Everything You Need to Know About What’s Changing with vSphere
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and the subsequent changes it has made to the VMware business, partner program, products, and services have kept partners and customers alike struggling to keep up. But to understand what’s changing with vSphere, you have to first understand the other changes happening within VMware.
What is happening with VMware and Broadcom?
After more than a year in the making, Broadcom completed its long-awaited acquisition of VMware on November 21, 2023. The $69 billion deal was held up by regulators in the UK and China before finally being allowed to proceed. Broadcom has faced criticism for massive amounts of restructuring—both of its business structure and its product structure. Price hikes, removing free versions, and bundling separate services into one product have all been items of discussion across news outlets and social media.
What is happening with VMware licensing?
One of Broadcom’s first items of business was to make significant changes to VMware licensing, ending perpetual licensing in December 2023. Instead of allowing perpetual licensing, it has moved all products to a fixed term or subscription-based plan, which it claims is the industry standard. In the same month, it terminated all partner agreements with VMware resellers and service providers, forcing them to reapply for partner status.
How is VMware licensing changing?
In addition to getting rid of perpetual licensing, VMware by Broadcom is also bundling many services into a single package. Many software solutions that could be bought individually are now only available through a package. VMware Cloud Foundation and the VMware vSphere Foundation are the most popular of these bundles.
What is the VMware vSphere Foundation?
The VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) is an enterprise workload platform for smaller and midsized businesses and includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCenter Server Standard, Aria Suite Enterprise, and support services. It also includes Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, Aria Operations, and Aria Operations for Logs.
What is the VMware Cloud Foundation?
The VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is built for large enterprises and includes the SDDC Manager, vSphere Enterprise Plus with Tanzu, NSX Enterprise Plus, HCX Enterprise, and support services. vSphere, vSAN, and NSX are now offered through the VMware Cloud Foundation.
What VMware products are being discontinued?
Most VMware products affected by the Broadcom acquisition are not discontinued, though for some they may become inaccessible. Free services offered by VMware, including the free version of VMware’s ESXi hypervisor and the free version of vSphere are no longer available. Other services that are no longer being offered on their own can now be acquired through packages like VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation.
However, some services are being discontinued all together. Many SaaS Services are no longer available, though those who already have a subscription may continue using them.
What Are My Options?
- Continue Using vSphere
- Migrate Workloads to the Public Cloud
- Migrate to Kernel Based Virtual Machine (Linux)
- Leverage Acropolis Hypervisor as Your Virtualization Platform on Nutanix HCI
- Leverage vSphere through Private Cloud
- Read More
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has led to changes in IT that leaders are struggling to keep up with. The speed at which things are changing is causing many businesses to reevaluate their IT strategies. If you are one of those businesses, you don’t’ have to do it alone.
Adapture is a vendor-agnostic IT solutions provider, so if VMware no longer fits into your IT strategy, we can help you explore other options or find a new VMware package that works for you. Contact our experts to learn more.
