Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMware on November 22, 2023, has kicked off a series of sweeping VMware licensing changes that are already reshaping licensing, pricing, support, and renewals for customers around the world. If you haven’t evaluated your VMware position since the acquisition, now is the time.
This guide outlines each major update in the order it occurred, explains what it means for your organization, and includes recommendations for how to prepare.
Table of contents
December 11, 2023: End of Perpetual Licensing
What Changed
On December 11, 2023, just two weeks after VMware’s acquisition, Broadcom announced its first big blow to customers. Effective immediately Broadcom eliminated the sale of perpetual licenses across the entire VMware portfolio. Customers who previously owned licenses outright must now transition to subscription-based licensing. Broadcom no longer offers support renewals for existing perpetual licenses, except under very limited grace periods.
This announcement confirmed that a wide range of previously modular products would only be available through these new bundles going forward. These products included:
- vSphere
- vSAN
- NSX
- HCX
- Site Recovery Manager
- vCloud Suite
- Aria Suite, including:
- Aria Universal
- Aria Automation
- Aria Operations
- Aria Operations for Logs
- Aria Operations for Networks
Why It Matters
- You can no longer make a one-time investment and maintain control over your VMware usage long-term.
- Perpetual licenses were a budgeting-friendly CapEx model; subscriptions shift this to an OpEx model with recurring costs.
- Once support ends, Broadcom blocks access to patches, updates, and security fixes—even if the software continues to run.
How To Respond
- Inventory all perpetual licenses and note their support expiration dates.
- Model the long-term cost impact of subscription renewals vs. staying on unsupported software.
- Explore bridging strategies (e.g., shorter terms) while evaluating alternatives.
- Request a 12-Month Renewal Instead of Multi-Year Commitments: Ask Broadcom (or your authorized partner) for a one-year contract to give you time to evaluate options without committing to higher long-term costs.
- Negotiate a Phased Subscription Plan: License only critical environments (e.g., production) on VMware while offloading dev/test or DR to other platforms like Proxmox, Hyper-V, or public cloud.
- Leverage Existing Perpetual Licenses for Non-Production: Use your perpetual licenses to run test environments, and replace production systems first while support remains in place.
- Use Third-Party Support to Extend Lifespan of Perpetual Licenses: Vendors like Rimini Street or Spinnaker Support offer 1–3 years of support for legacy VMware environments—buying time without renewing under Broadcom.
- Shift New Projects to Alternate Platforms Immediately: Freeze VMware expansion and deploy all new workloads on a lower-cost hypervisor or public cloud while running discovery and cost modeling.
- Bundle Bridge Renewal with a Technical Exit Plan: Build internal migration tools, test backup hypervisors, and run vendor bake-offs during the bridge period to avoid last-minute pressure.
January 16, 2024: Forced Bundles Replace Modular Licensing
What Changed
While the December 11 update outlined the high-level shift to bundled offerings, Broadcom followed up with a January 16, 2024 announcement detailing how the bundling model would work—especially regarding Aria products. With that clarification, the VMware by Broadcom licensing changes confirmed that standalone SaaS versions of Aria Operations, Automation, Logs, and Network had reached End of Availability as of December 12, 2023, and these capabilities would now only be available as part of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or vSphere Foundation (VSF).
The new licensing model offers only two bundled product suites:
- VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) – includes vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, and the full Aria Suite
- VMware vSphere Foundation (VSF) – includes vSphere, vSAN, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, and a limited Aria Operations bundle
There are no à la carte options, even for customers who previously used Aria as a lightweight SaaS solution for monitoring or automation.
Why It Matters
- This now forces you to license an entire stack, even if you only need a core hypervisor or a single management tool.
- Customers who previously paid for vSphere alone—or subscribed to Aria SaaS for performance analytics or logging—are now paying for a broad suite of tightly integrated tools, regardless of usage.
- This bundling not only increases costs, but also introduces operational complexity by overlapping with third-party tools already in place for monitoring, logging, or automation.
How To Respond
- Audit your current VMware and Aria usage to identify which components are truly necessary—and which you can eliminate or replace.
- Ask your Broadcom rep or reseller to break down each bundled component, especially if you’re being charged for NSX, Aria, or Tanzu licenses that don’t align with your environment.
- Phase out lightweight Aria use cases (like logs or dashboards) in favor of tools you already own, or consider replacing them with open-source or cloud-native alternatives.
- If you were an Aria Cloud SaaS customer, review your remaining contract term and begin evaluating how to migrate or replace that functionality before renewal.
- Don’t renew blind—require line-item explanations for each bundled SKU and assess whether a phased or hybrid deployment might allow you to minimize the impact.
