VMware by Broadcom: Product, service and support news

News of Broadcom’s plans to acquire VMware triggered concerns among customers, partners, and industry watchers, many of whom recalled Broadcom’s track record with prior high-profile acquisitions, including network switching vendor Brocade, software firm CA Technologies, and Symantec’s enterprise security business. So far, the $60 billion Broadcom-VMware deal has led to some layoffs, VMware licensing changes, production rationalizations, shifts to the partner program, and multiple lawsuits.

Broadcom has been making moves to placate enterprises that are unhappy with its VMware licensing overhaul and struggling with upgrade fatigue. It announced plans to shift from aggressive two-year major release cycles to a more measured three-year cadence, and it’s extending support for VCF 9.0 to six years instead of the previous five. Meanwhile, competitors are claiming some success in attracting VM defectors, though analysts aren’t reporting widespread migrations.

We’ve tracked the saga since Broadcom first announced plans to acquire VMware in May 2022. Here’s a record of what has transpired so far, plus the latest news and analysis.

Broadcom’s VMware strategy pays off financially, but customers not as keen as Wall Street

Sept. 9, 2025: To many attendees at this year’s VMware Explore conference, turnout felt smaller, there were fewer sessions than last year, and there were markedly fewer vendors on the exhibit floor. But while the mood among VMware Explore attendees was dour, Wall Street seems to be celebrating Broadcom’s moves. According to an earnings report released Sept. 4, Broadcom’s net revenues jumped sharply in 2024, marking the fastest increase in the company’s history.

Broadcom touts AI-native VMware, but gains aren’t revolutionary

Sept. 9, 2025: Broadcom’s VMware has taken on the AI mantle, declaring that the VMware Cloud Foundation platform is now “AI native.” The AI features are now a core part of the platform, instead of add-ons requiring additional payment, and VCF’s AI feature set continues to expand, keeping pace with industry trends. In the big picture, however, Broadcom didn’t set the world ablaze with the announcements at its VMware Explore conference. They were all the obvious next steps for the company and do not move the needle forward on AI technology.

VMware Avi load balancer gains AI integration and post-quantum security

Sept. 9, 2025: The role of load balancing is growing in the genAI era. Broadcom announced significant enhancements coming to VMware Avi release 31.1.1. The update introduces plug-and-play integration with VCF 9.0 private cloud, AI-powered operational capabilities, and post-quantum cryptography support. These developments reflect the platform’s evolution from a traditional load balancer into a comprehensive application services platform.

Running the numbers on VCF: How one midsize enterprise is making it work

Sept. 2, 2025: Broadcom’s shift to all-in-one, perpetual licenses for VMware Cloud Foundation has infuriated customers and priced out some companies, but 750-employee Grinnell Mutual has managed to save money on the new platform. “I had followed the acquisition very closely and heard what people had been saying about pricing,” Jeremy Wright, director of IT infrastructure at the insurance company, told Network World. Wright could see how some larger companies might benefit from the new structure, but it wasn’t clear how a small company like Grinnell would be affected. When he dug into the numbers, Wright discovered that Grinnell would actually come out ahead – substantially ahead.

Broadcom tackles agentic AI security challenges

Aug. 26, 2025: Broadcom announced new security enhancements for its VMware vDefend and VMware Avi products, which are part of the VMware Cloud Foundation Cyber Compliance Advanced Services. Upgrades include more security for agentic workflows, including model context protocol (MCP) servers, and support for post-quantum encryption, among other improvements.

Broadcom launches VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence and Tanzu Platform 10.3 to drive agentic AI

August 26, 2025: Broadcom is pushing its new data lakehouse platform as the answer to all an enterprise’s data challenges — or almost. VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence will enable users to curate incoming data across many different environments with its data ingestion, streaming, and pipeline engine, the company said its VMware Explore conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Customers are looking for VCF value

August 19, 2025: Despite grumbling by customers, as well as legal action against Broadcom on a number of fronts, there’s no indication that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is wavering the least bit from his strategy. Broadcom’s pitch is that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) enables IT organizations to run a modern, virtualized, high-performance, highly automated, AWS-style cloud in an on-prem environment with all of the benefits that accrue. All customers need to do is take advantage of VCF’s full arsenal of features. And that’s the sole focus of VMware Explore 2025.

