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Recently, Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware, and this has led to a number of changes.

Broadcom reorganized the business into four divisions:

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
• Tanzu (TNZ)
• Software-Defined Edge (SDE)
• Application Networking and Security (ANS)

New Licensing Model

Broadcom also announced a change in the product portfolio and licensing model (shared by Krish Prasad, Senior VP for the VMware Cloud Foundation division).

Here’s how the portfolio has changed going forward:

• VMware Cloud Foundation — Hybrid and public cloud solutions including software-defined data center (SDDC), storage, networking, security, and cloud management capabilities.
• (New)VMware vSphere Foundation — On-premises virtualization solutions (our familiar vSphere), combined with intelligent operations management (likely the full VMware Aria portfolio, formerly vRealize).

Products like VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR), VMware Ransomware Recovery, and storage offerings can be purchased as add-ons to either of these two solutions.

So far, so good. But the bad news comes next.

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End of Perpetual Licenses and Support!

As of December 11, 2023, Broadcom no longer sells perpetual licenses or Support & Subscription (SnS) services.

This means if you currently hold perpetual VMware licenses (for vSphere, vCenter, Aria products, or others), you need to plan to migrate to subscription licensing to stay supported. Broadcom encourages customers to:

Review your inventory of perpetual licenses (including renewal and upgrade cycles), learn about available subscription offerings, and talk to your VMware representative or partner for guidance.

The new policy affects many VMware products, including:

• 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

Get ready now!

I’d like to highlight four aspects:

1. Perpetual licenses and their support/subscription services are being phased out — you’ll need to migrate to subscriptions to continue using VMware with support.
2. Existing perpetual licenses can still be used — and will remain supported until their current contract ends.
3. Support and subscription (SnS) will not be renewed for perpetual licenses once existing contracts expire.
4. If you need to renew VMware support soon, talk with your VMware account rep and start planning a migration strategy.

Conclusion

For those who already followed VMware path in the last years, we knew that VMware was already moving toward subscription models, especially with cloud-oriented offerings. However, ending a licensing model used for more than 20 years without long transition time was surprising to many customers.

Broadcom clearly recognizes the strength of VMware’s products — and that’s why customers are unlikely to abandon the platform outright despite these changes. But adaptation won’t be easy for everyone.

But it never is, right?

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Sources

Broadcom re-orgs VMware into four divisions
Community programs retained but CEO waves farewellwww.theregister.com

VMware by Broadcom Dramatically Simplifies Offer Lineup and Licensing Model
VMware by Broadcom Dramatically Simplifies Offer Lineup and Licensing Modelnews.vmware.com

Broadcom halves sub price for VMware’s flagship hybrid cloud
Also kills perpetual licenses, adds a vSphere bundle for smaller userswww.theregister.com