Reading Time: 2 minutes VMware is announcing the End of Availability (EOA) of vSphere Data Protection (VDP), the backup program integrated with vSphere suite and included with the Essential Plus license. VMware vSphere 6.5 is the last release to include vSphere Data Protection and future vSphere releases will no longer include this product. VMware will focusing its investments on vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection to further strengthen the vSphere backup partner ecosystem that provides better 3rd part native backup products. For sure it’s a great sign for the backup ecosystem.