Chinese ‘Fire Ant’ spies start to bite unpatched VMware instances

July 28, 2025: Suspected China-aligned actors are running a new “Fire Ant” espionage campaign, active since early 2025, that targets VMWare ESXi, vCenter servers, and F5 appliances to achieve stealthy hypervisor-level control. According to a Sygnia discovery, the campaign has been exploiting critical flaws in VMware environments to gain unauthenticated access to virtualization infrastructure and deploy persistent malware like VirtualPita and autobackup.bin.

CISPE seeks to annul Broadcom’s VMware takeover

July 24, 2025: The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) has filed an action for annulment in a bid to overturn the decision by the European Commission approving Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. CISPE spokesperson Ben Maynard said that the appeal, which is now before the European General Court, “argues that the Commission did not properly test the licensing remedies offered by Broadcom and under-estimated the risk the deal poses to European cloud infrastructure providers and their customers. CISPE believes the clearance would entrench VMware’s licensing gatekeeper position and limit choice and innovation in Europe’s cloud market.”

Broadcom blocks VMware patch access for perpetual license holders with expired support contracts

July 24, 2025: VMware customers holding perpetual licenses without current support contracts are being blocked from accessing critical security patches through Broadcom’s support portal, according to a report. The access restrictions create immediate security risks for enterprise customers, particularly as VMware has published multiple critical security advisories in 2025

Facing CIO backlash, VMware extends support and slows down release cycles

July 18, 2025: VMware has fundamentally altered its development strategy, shifting from aggressive 2-year major release cycles to a more measured 3-year cadence while extending support lifecycles, a strategic retreat that reflects mounting enterprise resistance to forced upgrades amid dramatic cost increases. The company announced that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, now generally available, will be supported for six years instead of the previous five, with minor releases spaced nine months apart rather than every six months.

Timeline of Broadcom-VMware-Siemens licensing dispute

July 10, 2025: Last fall, Siemens threatened to sue VMware if it didn’t provide ongoing support for its software and handed over a list of the softwareHowever, that list included software that Siemens didn’t have licenses for VMware sued, Here’s blow-by-blow account of the Broadcom-VMware-Siemens battle.

Licensing lessons from VMware-Siemens spat

July 7, 2025: Siemens got into some hot water after Broadcom acquired VMware and changed licensing terms. What can enterprises learn from this dispute?

Dutch court forces Broadcom to support VMware migration after 85% price hike backlash

July 1, 2025: VMware and parent company Broadcom must continue to provide support to the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) while the agency migrates away from VMware products over the next two years, a Dutch court has ordered.

VMware licenses too expensive? Then you’re doing something wrong, Broadcom exec suggests

June 24, 2025: Broadcom customers frustrated by the shift to pricey software bundles like VMware Cloud Foundation should reconsider their value, said EMEA CTO Joe Baguley, who argues that broader use of included components reveals the true benefits.

Broadcom grows revenues by 20% following VMware purchase, as customers fume about subscription costs

June 6, 2025: Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware continues to prove itself a worthy purchase, even as the semiconductor giant has faced harsh criticism, and lost some customers, due to significant price increases.

VMware customers in Europe face up to 1,500% price increases under Broadcom ownership

May 23, 2025: VMware customers across Europe are facing massive price increases of up to 1,500% imposed by Broadcom following its acquisition of the virtualization software giant, with some companies now confronting the prospect of zero profitability, according to a damning new report.

