VMware by Broadcom: Portfolio Simplification and Transition to Subscription

On December 11, 2023, VMware was acquired by Broadcom. With this, major changes in licensing were made. VMware has reduced the number of offerings and has transitioned their bundles to subscriptions. In this article, we want to give you an overview of the new licensing models of VMware. Also, find a comprehensive FAQ-section below.

Portfolio Simplification Overview: Only VCF, VVF, VVS, VVEP

VMware’s offerings have been reduced from 168 products, bundles and editions, to just four (4) bundles. These four bundles are:

1) VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)

2) vSphere Foundation (VVF)

3) vSphere Standard (VVS)

4) vSphere Essentials Plus (VVEP)

Besides these, there are some add-ons available to VCF and VFF, as can be seen below:

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is a comprehensive software-defined infrastructure solution designed to provide a cloud operating model on-premises. It combines compute, storage, networking, and cloud management capabilities into a single integrated platform.

This is what the licensing looks like:

• Subscription-based model
• This package is “disconnected”, but there might be connectivity in future (Customers can mix perpetual and new offerings as long as they are “disconnected”)
• Pricing based on per-core usage
• Minimum requirement of 16 cores per CPU (Example: 4 CPUs with 4 cores each equals 64 cores)
• Flexible terms available: 1-, 3-, and 5-year options (System enhancements in May 2024 will support annual billing and co-term)
• vSAN allocation: 1 Terabyte (TiB) per core
• Select Support: Premium global assistance featuring improved SLAs, senior VMware engineers, and Root Cause Analysis

vSphere Foundation (VVF)

VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) is a tailored offering designed to optimize data center performance for organizations of all sizes. It is part of the VMware vSphere product line, which is a leading enterprise virtualization platform. It delivers predictive and proactive operations management, purpose-built to enable the best performance, availability, and efficiency from your infrastructure and applications.

1 vSAN 100 GiB entitlement is available in upcoming 8.0U2b release.

The licensing looks like this:

• Subscription-based model
• This package is “disconnected”, but there might be connectivity in future (Customers can mix perpetual and new offerings as long as they are “disconnected”)
• Pricing based on per-core usage
• Minimum requirement of 16 cores per CPU
• Flexible terms available: 1-, 3-, and 5-year options (System enhancements in May 2024 will support annual billing and co-term)
• Includes Production Support
• vSAN Enterprise includes a 100 Gigabyte (GiB) free trial capacity

vSAN (with VCF or VVF)

VMware vSAN is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation and as an add–on to VMware vSphere Foundation.

Here are some licensing details:

• Subscription-based model
• This package is “disconnected”, but there might be connectivity in future (Customers can mix perpetual and new offerings as long as they are “disconnected”)
• Pricing based on per-terabyte (TiB) usage
• Flexible terms available: 1-, 3-, and 5-year options (System enhancements in May 2024 will support annual billing and co-term)
• Includes Production Support

vSphere Standard (VVS)

VMware vSphere Standard (VVS) is a server virtualization solution that provides data center consolidation and enhanced application availability. It is designed for organizations that need industry-leading virtualization capabilities without the full suite of features and services offered in higher-end editions.

The licensing looks like this:

• Subscription-based model
• This package is “disconnected”, but there might be connectivity in future (Customers can mix perpetual and new offerings as long as they are “disconnected”)
• Pricing based on per-core usage
• Minimum requirement of 16 cores per CPU
• Flexible terms available: 1-, 3-, and 5-year options (System enhancements in May 2024 will support annual billing and co-term)
• Includes Production Support

vSphere Essentials Plus (VVEP)

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus (VVEP) is a comprehensive virtualization solution tailored for small businesses that run 20 or fewer server workloads. This all-in-one solution that enables small businesses to leverage a cost-effective virtualization platform to protect their business, simplify management, and save on IT costs. It’s an ideal choice for academic users or small businesses looking to virtualize their physical servers and reduce hardware costs while ensuring high application availability.

This is what the licensing looks like:

• Subscription-based licensing model
• This package is “disconnected” (Customers can mix perpetual and new offerings as long as they are “disconnected”)
• Offers a starter pack with 96 cores
• Stackable: 2×96-core option available, totaling 192 cores
• Minimum requirement of 16 cores per CPU; maximum of 3 hosts
• Flexible terms available: 1-, 3-, and 5-year options (System enhancements in May 2024 will support annual billing and co-term)
• Includes Production Support

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