[German]A blog reader contacted me by e-mail and reported on the latest fail of VMware by Broadcom. There were hurdles when booking a follow-up license, but they could be overcome. However, unneeded services had to be included, which were agreed in the contract as training services. At the end of the day, however, the user had to realize that the credits booked for training courses were worthless because the training companies could no longer bill them to VMware by Broadcom.
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I have repeatedly reported on the upheavals at VMware by Broadcom here in the blog. There are also articles about the problems and price increases in licensing. Now a blog reader has reported a new volte face.
The reader works in the IT department of a large German company and wrote in an email: "On the subject of Broadcom, you have already written a whole series of articles and summaries. It could be that I can add another small chapter."
Hurdles with follow-up licensing
The situation was that the company concluded an Enterprise Agreement with VMWare (at that time still without Broadcom) in October with a term of 5 years. At that time, it was already necessary to purchase at least approximately the same volume of new business for the renewal of an existing Enterprise Agreement as the existing licenses, the reader wrote.
As this was the first renewal of an Enterprise Agreement with VMWare, IT was not aware of this small stumbling block. However, they needed the license as an Enterprise Agreement so that they could continue to centrally manage and support the globally dispersed infrastructure.
Long story short: The hurdle then led to IT purchasing support from a TAM (probably stands for Technical Account Manager) for two years, for example, which was not actually needed.
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The reader wrote that he had placed particular emphasis on training in the new contract. Therefore, PSO credits were also included in the contract to a very large extent.
VMware Professional Services Credits (PSO) offer a cost-effective and flexible way to purchase VMware consulting services, training and certification.
According to the reader, PSO credits can also be used to purchase other things such as consulting services etc.. But the plan was to use the PSO credits to train the entire team, from the basics to special things.
Sorry, no training
It all sounded like a good plan, but it was overtaken by reality. IT needed more than a year of digging until the PSO credits booked per contract were visible in the Broadcom customer account. The licenses had also disappeared in the meantime, but were now back in the customer account display.
After everything seemed to be clear, they wanted to call up the training course, but were in for an unpleasant surprise. The blog reader is now told by the training providers that the providers can no longer bill PSO credits to VMware by Broadcom because Broadcom has terminated the contract with the providers.
As the reader wrote: "The providers' statement that this has to be handled directly via Broadcom may be correct. But for that to happen, someone on the other side would have to react at all."
According to the reader, the sales representative directly responsible for the large company still seems to exist. However, he has not replied to any emails since the contract was signed.
The sales employee's boss then attended an escalation meeting with the customer at the beginning of January 2025. In this meeting, the boss also promised certain documents. However, these have not been delivered to date, the reader states. And there has been no further response since then. So the customer was hung up the chimney and left to starve.
Some side notes
The reader wrote that when the contract was signed, the company was assured that all license types available at the time of signing would be available to the customer until the end of the contract, as was the case in the old Enterprise Agreement.
As the customer is consistently licensed with CPU licenses and it was foreseeable that it would go to core licensing, this was still an important contractual point for IT. Core licensing is significantly less economical for the company.
Now the customer has learned from VMware by Broadcom that CPU licenses are no longer available for existing contracts, even though they are included in the contract.
The customer says farewell
The reader wrote that the contract with VMware by Broadcom runs until October 2028. Incidentally, this is a large company that operates internationally as an AG.
As the reader notes: "Fortunately, we therefore have enough time to plan a migration to another system." As things stand today, the reader is pretty sure that the company's IT department will not continue to rely on VMWare if it behaves like this towards customers and partners.
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