Broadcom Acquisition and the Impact to Your VMware Licensing

As previously announced, Broadcom Inc. completed its $61 billion acquisition of VMware, Inc. on November 22, 2023. In the weeks since, new information has continued to be released about how this will impact current VMware customers. Here’s what we know so far:

Simplification of VMware Cloud Foundation offerings

The VMware Cloud Foundation division portfolio will feature two primary offers going forward:

• VMware Cloud Foundation, an enterprise-class hybrid cloud solution with a reduced subscription list price and higher support service levels (including enhanced support for activating the solution and lifecycle management)
• VMware vSphere Foundation, a simplified enterprise-grade workload platform for mid-sized to smaller customers.

Both offers will have optional advanced add-ons, including storage, ransomware and disaster recovery service, and application platform services. Additional advanced services and offerings, such as Private AI, will be made available soon.

The end of perpetual licensing

With the industry embracing the subscription based licensing model as the standard for consuming cloud software services, VMware has been transitioning to a subscription model the past few years. They are now marking this transition as complete and to this end, Broadcom will no longer sell perpetual licenses. VMware offerings will continue to be available as subscriptions going forward. Sales of Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual offerings have now ended - however customers may continue using perpetual licenses with active support contracts, with support continuing to be provided (as defined in contractual commitments)

VMware products that are no longer for sale and cannot have SnS contracts renewed are:

• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware vSphere
• VMware vSAN
• VMware NSX
• VMware HCX
• VMware Site Recovery Manager
• 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

Trade Ins

While customers cannot renew their SnS contracts for these perpetual licensed products anymore, Broadcom will work with customers to help them “trade in” their perpetual products in exchange for the new subscription products, with upgrade pricing incentives. It has been communicated that Broadcom will not require customers to submit their perpetual licenses to Broadcom as part of this “trade-in” process.

It is highly recommended for customers to begin reviewing their inventory of perpetual licenses and Support Services expiration dates to prepare for any upcoming renewals that may be affected. If you need assistance through this process, please contact your Long View Licensing Specialist or email us at [email protected] - we are here to help!

 

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