The ITAM Executive: A Podcast for IT Asset Management Professionals · Anglepoint

VMware Under Broadcom: Price Hikes, Surprise Audits and Smarter Support Alternatives

·22 min·1 clip

Broadcom price increases are reaching 300% plus, and some first renewals are reportedly 10X or more.

1. The ITAM Executive episode centers on VMware under Broadcom, with recurring references to pricing, audits, and support alternatives. 2. Benjamin Kuhn is a senior consultant on Anglepoint's SaaS and specialty licensing team, and Alec Flory is a pre-seller software specialist with Origina who leads U.S. VMware pre-sales. 3. The episode asks whether VMware customers should stay with Broadcom, prepare for renewal pressure, or move to third-party support. 4. Benjamin says Broadcom acquired VMware in November 2023 and then changed the model from perpetual and maintenance licensing to subscription licensing. 5. Benjamin and Alec say Broadcom also moved many products from CPU-based licensing to a port-per-core model and shifted downloads into the Broadcom software portal with unique authorization tokens. 6. They say VMware now sells two main bundles, VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation, instead of many standalone products. 7. Benjamin notes that Broadcom announced VCF 9.0 on June 12 and that VCF 9 requires consumption reporting every 180 days. 8. Benjamin says missing that reporting period can trigger degraded functionality around day 270 and possibly loss of subscription access if the reporting gap continues. 9. The discussion turns to renewal risk, with Benjamin saying strategic partners should expect only VCF quotes and most customers should expect price increases. 10. Benjamin says first subscription contracts can show 300% plus increases, with some situations reaching 10X or more. 11. He also says Broadcom may offer three-year or five-year agreements, while a one-year quote may still be priced near the longer term. 12. Benjamin advises customers with 18 months or more to study demand forecasting, review alternatives, and start renewal discussions early. 13. Benjamin says VMware migrations often take 12 to 24 months, which is why early planning matters even if a customer eventually stays with VMware. 14. Benjamin and Alec say Broadcom audit activity has increased, and customers with renewals in the next six months should prepare for an audit or a renewal check. 15. Alec says ITAM teams should maintain exports from RV Tools, NSX Manager, and vRealize ARIA Manager to validate consumption against entitlement. 16. Benjamin says Anglepoint can offer audit support and baseline VMware environments to identify unexpected true-ups or mitigation steps before penalties appear. 17. Alec explains that Broadcom cease and desist letters address post-support updates without an active agreement and should be reviewed by legal teams. 18. The tone is consultative and practical, with Benjamin and Alec trading direct questions and answers instead of using a scripted presentation style. 19. People managing VMware estates, audit readiness, or renewal strategy should listen. 20. Listeners with no VMware exposure or no near-term renewals may find it less urgent. 21. Broadcom's licensing shift is less about software and more about forcing customers into earlier, costlier renewal decisions. 22. Alec says customers can keep using perpetual licenses when unsupported, but they lose new updates and patches except for zero-day events and CVEs above nine. 23. They say third-party support can fit hybrid architectures, including a mix of subscription software and perpetual support, if compliance planning is careful. 24. Alec says the ideal third-party support customer is trying to escape vendor lock-in, multi-year contract pressure, and bundles that include unused products. 25. Benjamin says many clients face budget strain because higher VMware costs were not planned and can pull funding from other projects. 26. Alec says Origina's SLAs are contractually binding and that priority one and two issues get 30-minute response times. 27. Alec also says third-party support can deliver hard savings and soft savings by reducing renewal costs and freeing resources for higher-value work. 28. He says Origina supports clients on their current version for as long as needed and believes VMware products have at least five to seven years of supportability in many cases. 29. Alec gives a global travel technology example with more than 25,000 CPUs and says the client saw over 30% hard savings out of the gate. 30. The episode closes by emphasizing that third-party support can buy time for migration planning while keeping existing environments stable.

As heard by us

A practical VMware audit-prep discussion centered on renewal readiness and deployment control.

Broadcom's VMware approach is framed as audit readiness and renewal prep. Customers with a renewal in the next six months are told to get ready for an audit, since Broadcom may run one formally or present it as a usage check while it evaluates deployment.

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Why you'd press play

Prepare for a VMware renewal that may turn into an audit.

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