Broadcom’s licensing clampdown: Subscription-less VMware users face legal ultimatum

May 9, 2025: Broadcom has initiated what appears to be a systematic legal offensive against subscription-less VMware customers who hold a perpetual software license and have expired support contracts, some within days of expiration.

Broadcom allegedly sends demand letters to perpetual VMware license holders

May 8, 2025: The letters state that users suspected of unauthorized use of patches, bug fixes, and updates released after the expiration of the support agreement may be subject to review. The exception detailed in the letter is security patches for zero-day vulnerabilities, according to the report.

Broadcom (quietly) brings back free VMware ESXi hypervisor

April 17, 2025: With little notice or fanfare, Broadcom is offering a free version of the VMware ESXi hypervisor for download. VMware vSphere Hypervisor version 8 can be downloaded from Broadcom’s support portal for free, but registration is required.

VMware plugs a high-risk vulnerability affecting its Windows-based virtualization

March 26, 2025: Broadcom is warning customers of a high-severity authentication bypass flaw, now fixed, affecting VMWare Tools for Windows. Tracked as CVE-2025-22230, the issue stems from improper access control and could allow privilege escalation on the affected system.

VMware ESXi gets critical patches for in-the-wild virtual machine escape attack

March 4, 2025: Broadcom released emergency patches for its VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion products to fix three vulnerabilities that can lead to virtual machine escape and are actively being exploited by attackers. Products that include VMware ESXi, such as VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, and VMware Telco Cloud Platform, are also impacted.

CISPE raises red alert over VMware licensing changes

Feb. 12, 2025: A European cloud monitoring body came down hard on Broadcom for its failure to keep cloud licensing practices fair in the region. The association of cloud infrastructure service providers also warned that all is not well in its drive to get Microsoft to level the software licensing playing field.

Is VMware really becoming the new mainframe?

February 11, 2025: In the wake of Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, many CIOs have considered whether to drop VMware from their IT portfolios. But because the popular virtualization platform can be too expensive and pervasive to replace even if they may want to, they may find themselves with a mainframe-type of dilemma.

Thinking of moving off VMware? Gartner tallies cost

Feb. 3, 2025: New data from analyst firm Gartner shows the cost of a VMware migration could outweigh the benefits when software and hardware purchases, personnel costs, early termination fees, and other operational expenses are calculated. “The size and scope of large-scale migration will vary, but we expect a midsize enterprise would take at least two years to untangle much of its dependency upon VMware’s server virtualization platform,” the firm writes.

VMware offers fixes to severe vulnerabilities in VMware Aria

January 31, 2025: VMware has fixed multiple high-severity vulnerabilities affecting its cloud management platform (CMP), VMware Aria, which could allow attackers to steal sensitive credentials from the virtualization giant’s IT management and logging solutions.

AT&T and Broadcom near settlement in VMware support dispute

Oct. 16, 2024: AT&T and Broadcom are close to resolving their legal dispute over VMware support services, according to a joint letter filed in the New York Supreme Court on October 11. The letter requests a postponement of the upcoming hearing, as both sides make progress toward a settlement. The dispute, which revolves around the extension of support services following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, has drawn attention due to its potential impact on broader enterprise IT support contracts.

Broadcom hits back at AT&T in VMware support dispute

Sept. 23, 2024: Broadcom has fired back in the ongoing legal dispute with AT&T over VMware software support services, claiming that AT&T is resorting to “sensationalism” and had long intended to stop using VMware software but delayed the move. In a new court filing, Broadcom alleges that AT&T’s lawsuit is an attempt to secure more time to transition to other software while still receiving discounted support services, which Broadcom has already phased out for perpetual license holders.

AT&T sues Broadcom over breach of contract, cites threat to national security

Sept. 5, 2024: AT&T is suing Broadcom over its strong-armed handling of VMware support contracts. “Broadcom is attempting to retroactively alter existing agreements, forcing us into purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars in bundled services,” AT&T stated in a lawsuit it filed against Broadcom in New York’s Supreme Court. “Without the support services, AT&T cannot prevent software errors, security vulnerabilities, or system outages that routinely occur.”

