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Broadcom adds services to basic VMware subscriptions
These changes might be moot if Broadcom remains focused on its largest customers, according to one expert.
This article was updated on 10/31/2024.
Broadcom plans to make changes to features available in its hyperconverged infrastructure and virtualization packages aimed at smaller VMware customers.
In November, the vendor will double the amount of vSAN capacity available per core licensed to VMware vSphere Foundation customers, from 100 GiB to 250 GiB, and will add a new, basic virtualization tier called VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus that will include some additional features.
These are the latest changes from Broadcom as it adjusts offerings for VMware customers following its acquisition of the virtualization giant last year, according to Prashanth Shenoy, vice president of marketing for the VMware Cloud Foundation division at Broadcom.
"Earlier this year, I offered up the point of view that change is never easy," Shenoy wrote in a blog post published Thursday. "And as we approach the one year anniversary of VMware joining Broadcom, some of the biggest changes appear to be paying off. ... What I should have also added was that change is also constant."
Constant change could include the number of customers that choose to continue to use VMware, according to Steve McDowell, founder and analyst at NAND Research. The bundling of previously separate software offerings remains unpopular, he said, as Broadcom culled the almost 200 disparate products VMware offered into just four subscription offerings.
"They're exposed, and customers continue to dislike the bundling," McDowell said. "There's going to be tweaks."
What's in the box
VMware vSphere Foundation is a subscription offering centered on making VMware an enterprise hyperconverged infrastructure platform, Shenoy said in a media briefing yesterday. It lacks software and capabilities that Broadcom considers vital for its vision of a private cloud data center included in the flagship VMware Cloud Foundation package.
"That's our marquee platform," he said during the briefing. "On the other hand, for customers who just want a virtualized compute platform, we have vSphere Foundation."
VMware vSphere Foundation includes vSphere with vCenter, the Aria Suite Standard infrastructure management, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and the now-doubled vSAN storage. The boost in available licensed storage was an early complaint from customers following the acquisition, McDowell said, making the update a positive course correction.
"They came out with a really low capacity for vSAN out of the gate," he said. "This is 100% a reaction to customers."
The offering included the ability to purchase additional services for the vSphere platform, a capability not included with the pared-down vSphere Standard subscription.
The new VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus subscription, like vSphere Standard, is intended for customers that want compute virtualization packaged with a few other services, but none of the cloud frills. These additional services, as of press time, will include VM encryption, vSphere Distributed Switch, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler and Storage DRS.
Existing basic virtualization subscriptions on offer from Broadcom include vSphere Essentials Plus, which includes a 96-core vSphere license and vCenter, as well as vSphere Standard, which includes vCenter, but licenses on a per-core basis. Pricing is only available through Broadcom sales or authorized Broadcom customers, according to the vendor.
The vSphere Essentials Plus offering will be discontinued following next month's launch of vSphere Enterprise Plus, according to a Broadcom spokesperson. Broadcom also issued an updated comparison of all the new offerings.
However, the changes might be moot if Broadcom remains focused only on its largest customers while paying lip service to the complaints from SMBs, according to McDowell.
He anticipates commercial and open source virtualization competitors such as Nutanix or Proxmox to begin siphoning customers from VMware in earnest in 2025.
"I don't think they care if they lose a little bit of business if they keep high-value [customers]," McDowell said. "[But] customers are switching, and Broadcom is in for a rough year."
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for TechTarget Editorial covering cloud and data storage.
