VMware Inc. is hoping to squeeze a few extra dollars from its NSX offering by amping up the price tag, and offering cheaper, “feature-lite” versions of the product with less features.

NSX is an offering that VMware pitches at customers wanting to create their own software-define data centers. NSX helps out in that respect by integrating networking and security into the hypervisor. The product was first launched in 2014.

The price of a full NSX license was almost $6,000 per CPU pocket, but now customers have the option of “Standard” and “Advanced” editions as well.

CRN reports that NSX Enterprise (the top tier) is now being offered at $6,995 per CPU socket. The Advanced edition sells at $4,496 per CPU socket, while the Standard version can be had for a mere $1,995 per CPU socket. The differences between the three product tiers can be seen at this page.

By introducing tiered options for NSX with different functionality and price points, VMware is following the playbook of Microsoft and other enterprise software vendors, while also signaling that NSX is mature enough to gain mainstream market traction, CRN says.

VMware boasted as much about NSX’s maturity when it revealed earlier this month it now counts more than 1,400 enterprise customers, with around 350 of those using it in production. VMware also said NSX had an annualized run rate of $600 million at the beginning of the year.

In a blog post earlier this week, VMware’s Dom Delfino, vice president of worldwide sales and systems engineering for the firm’s networking and security business unit, said partner bookings of NSX had grown 100 percent year on year, in the last quarter.

Users of the Advanced and Enterprise versions will also get more licensing options, according to an FAQ on VMware’s website. While all three options can be had on a perpetual license, Advanced editions can be had on a per-user basis, while Enterprise also has a per-VM licensing option.

Photo Credit: GBPublic_PR via Compfight cc