Question 1

How much more is VMware actually costing under Broadcom?

Accepted Answer

Reported increases vary widely by customer, edition, and prior discount level, with many customers seeing 2–5x renewal cost versus their previous VMware spend — and some larger or specialized estates seeing higher multiples. The driver is a combination of per-core subscription pricing, mandatory bundling into VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), and the removal of standalone products customers previously bought.

Question 2

Did Broadcom really kill perpetual VMware licenses?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Broadcom transitioned VMware to a subscription-only model and ended the sale of new perpetual licenses. Existing perpetual licenses remain valid, but support and updates require an active subscription. The practical effect is that any new growth, version upgrade, or support renewal pulls customers into the new subscription pricing.

Question 3

What are VCF and VVF and why do we have to buy them?

Accepted Answer

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) are Broadcom's primary VMware bundles. Most former standalone SKUs (vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Aria/vRealize) have been consolidated into VCF or VVF. Customers who only need a subset of components often end up paying for the bundle anyway — which is one of the largest sources of cost escalation.

Question 4

Are we still required to buy VMware per socket or is it per core now?

Accepted Answer

VMware subscriptions are now per core, with a minimum number of cores per CPU (commonly 16). Servers with fewer than the minimum core count still license at the minimum. This is a fundamental shift from the prior socket-based model and changes the economics of consolidation and refresh cycles dramatically.

Question 5

Should we leave VMware?

Accepted Answer

It depends on workload mix, application portability, available alternatives, and the total cost of migration versus continued VMware spend over 3–5 years. Alternatives (Nutanix AHV, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Proxmox, public cloud) each have trade-offs. The right answer is rarely 'all stay' or 'all leave' — it is a workload-by-workload analysis that most VMware-renewal teams don't have time to do under Broadcom's renewal timeline.

Question 6

Can Broadcom audit our VMware deployment?

Accepted Answer

Yes. VMware contracts include verification clauses, and Broadcom has continued and expanded compliance enforcement post-acquisition. Common findings include over-deployment versus subscribed core count, unauthorized feature usage, and gaps between perpetual entitlements and the subscriptions now required for support and updates.

Question 7

What happened to our VMware partner relationship under Broadcom?

Accepted Answer

Broadcom consolidated the VMware partner program, removing many smaller resellers and concentrating partner authorizations among a smaller number of large partners. Customers who relied on long-term partner advocates frequently lost continuity — and the new partners often have less margin to discount with.

Question 8

What is included in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)?

Accepted Answer

VCF bundles vSphere (compute), vSAN (storage), NSX (networking), and management tooling (Aria suite components) into a single per-core subscription. It is positioned as Broadcom's strategic stack for private cloud. Customers using only vSphere are typically directed to VVF instead.

Question 9

What is VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF)?

Accepted Answer

VVF bundles vSphere with a subset of management components and limited vSAN entitlement, at a lower per-core price than VCF. It is the closest analog to traditional vSphere Enterprise Plus, though the bundle composition differs from any prior VMware SKU.

Question 10

Do we still get individual SKUs like standalone NSX or vSAN?

Accepted Answer

Broadcom retains some standalone options for specific use cases, but most customers are steered into VCF or VVF. Standalone purchase paths exist but are narrower than under pre-Broadcom VMware. Forcing a standalone-only conversation requires deliberate procurement strategy.

Question 11

When should we start preparing for a VMware renewal under Broadcom?

Accepted Answer

Begin 12–18 months before expiration. The window is needed to inventory actual deployment, model VCF/VVF costs versus alternatives, run pilots of competing hypervisors where relevant, build a migration cost model, and create real leverage at the negotiation table. Customers who start three months out have no leverage.

Question 12

Can we negotiate the VMware renewal price?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Discounts are still available — especially for multi-year commitments, larger core counts, and customers who can credibly demonstrate alternatives. The discounts are smaller and harder won than under pre-Broadcom VMware, but the difference between a prepared and an unprepared renewal is routinely seven figures.

Question 13

Should we sign a multi-year VMware subscription?

Accepted Answer

Multi-year terms typically unlock additional discount, but lock in the per-core price and bundle composition. The decision depends on your migration roadmap. If you plan to reduce VMware footprint, longer terms cost more in total than the discount saves. Model both 1-year and 3-year scenarios with realistic workload reduction assumptions.

Question 14

What are the main alternatives to VMware?

Accepted Answer

Nutanix AHV, Microsoft Hyper-V (and Azure Local), Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Proxmox VE, and public cloud migration (re-platforming to AWS, Azure, or GCP native services). Each has different fit, cost, and operational implications. None is a no-cost drop-in; the right answer depends on application portfolio, operational maturity, and timeline.

Question 15

How long does a VMware migration typically take?

Accepted Answer

Realistic migration timelines range from 12–36 months for typical enterprise estates, longer for environments with significant legacy or specialized workloads (e.g., NSX-dependent applications, vSAN-specific storage policies). 'We'll just move everything in six months' is rarely achievable.

Question 16

Does running Oracle Database on a non-VMware hypervisor change Oracle licensing?

Accepted Answer

Oracle's Partitioning Policy applies the same way to most non-VMware hypervisors — KVM, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV are all classified as 'soft partitioning' and ignored for license-count reduction. The policy is not contractual. The same defense applies regardless of which hypervisor you run.

Question 17

How does Broadcom verify VMware compliance?

Accepted Answer

Through standard contractual audit clauses, deployment-data requests, and support-portal entitlement reconciliation. Customers who continue to consume updates, patches, or support without sufficient subscription coverage create the most common finding category.

Question 18

What if our perpetual licenses no longer match our deployment?

Accepted Answer

Perpetual licenses remain valid for the deployments they covered, but expansions, version updates, and ongoing support require active subscriptions. Mismatch between deployed cores and entitled cores is the single most common Broadcom compliance issue.

Question 19

How should we respond to a Broadcom compliance inquiry?

Accepted Answer

The same way you would respond to any enterprise vendor compliance inquiry: acknowledge in writing without agreeing to scope or timeline, do not share inventory before validating obligations, and engage independent counsel before substantive engagement.

Question 20

What contract clauses should we negotiate with Broadcom?

Accepted Answer

Price protection across the term, true-down rights at renewal, bundle composition (substitution rights between VCF/VVF), exit and run-out support for departing workloads, support service-level commitments, audit notice and scope, and explicit treatment of pre-existing perpetual entitlements.

Question 21

Can we get true-down rights with Broadcom?

Accepted Answer

True-down is contractually rare in VMware subscriptions, but specific true-down or step-down provisions have been negotiated by customers with credible migration plans. The leverage required is real demonstrated alternatives, not stated intent.

Question 22

How is vSAN licensed under VCF and VVF?

Accepted Answer

VCF includes a full vSAN entitlement per core; VVF includes a smaller vSAN capacity allocation, with additional capacity available as an add-on. Customers who depend heavily on vSAN often find VVF insufficient and are pushed toward VCF.

Question 23

What about NSX under the new bundles?

Accepted Answer

NSX is included in VCF and is generally not available standalone at the same scale post-transition. Customers with NSX-dependent network virtualization need to evaluate VCF cost specifically, and consider whether NSX can be replaced by alternative SDN/NFV approaches as part of a migration.

VMware licensing questions, answered straight.

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Questions people actually ask about VMware by Broadcom

Subscription model, VCF, and VVF bundles

VMware renewals and migration timing

Alternatives and migration

VMware compliance and audits

Contract clauses and negotiation levers

vSAN, NSX, and platform-specific topics

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