End of perpetual VMware licenses and SaaS services in sight

Published by VMware

This simplification means that VMware's 168 products will be offered in two distinct packages: VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). In addition, they are offering optional advanced add-ons that can be used in conjunction with these solutions. For smaller deployments, vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus will also remain available.

‍

Below is a summary of the changes made to the portfolio:

• VMware vSphere Foundation: the solution for optimizing data centers in traditional vSphere environments. It includes Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, as well as Aria Operations and Aria Operations for Logs as part of the standard features. Customers with lighter requirements, such as basic hardware consolidation or virtualization on a very small number of servers, can still purchase subscriptions for vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus Kit.
• VMware Cloud Foundation: the new solution for customers who want to leverage the value of a full-stack infrastructure with a platform that offers vSphere, vSAN, and NSX, including the complete Aria management and orchestration suite with new services.
• VMware add-on services: available for both VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation to further enhance the customer journey and address additional storage, security, disaster recovery, Generative AI, and other specific use cases.
  ‍

This portfolio simplification allows customers to derive more value from their VMware investment and enables VMware to accelerate the delivery of new innovations while simplifying both deployment and management for customers.

In addition, VMware by Broadcom also plans to offer ‘Bring Your Own License,’ allowing customers to purchase VMware Cloud Foundation subscriptions from Broadcom and deploy them flexibly across VMware-validated hybrid cloud endpoints, as well as their own on-premises data centers. Another result of the transition is that the products listed in the table below have now reached their ‘End of Availability’ (EoA) as standalone offerings.

Some offerings may still be available for use as part of VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vSphere Foundation offerings. As VMware wrote in this blog post, they are also announcing the EoA of Aria SaaS services, but will continue to support customers currently using these services until the end of their subscription term. After this term, customers must transition to VCF or VVF. Please also note that Aria SaaS services are currently in maintenance mode, meaning no new features will be released (security and essential updates will continue to be provided throughout the subscription term).

This announcement covers all licensing options, including Perpetual, Support & Subscription (SnS), SaaS/hosted, and other subscription forms. It also includes every edition, suite, and pricing structure for every product. Any exceptions to this coverage will be specified separately.

‍

Table

‍Products no longer available as ‘standalone’

Replacement product included in VCF/VVF/add-on

Which product/add-on?

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus

Yes

VCF, VVF

VMware vSphere+

No

VMware vSphere Enterprise

No

VMware vSphere Standard (excluding subscription)

Yes

Replaced with new vSphere Standard

VMware vSphere ROBO

No

VMware vSphere Scale Out

No

VMware vSphere Desktop

No

VMware vSphere Acceleration Kits

No

VMware vSphere Essentials Kit

No

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus (excluding new subscription offering)

Yes

Replaced with vSphere Essentials Plus Kit

VMware vSphere Starter/Foundation

No

VMware vSphere with Operations Management

No

VMware vSphere Basic

No

VMware vSphere Advanced

No

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance

No

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (free edition)

No

VMware Cloud Foundation (excluding new VCF subscription offering)

No

VMware Cloud Foundation for VDI

No

VMware Cloud Foundation for ROBO

No

VMware SDDC Manager

Yes

VCF

VMware vCenter Standard

Yes

VCF, VVF and vSphere STD

VMware vCenter Foundation

No

VMware vSAN

Yes

VCF, VVF, vSAN add-on

VMware vSAN ROBO

No

VMware vSAN Desktop

No

VMware vSAN+

No

VMware HCI Kit

No

VMware Site Recovery Manager

Yes

SRM Add-On Service

VMware Cloud Editions/Cloud Packs

No

Replaced with VCF, VVF

VMware vCloud Suite

No

Replaced with VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Suite (formerly vRealize Suite)

Yes

VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Universal Suite (formerly vRealize Cloud Universal)

No

VMware Aria Suite Term

Yes

VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight)

Yes

VCF

VMWare Aria Operations for Networks Universal (formerly vRealize Network Insight Universal)

No

VMware vRealize Network Insight ROBO

No

VMware Aria Operations for Logs (formerly vRealize Log Insight)

Yes

VVF, VCF

VMware vRealize Operations 8 Application Monitoring Add-On

No

VMware Aria Operations

Yes

VVF, VCF

VMware Aria Automation

Yes

VCF

VMware Aria Suite Cloud for US Public Sector

No

VMware Aria Automation for Secure Hosts add-on (formerly SaltStack SecOps)

Yes

Tanzu Guardrails Add-On

VMware vRealize Automation SaltStack SecOps add-on

Yes

Tanzu Guardrails Add-On

VMware Aria Operations for Integrations (formerly vRealize True Visibility Suite)

Yes

VCF, VVF

VMware Cloud Director

Yes

VCF (CSP only)

VMware Cloud Director Service

No

VMware NSX

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX for Desktop

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX ROBO

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Distributed Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware NSX Gateway Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Distributed Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Gateway Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Distributed Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Gateway Firewall

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP)

VMware Advanced Load Balancer

Yes

VMware Avi Load Balancer Add-On (also standalone)

VMware Container Networking Enterprise with Antrea

Yes

VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware HCX

Yes

VCF

VMware HCX+

No

If you are an existing customer who has purchased the EoA products mentioned above, but they are not yet due for renewal, no immediate action is required. VMware will continue to provide active support for the duration of your support contract. Furthermore, VMware licenses are now only offered through suppliers invited to the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program, such as Fundaments. If you have not received an invitation, that is not a problem. At Fundaments, we offer the option to purchase licenses through us. This allows you to continue as you are used to. You will simply receive your licenses, 1st and 2nd-line support, and invoices from Fundaments. Should you encounter any issues with your VMware environment, Broadcom remains available to assist. Want to know more? Contact us today! Call 088 4227228 or email vmware@fundaments.nl.