VMware backs down: companies can continue to license 16 cores
First Broadcom announced that VMware customers would have to license at least 72 cores instead of 16. Now the company has reversed its decision.
(Image: Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov)
- Arne Bauer
Following extensive criticism, there have been further changes to the VMware licensing model: Contrary to Broadcom's initial announcement, companies can now still purchase VMware licenses from 16 cores, as a distributor confirmed to iX. The software company had originally planned to increase the minimum number of cores ordered from 16 to 72 from April 10, 2025 – a decision that would have hit small and medium-sized companies particularly hard. Broadcom has already published a revised reseller price list, which is available to iX. The company has not yet responded to an inquiry.
SMEs would have had to pay for unused cores
No official reason for the decision is currently known. However, it can be assumed that the widespread criticism and the potential impact on SMEs working with smaller server footprints played a role. These companies in particular were faced with the choice of either bearing the higher licensing costs or switching to alternatives such as Red Hat with OpenShift Virtualization, Nutanix AHV or the open-source platform Proxmox.
Broadcom, on the other hand, is trying to push its customers to use its more comprehensive and more expensive VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform. When the VCF 9 beta was released, Prashanth Shenoy, head of marketing at Broadcom, was still certain that his customers had been suspicious after the VMware acquisition, but would now feel more comfortable with the company's approach.
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Impact and outlook
In light of the renewed changes to the licensing model, however, the general uncertainty surrounding Broadcom's approach remains. They illustrate once again how unpredictable the company is at present. Companies that would have been affected by the original change should ask themselves whether it makes sense to rely on VMware products in the long term, despite the potential costs of switching. Recently, customers have repeatedly left the VMware ecosystem and switched to an alternative, including the Austrian cloud provider Anexia.
(kbe)
