Broadcom revamps and simplifies VMware portfolio

Broadcom has updated its recently acquired VMware product portfolio to simplify pricing models and help standardise the ecosystem.

The updates include transitioning VMware Cloud from perpetual to subscription licensing to bring the model in line with other major software providers. Meanwhile, VMware Cloud Foundation will enable customers to deploy on premise and then take their subscription to a supported hyperscale cloud or VMware Cloud Service Provider environment at any time.

Broadcom has also reduced the size of the VMware portfolio from more than 160 products to a smaller set of offerings built around VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation. To support this change, the company has created a dedicated VMware Cloud Foundation division to deliver a single, integrated product across all core technologies.

The newest release of VMware Cloud Foundation, version 5.1.1, meanwhile supports the initial availability of VMware Private AI Foundation, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA.

Broadcom has also added three new automation capabilities for data services, load balancing and private AI to enable cloud-native and AI-powered applications across private and hybrid clouds.

Other new capabilities include unified ransomware and disaster recovery with the VMware Live Recovery add-on service, new integrated network operations capabilities and a relaunched VMware Cloud Service Provider program with new tiers and benefits.

Broadcom acquired VMWare last year for US$69 billion ($105 billion) following an 18-month saga of delayed approvals from international regulators and other hurdles.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said the company has been hard at work in the first hundred days post-acquisition.

“VCF is our platform for innovation going forward. It’s the solution that will help us address the business outcomes our customers have expressed to me directly as their most critical priorities,” he said. “With VCF, our customers will achieve a highly efficient cloud operating model that combines public cloud scale and agility with private cloud security and resiliency, and we believe it delivers this at a lower cost of ownership for the average enterprise customer, compared with the ever-increasing cost of a public cloud. The first 100 days were a strong start for VMware as part of Broadcom. There’s much more to come.”

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