Broadcom raised our VMware bill. How do we get leverage back without replatforming?

Why did the VMware bill jump, and what can we do about it?#

Broadcom changed how VMware is sold, and the bill followed. It bought VMware in late 2023 and stopped selling perpetual licenses that December, moving everything to subscriptions. In 2024 it cut back the program for the cloud providers that resell VMware.

So you're in a predicament. Your applications run on VMware, and moving them off takes time and money. The renewal arrives either way.

You've got two paths, and Clectiv bids both:

• Keep everything on VMware, and change who holds the license. Your VMs (virtual machines) move unchanged to a VMware service provider, a company that runs VMware for customers under its own commitment to Broadcom. No replatforming.
• Replatform. Move your VMs to a different platform, like Nutanix, a hosted private cloud, bare metal or public cloud. It's the more aggressive path.

We usually recommend the first. It takes the licensing pressure off now, and it leaves the bigger decision for when you're ready to make it.

Before you call anyone#

Bring the renewal to Clectiv AI before Broadcom, your reseller or any provider hears from you. Then Clectiv AI runs the process: a bid to each of the providers that fit, a real competition, and you choose at the end. Call one first and you're negotiating alone, against a price list that just went up.

Start a project

How does a VMware service provider get our licensing under control?#

By putting your VMs under its commitment instead of yours. Broadcom's top-tier VMware service providers commit to it at a much larger scale than one company can. Your VMs run under that commitment, so the licensing cost can come down to something you can manage.

Everything stays in place. Same VMs, same applications, same tools, same way your team works. Nothing gets replatformed.

It also buys you time. A multi-year term with a service provider is a longer runway into whatever comes next for your applications, set by your roadmap instead of Broadcom's renewal calendar.

Here are some of our providers that do it. Rackspace, Expedient, 11:11 Systems, RapidScale, TierPoint and Flexential are all Pinnacle partners, the top tier of Broadcom's program for VMware cloud service providers. Clectiv has proprietary pricing pre-negotiated with these providers, and Clectiv AI runs the process for you: start a project.

Every proposal answers the same four things:

• The licensing cost per VM or per host, and what's included at that price.
• Where your VMs run, and how they connect to your network and clouds.
• Who does the move, and whether it's in the price.
• The term, and how you leave or replatform later.

The plan asks the rest.

When is replatforming the right move?#

When the business case is there and you're ready for a bigger project. Replatforming can end your dependence on VMware licensing for good. It also takes the most time, testing and change.

Clectiv sources the technology and the providers that fit your applications and your business. Size the estate with Clectiv AI first, so every option gets priced against the same VMs.

Here are some of our providers for this path. Rackspace, Expedient, 11:11 Systems, DataBank and 365 Data Centers all sell hosted private cloud, and AWS moves VMs into its own compute. Clectiv AI runs the process we've run for other VMware customers, so you start where they ended up: start a project.

Common questions#

How does Clectiv AI get this done?#

Start with Clectiv AI. Tell it what runs on VMware and when the renewal lands. It scopes both paths with you and writes your plan: where you are, what runs where, what the licensing is doing, and what has to change.

Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the VMware service providers and cloud providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. They bid for your business and compete with each other, the team pushes on terms, and you choose the one you like.

Companies like yours already climbed this. Clectiv AI runs the process we ran with them, so you start where they ended up. That's how you get the best pricing, terms and contract we can get from the providers that fit.

It's free to you, and it's days, not months. Everything we cover in cloud is on the cloud page.

If the public cloud bill is climbing too, read how to lower your AWS, Azure or Google bill.