Broadcom’s Acquisition of VMware: Are you getting the most from your VMware environment?

Exploring Viable Options and Future Considerations for Clients

The recent acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has introduced significant changes that have raised concerns among clients. This shift, including the move from perpetual license sales to a subscription-based business model and the discontinuation of certain VMware products, demands a strategic approach.

Options include remaining with VMware and look to optimise the current VMware environment, or migrating workloads, in part or in full, to alternative on-premise, hybrid or hyperscaler cloud solutions.

In this blog, we explore the pros, cons, and critical considerations to help you navigate this new landscape effectively.

Pros of the Broadcom Takeover

1. Streamlined Product Portfolio:
   • Broadcom’s acquisition has led to a more streamlined VMware product portfolio, simplifying the product offerings for clients by consolidating what was a complicated licensing model into four offerings – Essentials Plus, Standard, Foundation & Cloud Foundation.
   • Bundling of features in the Foundation and Cloud Foundation offerings also offer commercial advantages for those currently using those feature sets already.
2. Subscription Model:
   • The transition to a subscription-based model provides a more flexible and predictable way to access and consume VMware Products and is fast becoming the industry norm. It also ensures clients always have the latest features and support, aligning with these modern SaaS trends.

Cons of the Broadcom Takeover

1. Cost Increase:
   • Clients may face significant cost increases transitioning from perpetual licenses or free versions to the new mandatory subscription model without re assessing their current VMware environment.
   • There are seemingly no discounted pricing offerings except for Cloud Foundation, this includes discontinuation of Education and Government Pricing models & the forced packaging of VMware bundles in Foundation Products. The service provider model has changed with the minimum baseline commitment significantly higher than prior to the Broadcom acquisition.
2. Discontinuation of Product Offerings:
   • The discontinuation and sell-off of certain VMware products, including VMWare Virtual Desktop VDI and the free version of vSphere Hypervisor ESXi has customers concerned about changes in product direction, support and integration challenges.
3. Uncertainty and Change:
   • Any major acquisition brings uncertainty. Changes in leadership, strategy, or product roadmaps can create challenges for existing clients who rely on VMware’s stability and predictability.

What are the Key Considerations for Optimising Your VMware Environment?

1. Evaluate Current Contracts and Licenses:
   • Review your current contracts and licenses early. Understand the terms and conditions and be prepared for any changes due to the acquisition. Consider negotiating terms that provide flexibility and protect your interests.
2. Stay Informed:
   • Keep abreast of announcements from both Broadcom and VMware. Understanding the direction of the new leadership will help you make informed decisions about your environment.
3. Assess Your Environment:
   • Conduct a thorough assessment of your current VMware environment. Identify obsolete workloads, oversubscribed VMs and areas where performance can be improved. Environmental assessment will optimise resource allocation and consolidate workloads. Over 60% of Meridian IT Clients that completed a VMWare assessment were found to be oversubscribed from a CPU Core perspective.
4. Explore Alternatives:
   • While VMware firmly remains the industry leader, an option is to explore alternative virtualisation and cloud solutions. Options such as Red Hat OpenShift, Nutanix, and Microsoft Hyper-V, are strong contenders in the virtualization space. Although they lack the maturity and rich feature sets of VMware, they can be compelling commercially.
   • Re-platforming however can be a complex exercise and careful consideration on best fit for your infrastructure and operational requirements should be made based on factors such as:
     • Business Risk, Security and Compliance
     • End to end systems and data security
     • Compatibility with existing applications
     • Migration ease and support
     • Systems & User Training
     • Performance and Reliability
     • Cost Effectiveness of migration (TCO)
     • Scalability to meet future needs
     • Ease of Use
     • Support and maintenance

Plan for the Future

The Broadcom acquisition of VMWare has been perhaps the industry’s most controversial. It encompasses concerns about market dynamics, customer impact and broader implications for the tech industry. There are challenges in terms of increased costs and reduced flexibility for many VMware clients.

However, what do the alternatives offer and what are the benefits or business risks that lurk in these alternative solutions?

Meridian IT has decades of Industry experience in the virtualization space and was an early adopter of VMWare. Let Meridian IT Help you navigate the VMWare Broadcom challenges for you.

At Meridian IT, we can help you:

• Assess and optimise your current VMWare investment and evaluate performance and utilisation to determine if the current environment is over subscribed. This is provided as a free consultancy service with a published report highlighting where savings can be achieved and options for optimising your current environment.
• Evaluate alternative hypervisors and provide informed advice on the pros and cons of each.
• Explore hybrid or multi-cloud strategies – such as moving some or all workloads to on-premise private clouds or to the hyperscaler’s

Learn More: https://meridianit.com.au/managed-services/managed-virtualisation-and-server/

Contact us now for your free VMware Assessment: https://meridianit.com.au/contact-us/