Broadcom’s vision for VMware highlights private clouds, private AI

Aug. 30, 2024: “The future of the enterprise, your enterprises, is private,” said Broadcom president and CEO Hock Tan in a keynote address at this year’s VMware Explore conference. “Private cloud. Private AI. Fueled by your own private data. It’s about staying on-prem and in control. “

Customer concerns loom as VMware Explore event approaches

Aug. 19, 2024: This year’s VMware Explore marks the first time for the flagship customer event since Broadcom finalized its acquisition of VMware last November. Enterprise customers have questions about VMware’s future direction, licensing changes, and product roadmap following Broadcom’s takeover. Customers want to continue to see innovation across the VMware portfolio, says one analyst. They also want to see Broadcom focus on integration, interface design, and an easier adoption path. 

Broadcom distrust drives sales for VMware competition

Aug. 14, 2024: Concerns about the new direction VMware is taking are driving some enterprise customers to consider alternative platforms from vendors such as Scale Computing, Nutanix and Oxide Computer. Scale Computing said in its most recent quarterly earnings announcement that sales have taken off and its new customers have doubled over the past year, thanks in part to Broadcom’s changes to VMware sales operations.

Nutanix hunts disgruntled VMware customers

July 01, 2024: Nutanix began aggressively courting VMware customers who might be open to jumping ship in the wake of VMware’s purchase by Broadcom and some of the unpopular moves that followed. In addition, Nutanix recently signed key partnerships with some unlikely on-and-off competitors: Dell, Cisco and HPE. 

Broadcom tosses VMware users a bone, extends vSphere 7 support six months

July 25, 2024: Broadcom has announced that VMware vSphere 7.x users will get six additional months of support for the product. VMware vSphere 7, which was launched in 2020, was scheduled to go out of support in April 2025 but will now be maintained until October 2025.

Broadcom bolsters VMware Edge Compute Stack

June 26, 2024: A slew of updates in VMware ECS 3.5 are aimed at helping customers more easily manage edge devices, applications, and infrastructure across multiple locations. Updates include zero-touch orchestration capabilities, pull-based architecture, and edge fleet management.

European trade body lashes out at Broadcom’s VMware licensing changes

April 23, 2024: Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) strongly criticized Broadcom’s response to concerns regarding its licensing changes. The trade organization said the economic viability of many cloud services utilized by customers in Europe is threatened by “the massive and unjustifiable hikes in prices, the re-bundling of products, the altered basis of billing.”

Broadcom changes VMware pricing amid customer backlash and EU questioning

April 16, 2024: Licensing changes include a standardization of the metric for pricing offerings across cloud providers to per-core licensing – the same metric used in end-customer licensing. Meanwhile, Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan pledged support to customers and clarified how the company would offer VMware products and support going forward.

Broadcom repackages VMware SASE, adds Symantec security

Feb. 27, 2024: Broadcom revived the VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN branding and tied that technology with Broadcom’s Symantec Enterprise Cloud security service edge offering to create its single-vendor SASE package. 

Broadcom sells VMware end-user computing unit to KKR for $4 billion

Feb. 26, 2024: Broadcom signed an agreement to sell its end-user computing unit to investment firm KKR for $4 billion. KKR said the EUC division will become a standalone company run by its existing management team and led by Shankar Iyer.

Broadcom moves roil VMware customer base

Jan. 22, 2024: While Broadcom’s actions are causing concern among VMware users, these decisions have not been completely unexpected based on the company’s track record with its prior acquisitions of CA and Symantec. There’s no rush to the exits yet, but VMware customers are investigating alternatives as the Broadcom era begins.

