The November 2023 acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has caused considerable uncertainty and upheaval. Especially due to the changes in the licensing structure and implications for the many companies using VMware. Therefore, we want to inform you about the main changes and implications for VMware licenses, how costs will be calculated from May 1, 2024 and what the impact will be.

Expiration of perpetual licenses

As of April 1, 2024, it will only be possible to purchase licenses in a subscription form. This means that the perpetual license model will be discontinued. Customers who still have perpetual licenses can continue to use them until the end date. On the relevant end date, the VMware environment will remain active, but the license-related support contract with VMware will be terminated. Updates and support are no longer possible from then on. For new licenses, only a subscription form can be chosen.

Much is unclear at this time, including whether pricing for existing customers moving from perpetual to the new subscription model will be the same as pricing for new customers. As soon as Broadcom clarifies this, we will come out with an update.

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VSF)

A decision was made by Broadcom to simplify the subscriptions, leaving only two bundles, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VSF).An important change in the new subscription format is that they are now calculated based on the number of CPU cores where 16 cores per socket are calculated by default. This eliminates the calculation based on vRAM. What best suits your organization's needs, VCF or VSF, depends on the needs and requirements.

The most important news is that Valid can continue to support you on VMware licensing in this new setup. If you purchase VMware licenses through Valid or purchase services on the Valid VMware environment in one of our data centers, we will be in touch shortly to discuss the specific implications for your organization.

Questions?

Do you have questions about the specific implications for your organization? If so, please contact us. We'd love to engage with you!