Small environment: Veeam Essentials, where to change to?

[omfk]

Hello,

some years ago we bought a 2 socket license for Veeam Essentials and were/are always happy with the product. Our workload were two small server with 1 socket only and some physical machines which were were able to backup with the free VAW agents. The yearly maintenance costs were < 200€.

Now we are planning to restructure our IT environment which will certainly result in more than 2 sockets. The amount of VMs and also physical machines however will still be lower than 10 workloads.

What are the options for us:
1) Buy an additional 2 socket license. This will double the yearly costs ( 400 - 550€) and one one-off payment.
2) Change over to VUL licenses (but still Essentials): The transition costs are more or less the yearly maintenance costs. After the initial year the yearly costs for 10 work loads are ~550€.
3) Change over to VUL Veeam Backup Starter: yearly costs for 10 workloads 350€
Would such a migration possible? Or is Backup Starter only available as new product? Can Essentials and Starter exist in the same environment?
We would loose Veeam One.
4) Combine existing socket license and Veeam Community edition
This would require two different Backup servers if it is allowed at all.
5) Only use Veeam Community edition
Not recommended as I don't want to loose the support.

I don't want to question or criticize the price policy of Veeam and I also realize that our environment is not the main focus. I just want to know if I might have overlooked an option.

BR
Frank

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Frank,
- First of all, note that with per-CPU license you are also getting free "gifted" instances count 1 per CPU, so your 2 socket license allows you to use 2 gifted instances for other workloads protection. With 4 per-CPU licenses, you will also get 4 instances to use for physical backups.
- Second, any money-related calculations should be done after receiving and reviewing an initial quotation from your partner of choice - because depending on your country, partner, relationships and current special offers you might get significantly different numbers due to different discount levels. So I would start by asking local partner to provide a quote for options 1 and 2.
- Last but not least, I have asked Veeam Sales team to give you a call and discuss possible growth options, as there are additional questions that might rise in the future(say, you plan to grow your IT infrastructure twice within next year or two, so there might be a better option to go for a higher edition this year, rather than paying for upgrade next year, so on...)
/Cheers!

[omfk]

Hi Egor,

I haven't used the gifted instances yet, as this confront with the mixing of free agents.
In the mean time I've got an offer from our sales agent for change from socket to VUL, which covers 2 additional years. With that offer I'm fine until Sep 2022 and that is as far as I want to look into the future. In addition I'm able to use better features as now.

BR
Frank

[Egor Yakovlev]

Great choice and welcome on VUL-board, it is the future!
/Cheers!