Broadcom’s VMware alterations include layoffs, changes to partner programs

Jan. 05, 2024: Steven Elliot, group vice president of infrastructure software at IDC, said the layoffs and consolidation are a good and necessary thing. He noted that Broadcom is not only cutting staff but also cutting products to focus on core competency.

Broadcom to lay off over 1,200 VMware employees as deal closes

Dec. 01, 2023: In a filing with the California Employment Development Department, Broadcom announced plans to lay off 1,267 VMware employees in January 2024.

VMware stung by defections and layoffs after Broadcom close

Nov. 30, 2023: Layoffs are inevitable after an acquisition as companies deal with overlap and redundancy. But on top of that, VMware lost its No. 2 executive: Sumit Dhawan, president of the company since 2021, left the firm to become the new CEO of cybersecurity vendor Proofpoint. Outside the company, there’s concern about customer retention.

China clears Broadcom’s $69 billion VMware acquisition, allowing deal to close

Nov. 21, 2023: Five days before the two companies’ merger agreement was due to expire, the deal passed its final regulatory hurdle. China cleared Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMware, leaving the two companies free to close the transaction on November 22.

Generative AI dominates VMware Explore news

Aug. 25, 2023: There were some cloud announcements at VMware Explore 2023 in Las Vegas, but AI was the star, as it has been at nearly every tech company lately. Vendors have been rushing to add generative AI to their platforms, and VMware is no exception.

UK competition agency provisionally OKs Broadcom’s $61 billion VMware acquisition

July 19, 2023: The UK’s Competition Market Authority (CMA) provisionally cleared Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of VMWare, paving the way for the $61 billion deal to go ahead. The clearance followed an investigation by the CMA, which looked into whether the proposed merger would harm the ability of Broadcom’s rivals to compete with VMware’s server virtualization software.

Broadcom CEO pledges $2 billion for VMware R&D, professional services support

May 05, 2023: Broadcom said it will spend $2 billion a year to accelerate research and development for VMware products and services. “As a part of Broadcom, VMware will have more resources and scale to support the number of customers that want its technology and services, and help customers deploy it more than it was able to as a standalone company,” Broadcom CEO Hock Tan wrote in a blog post.

Broadcom, VMware extend deadline to complete acquisition by 90 days

Feb. 20, 2023: Broadcom and its acquisition target VMware agreed to give themselves another 90 days to complete the $61 billion acquisition they announced on May 26, 2022. A regulatory filing by VMware showed that both companies had delivered a mutual notice to extend the final date of the merger to twelve months from the day the deal was announced.

UK competition agency launches inquiry into Broadcom’s $61B VMware buy

Nov. 21, 2022: The UK’s Competition and Market’s Authority (CMA) announced its investigation of Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of VMware, looking into whether the proposed merger “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services.”

Broadcom’s VMware acquisition sparks concern

Sept. 22, 2022: In light of Broadcom’s less-than-stellar track record with prior acquisitions, VMware’s enterprise customers are understandably worried. “Following the purchases of CA and Symantec, Broadcom raised prices, decreased support, and stopped investing in innovation,” said Tracy Woo, senior analyst for Forrester. “VMware customers would be wise to have an exit plan.”

Why it makes sense for Broadcom to buy VMware

July 04, 2022: Broadcom’s chips plus VMware software could be the bridge that connects applications in data centers with the cloud, said Network World columnist Tom Nolle.

Can Broadcom + VMware move enterprise networking forward?

May 26, 2022: Industry watchers suggested that Broadcom’s planned acquisition of VMware could open opportunities to reach enterprise and telco companies with innovative technology. Some questioned whether Broadcom would let VMware further develop tools for 5G, software-defined networking (SDN), and other technologies.

Broadcom targets enterprise infrastructure with $61 billion VMware acquisition

May 25, 2022: The Broadcom-VMware saga kicked off when the semiconductor manufacturer and infrastructure software giant first announced plans to acquire the virtualization and enterprise cloud vendor in a deal worth roughly $61 billion in stock and cash.