January 22, 2024: Clarification Announcement
What Changed
The January 22, 2024 clarification post was significant because it validated and formalized the worst suspicions. It confirmed that there would be no à la carte licensing options moving forward. Additionally, it confirmed that all perpetual and modular SaaS offerings were now officially discontinued.
Rather than softening the impact, the post removed any lingering ambiguity making it clear Broadcom’s new licensing model was final. Many in the VMware community saw the post not as a helpful clarification but as the final confirmation that the flexibility VMware customers once relied on was gone.
Why It Matters
- Confirms the end of modular licensing. Even lightweight SaaS tools like Aria Logs and Automation are now only available via bundled suites (VCF or VSF).
- Locks in SKU and availability changes. The post included detailed SKU mappings and end-of-availability lists, making the policy shift irreversible.
- Frustrates legacy users. Organizations with lean or customized environments saw this as the final confirmation that Broadcom’s model no longer accommodates flexibility or minimal deployments.
In short, it cemented the policy shift, and many interpreted it as the end of customer-first licensing flexibility from VMware.
How To Respond
As stated before, review your environment and compare it to what’s included in VCF or VSF—but now, do so with the understanding that there will be no carve-outs.
- Reassess your usage of tools like Aria Logs, Automation, or Operations and begin selecting viable replacements.
- Use the SKU retirement schedule to set internal project timelines—especially for any tools your team depends on that are now discontinued.
- Incorporate these realities into broader infrastructure planning: this is no longer just a licensing shift—it’s a product strategy pivot you must adapt to.
March 2025: 72-Core Minimums on Renewals
What Changed
In March 2025, Broadcom partner Arrow Electronics informed resellers of a major licensing change: a 72-core minimum requirement would be enforced on all new VMware subscription orders, starting April 10, 2025. This marked a sharp increase from the previous 16-core minimum, effectively raising the floor for small or segmented deployments.
However, following community backlash and mounting confusion, the policy was quietly retracted in early May 2025. Broadcom has not issued a public statement on the change or its reversal, and no official documentation confirming the policy has been made available on VMware’s or Broadcom’s websites.
Why It Matters
- Organizations with small clusters, branch offices, or test environments would have faced a 4.5x increase in the minimum cores required.
- Mid-market and SMBs were particularly at risk of being priced out of VMware for low-density workloads.
- Even large enterprises could have been forced to license underutilized infrastructure just to meet baseline thresholds.
How to Respond
- Clarify with your reseller what core minimums apply to your renewal—and request written confirmation.
- Document any quote language tied to core minimums in case of future disputes.
- Segment and isolate dev/test, disaster recovery, and low-density workloads—these are the most affected environments if a similar policy returns.
- Monitor Broadcom partner communications for potential reinstatement of minimums or other usage floors in future renewals.
June 1, 2025: Partner Network Overhaul & Tier Reduction
What Changed
On June 2, 2025, Broadcom ended the “Registered” partner tier, narrowing its partner program to three levels: Select, Premier, and Pinnacle—eliminating access for many smaller resellers and service providers.
Broadcom formally announced this change to channel partners and sent notices the same day. It came after a period of evaluation and follows earlier communications in December 2023 and February 2024, when Broadcom transitioned partner agreements to its new invitation-only “Broadcom Advantage Partner Program”
Why It Matters
- Broadcom stripped many former “Registered” partners of their authorization, cutting off their ability to sell or service VMware products after a 60-day transition window.
- The restructuring favors larger, experienced partners with deep VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) expertise, raising the entry bar for smaller vendors.
How To Respond
- Immediately confirm your partner’s current status within the Broadcom Advantage tiers.
- If deauthorized, request introductions to authorized partners to maintain service continuity.
- Document all partner communications and contract handovers to avoid support disruptions.
Final Thoughts: Prepare Now or Pay Later
With the full impact of the VMware by Broadcom licensing changes still unfolding, organizations must act now—review entitlements, model future costs, and update infrastructure plans to stay in control. These sweeping changes have reshaped the renewal landscape by removing flexibility, reducing transparency, and driving up costs. Broadcom is fundamentally reshaping how vendors sell, support, and license virtualization software—this goes far beyond a pricing shift.
If your organization hasn’t reviewed its VMware strategy recently, now is the time. Waiting until your renewal date will leave you with fewer options and more pressure to accept unfavorable terms. This goes beyond a pricing shift—Broadcom has fundamentally changed how vendors sell, support, and license virtualization software.
Don’t go into your next renewal blind. Document everything, question assumptions, and prepare to negotiate—or pivot—on your own terms. Book a meeting to start discussing your VMware renewal strategy. And download our VMware Renewal Checklist.
