[German]New change for users of VMWare by Broadcom who use products such as VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vSphere Standard (VVS), VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). In two weeks, licenses for at least "72 cores per licensing" are required.
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Yesterday I reported on the dispute between VMware and Siemens AG in the article VMware sues Siemens for lack of licenses. Today I'll add the next VMWare by Broadcom license hammer: In April 2025, the Easter Bunny will come and bring a surprise basket from VMware. Inside is the specification of an increased "minimum number of cores per CPU to be licensed".
Looking back to better times
Normally, you only pay for what you have ordered and then consumed. Well, there are also bulk packs in the shops – with toilet paper there are no special promotions with "single sheet sales".
All hell has broken loose at VMware since the Broadcom takeover. In my German blog post Der Fluch der neuen Broadcom/VMware VCF-Lizenzierung in der Praxis from February 12, 2024, an IT service provider states: "Due to the requirement to license each CPU with at least 16 cores, approx. 2,500 more cores would have to be licensed than the customer actually has in stock."
As a result, the receipt for the shopping cart showed a slightly larger amount. Instead of the approx. 40,000 USD previously shown for the support of the licenses, the receipt then showed 270,000 USD per month or 3.1 million USD per year, to be paid to VMware by Broadcom. But everything used to be better, because there is still something to be done.
At least 72 cores required for licensing
Friday German blog reader and IT service provider Friedel S. contacted me by email and wrote "regarding VMWare, the article 'The curse of the new …' from 12.02.2024 states 'The requirement to license each CPU with at least 16 cores would result in considerable additional costs'. Now he has just read at the web site of German software distributor SFC that VMware by Broadcom is increasing the minimum purchase quantity of 'cores per CPU' from April 10, 2025. I have documented the relevant page below using a screenshot.
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The image from the screenshot above fits (it's hair scratching), because the text states that from April 10, 2025, at least 72 licenses "per CPU" will be required for the products VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, VMware vSphere Standard (VVS), VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
Minimum order value of 25,000 euros
Furthermore, prepaid and multi-year payment offers will in future only be created from a minimum value of currently €25,000. According to this SFC notification, open offers must be recreated in this respect and are therefore no longer valid. New inquiries can then be rejected by the manufacturer if necessary, it continues. When and to what extent this change will come into force is not yet known, writes the software distributor SFC.
German Software distributor SFC recommends that customers who need one of the above products should not wait until the next bad news and contact the relevant contact person quickly to request a quote. However, it is unclear when and under what conditions the offer will be made by the manufacturer.
Another source and a discrepancy
Anyone who believes that this is crazy fake news, with which software distributor SFC wants to fill its coffers, I came across the article VMware distributor Arrow says minimum software subs set to jump from 16 to 72 cores at The Register almost at the same time. There comes the same message about the 72 cores minimum purchase quantity from VMware distributor Arrow. The Register was able to view this distributor's email to customers (see the following screenshot).
In contradiction to the report of the German distributor, it says "72 core per command line" – which isn't "72 cores per CPU". I interpret it as "72 cores per order" as a minimum limit. This will be a problem especially for small customers who only license one or two CPUs, as the minimum quantity of 72 cores is always required for licensing. If you have five dual-processor systems with 16 cores, you get 160 cores with the old and new licensing, according to the screenshot above.
Penalty for defaulting end customers
The e-mail from Arrow contains a second hammer for "defaulting" VMware by Broadcom customers. Broadcom has apparently introduced "penalties for end customers who have not renewed their (existing) subscription licenses by the anniversary date." So if you miss the deadline, the price of a renewed subscription will increase by 20 percent in the first year.
The Register has also seen this information in several social media and blog posts. However, no response was received to an inquiry made to VMware by Broadcom last week.
Goodbye to small customers?
It looks like VMware by Broadcom now wants to get rid of the small customers for good and focus on large customers with a corresponding number of licenses. In the case of unwanted customers, the price will be tightened a little more.
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