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Broadcom acquires VMware: how will this affect your business?

The news of Broadcom’s announcement to acquire VMware spread quickly. With this acquisition, you’re probably wondering how this will affect your existing licenses, contracts, and overall VMware experience.

As a trusted partner, we understand the concern. That’s why we aim to provide clarity, answer questions, and offer insight into what this acquisition truly means, based on the information available to us at this time.

The acquisition and its associated changes are still in early stages. This implies that we are receiving daily updates concerning both new and current licenses, as well as changes within the support system (which holds the most substantial impact). If you want to stay informed, keep an eye on this page, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries.

Update 17/01/'24

VMware by Broadcom OEM Program

VMware OEM program termination effective January 8, 2024. This change impacts all OEMs. Do you want to know the impact this may have for your organisation? We are more than happy to help you!

Update 15/01/'24

License offerings – starting February 2024

Starting from February 2024, Broadcom (VMware) will be transitioning to a complete subscription-based licensing model, discontinuing perpetual licencses. If you want / are interested in perpetual licences, it is crucial to act promptly. Contact us for more information and assistance in securing these licenses before they become unavailable. We are there to support you as well with the new subscription offerings, we are more than happy to guide you in this process. We don’t have any news yet regarding upgrades to switch perpetual licences to subscription licenses, we expect more information about this to come soon.

Update 21/12/'23

VMware by broadcom: Cheaper?

Read all about the potential financial impact you can expect if prices change from the previously published perpetual licences here!

Update 20/12/'23

All renewals can be offered with 1 year production maintenance max.
Conversion to the new type of licensing is available but only to Standard and vSphere Foundation.

Update 13/12/'23: The merger of Broadcom and VMware

VMware by Broadcom aims to assist companies in embracing private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. They aim to accelerate innovation for their customers through a simplified portfolio and a robust ecosystem.

How is this being implemented in practice?

  • Simplification of the product portfolio:
    Broadcom aims to ensure that customers receive greater value from their investments.

This means:

    • Maintaining a competitive pricing strategy
    • Improved support for solution activation and lifecycle management


  • Moving to a subscription-based licensing model

Broadcom will no longer offer licenses that customers own themselves (in short: perpetual licenses), but is transitioning to a subscription-based model.

This means you won’t be able to acquire one-time perpetual licenses (with separately extendable services and support) anymore. Instead, it will be solely through a subscription combining those aspects.

As of today, this marks the end of:

  • the sale of perpetual licenses
  • Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual licenses
  • HPP/SPP Hybrid Purchase Program/Subscription Purchase Program credits


Purchased perpetual licenses won’t expire, but their support will cease at the end of the current contract. Extending support won’t be an option. If you choose not to transition to an alternative subscription model, you will be left without support and unable to update your system (with all the associated consequences).

Simplified product portfolio

According to information released via official sources recently, Broadcom is reducing the VMware Cloud Foundation portfolio to two categories.

  • VMware Cloud Foundation
    This is an enterprise-level hybrid cloud solution. It allows running critical and modern applications in a secure, resilient, and cost-effective manner.

Broadcom has enhanced the previous subscription pricing, offering a higher level of support and improved assistance for both solution activation and lifecycle management.

  • VMware vSphere Foundation
    This is a simplified enterprise-grade workload platform for medium to smaller customers. It combines a full server virtualization platform (vSphere) with intelligent operational management for best performance, availability and efficiency.

If you’re seeking a hyperconverged solution, Broadcom offers VMware vSAN as an add-on to vSphere Foundation, encompassing all vSAN capabilities, including vSAN Max.

As a user, in both categories (Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation), you have the opportunity to supplement the existing package with additional features.

These additional features include:

  • storage offering,
  • ransomware and disaster recovery service,
  • application platform services.


Additionally, VMware Cloud Foundation offers application networking and security.

Broadcom indicates plans to further expand these additional functionalities in the future.

Moving to a subscription model, what are the implications?

As of today, Broadcom is exclusively providing subscriptions or term licenses. Consequently, perpetual licenses can no longer be acquired, nor can Support and Subscription (SnS) be extended beyond the expiration date.

Why are they choosing this transition? The company aims to deliver what customers want. According to Broadcom these are:

  • Continuous innovation
  • Faster time to value
  • Predictable investments


The new subscription model will be based on cores instead of sockets.

What about your purchased licenses?

These licenses remain valid, accompanied by active support. Broadcom will continue to provide the necessary support as outlined in your existing contract.

However, they do encourage revising your inventory of these licenses, including renewal and expiration dates of Support Services. As a licensee, you can exchange your license for a subscription, with Broadcom indicating lower prices.

Which products and bundles does this new policy affect?

  • VMware vSphere
  • VMware vSAN
  • VMware NSX
  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VMware HCX
  • VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
  • VMware vCloud Suite
  • VMware Aria Suite
  • VMware Aria Universal
  • VMware Aria Automation
  • VMware Aria Operations
  • VMware Aria Operations for Logs
  • VMware Aria Operations for Networks

Conclusion

We acknowledge that this transition prompts several questions. Stay tuned to this page for further updates, or feel free to contact us to evaluate the impact on your specific environment and develop a proactive plan for the future!

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