SKU for the product, and two SKUs for maintenance (one being 8×5 and the other being 24×7).

Zerto’s price tag has been rock solid as well. In fact, there hasn’t been a price change for maintenance or the product in over 5 years. (Has any other software vendor made it that long?)

However, with 5.0 some things have changed.

What’s New

Starting with version 5.0, Zerto will now have three licensing models for customers to choose from, there were 2 models before 5.0. The two existing models are the standard package for VMware and Hyper-V platforms (private cloud), as well as the public cloud platform(AWS and Azure). The new version is called “Enterprise Cloud Edition” or ECE for short.

With ZVR 4.X licensing you could essentially replicate between private cloud hypervisors and you paid per protected VM. If you wanted to go to the public cloud, you had to purchase a second license that was a subscription based license and was only good for VM’s destined to AWS.

In ZVR 5.0 things stay the same for the two existing license packages, but one of the enhancements for ECE is that you can shift your protected VM’s between private cloud and public cloud while using the same license. So if you are considering replication to Azure or to AWS, and also have a private cloud workload, ECE is probably the best choice for you!

What version fits you

Here is a matrix of what licensing looks like to help you select what is best for you:

Platform Zerto Virtual Replication ZVR to Public Cloud ZVR – Enterprise Cloud Edition
VMware vSphere
Microsoft Hyper-V
Replication to Azure
Replication to AWS
Replication to ZCSP

ECE Features

These features are NOT included in ZVR 5.0 Standard – Only ZVR 5.0 ECE, so if you want to use any of the below you will need to upgrade to ECE.

  • License mobility – use license for private or public cloud replication
  • Multi-Site Replication
  • Zerto Cloud Manager
  • Cross Hypervisor replication

Why the new changes?

Please note that this section is 100% my opinion. It may or may not be the view of my employer, but I did not check with them before writing this post.

The features that are included in the new Enterprise Cloud Edition of Zerto hold a significant value for the customer that need them. Customers who are replicating from site A to site B, however, would see little to no value added to the product.

So the powers that be had a decision: continue to provide all features to all customers – but raise the price for all customers. Or split the more advanced features into a premium version so that customers who need the premium features can pay for them, while keeping the price tag the same for the customers who do not. They choose to do the latter.

At first, I have to say that I was sort of mad about splitting the product into two versions, but since the initial internal announcement I have found that it makes sense and will be the best direction for the product long run.

Leave some feedback

Zerto is always looking for customer feedback. Please, feel free to leave a comment here, or shoot me an email, or open a support ticket. We want to constantly improve, and the best way to do that it to understand your real world use cases.

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5 Responses to "Zerto 5.0 Licensing Deep Dive"

  1. Great write-up on licensing. When license changes occur, it can be a pain if it’s not broken down or all the information is readily available.

    I’ll admit, the differences with putting the advanced features out to cost more for those who actually need it, is a much better approach (my opinion of course), otherwise existing customers wouldn’t be happy about an overall price increase. Some may even play the “I’m going to someone else” card if that happened.

  2. Justin, if you start with the Standard version but your eventual goal is enterprise cloud, Percentage wise – how much sticker shock do we get? Or should go with ECE to begin with. If I choose standard to start with, and I find that I only want to migrate a small portion of my VPGs to the cloud, do I have to license all of the VMs that I started out with in standard?

  3. Does Zerto charge for both the Primary VM protected and the Target VM or would that all be included in one license?

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