Broadcom ends perpetual licenses for VMware products

Update: April 17, 2024
Listening to strong customer feedback, Hock Tan, President and CEO of Broadcom, has announced free access to zero-day security patches for customers on supported versions of vSphere with perpetual licenses. He also stated that more VMware products will be added overtime to support this initiative. In addition, support extensions have been granted for customers who came up for renewal while the perpetual license changes were rolling out.

Broadcom ends perpetual licenses for VMware products

Broadcom has wasted little time after their acquisition of VMware to start shaking things up. Effective immediately, Broadcom has put an end to perpetual licenses on VMware’s offerings. While current perpetual license holders with active support will be unaffected, Broadcom has chosen to entice these customers by halving the subscription cost of its hybrid cloud solution, VMware Cloud Foundation. Adding more flexibility to their offerings, Broadcom is also introducing a bring your own subscription license (BYOL) option available for VMware validated hybrid cloud endpoints running VMware Cloud Foundation.

While time will tell if this is a good move for Broadcom, its customers and its partners, one thing is certain: With this monumental shift in licensing, IT professionals around the world will need to evaluate their VMware licenses, assess the financial impact on their business, and strategically plan to move forward. This is where Flexera can help your IT asset management (ITAM) program.

How Flexera Can Help

Flexera leads in ITAM and FinOps convergence

With VMware focusing on a new subscription-only model, it’s a certainty that they will be more stringent than ever on compliance and that audits will undoubtedly increase. To combat this, it’s imperative that you have a great ITAM and FinOps strategy moving forward. Now is the time to review your inventory and check on your VMware licenses and support services renewal dates. Your FinOps and ITAM teams need to be on the same page for a complete understanding of your total cost of ownership (TCO). Let Flexera help you get your teams, ITAM and FinOps strategies aligned.

Utilizing Flexera One—combining the power of Flexera One FinOps, ITAM and software as a service (SaaS) management within a single platform, all sharing the same data and control planes—organizations can extend their hybrid FinOps practices to include all costs associated with the cloud.

Flexera One surpasses simple workflows for software asset management (SAM) with intelligent product use rights and algorithms that automate the calculation of your license position. With unparalleled application recognition, SKU libraries, and product use libraries, you can rest easy knowing you’ll be in compliance and prepared for vendor audits.

Utilizing Flexera’s ITAM you can:

Strategically optimize key vendor relationships and contracts to improve business outcomes
Maximize the value of your software portfolio so you can redirect savings towards strategic initiatives
Reveal the nexus of your contractual, organizational, usage and inventory data so you understand software usage and its associated business value
Share transformational technology insights by integrating with procurement, ITSM, ITFM and other business systems in your ecosystem

Save more with SAM

According to Flexera’s latest 2023 State of ITAM report, organizations are finding immense value from their SAM programs. Companies were asked to estimate the combined savings and cost avoidance they’ve realized over the past year; eleven percent realized more than $25 million and 39 percent realized between $1 million and $10 million in savings and cost avoidance.

IT professional survey results for SAM savings

Wasted SaaS spend is still a huge issue for companies across their IT estate with an estimated 32 percent of spend underutilized or wasted. With Broadcom’s VMware being one of the last holdouts now adopting a SaaS-only model, it’s even more critical you reevaluate your SaaS spend across your entire IT estate.