Broadcom tosses VMware users a bone, extends vSphere 7 support six months

“Six months of additional support for what will then be a 5-year-old product doesn’t materially cost Broadcom anything. And if it was the extra little bit of runway perpetual license holdouts needed in order to move to VCF, why not get some good press about it rather than including it as a ‘standard concession’ on every deal they are inking and signing over the next 12 months?” Annand said.

One deadline that hasn’t changed is the expiration of AWS’s reseller agreement with VMware on August 1, after which customers will no longer be able to use on-demand vSphere servers from the VMware Cloud on AWS, eliminating the ability to rapidly scale up (or down) as required. They have been offered the option to purchase 12-month subscriptions for their current on-demand servers; Broadcom now advises they should acquire those licenses by July 26.

The Register cited an email from Broadcom to customers that said, “To continue delivering you the best possible experience, we are moving to a subscription-only model for the purchase and consumption of hosts, meaning we are no longer supporting the on-demand model.”

It is yet another unpopular move by Broadcom, which has also changed its licensing for all versions to a consumption-based model based on number of cores in use, which has caused some customers’ bills to skyrocket and started them questioning the value of the technology.

VMware Cloud Foundation updates

Broadcom’s major focus has been on building its cloud versions. In a blog post in April, CEO Hock Tan wrote, “These changes were designed to lead to an integrated VCF solution that will bring broader long-term benefits to our valued customers both in their own data centers and in the cloud with increased portability to move workloads among on-premises data centers and supported cloud providers.”

In June, the company announced a series of updates to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VSF) to further its goals.