What's changing? 

Broadcom's operational overhaul of VMware has eliminated perpetual licenses in favor of a subscription-only model, resulting in significant price increases and a reduction from 168 product bundles to four. Additionally, the transition has increased minimum purchase requirements and restructured the partner ecosystem to favor large-scale private cloud platforms. You can read more about the VMware operational changes:

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• Shift to Subscription Licensing: Broadcom stopped selling VMware perpetual licenses and moved to a subscription-based model. Existing perpetual licenses still work, but you cannot renew support services without an active contract.

• Higher Minimum Core Requirement: The minimum purchase jumped from 16 cores to 72 cores. This may affect smaller or mid-size organizations they may pay for more cores than they actually use.

• End of White Label Program: This model ended on October 31, 2025. Smaller VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSPs) using under 3,500 cores can no longer buy licenses through partners, cutting off their market access.

• Late Renewal Penalties: Renewing a subscription license late brings financial penalty (20-25%).

• Contract Expiry Rules: Customers can no longer renew contracts early to reduce their core count.

• Fewer Product Bundles: VMware cut its 168 product bundles down to just four core options: VCF, VVF, VVS, and VVEP.

• Massive Cost Increases: Customers reporting major price hikes.

• License Audits: Perpetual license holders with expired support may receive cease-and-desist letters to stop them from using any software updates or patches released after their support ended​​