VMware quietly offers European users extended sales and support for low-end vSphere
VMware appears to have made a concession to European regulators by extending the life of its low-end vSphere Standard and Enterprise Plus products.
The virtualization pioneer quietly announced the extension in the November 4 blog post in which it announced a new low-end product called vSphere Express, which The Register reported yesterday.
We based our report about vSphere Express on an interview, and on material provided by VMware - which sent a version of the blog post linked to above.
The version we saw did not include the following paragraph, the contents of which were not mentioned in our interview:
Furthermore, for customers in countries in the European Economic Area, vSphere Standard version 8 and vSphere Enterprise Plus version 8 will remain available for sale until October 31, 2027, and will have Extended Support included in any active subscriptions to those offerings until the earlier of the applicable subscription end date or October 31, 2028."
The latter date is more than a year past the October 11, 2027, end-of-general-support date for the more capable vSphere 8 and Cloud Foundation 5.x products.
This has the potential to be a positive development for organisations within the European Economic Area," independent analyst Michael Warrilow told The Register. It could provide them up to an extra 12 months to transition vSphere 8 to VCF 9 and/or migrate workloads to another platform."
Warrilow thinks European users should seek absolute clarity" from VMware about the specifics of its offer.
What level of extended support will be provided and what longer-term commitments will need to be made? I cannot find any of that detail," he wrote.
A reminder: VMware has promised in the past to make patches available for users who choose to persist with perpetual licenses instead of moving to its preferred subscriptions. The Broadcom business unit later paused patch downloads for months, claiming it needed to adjust its website to make them possible.
Warrilow wonders why VMware will keep selling vSphere Standard only in Europe and suggested regulatory muscle" is the reason.
Regulators around the world cleared Broadcom's acquisition of VMware. In Europe, authorities have since revisited the matter.
Lobby group Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) has succeeded in having the European Commission open an antitrust investigation into whether VMware's channel changes inappropriately shaped the cloud infrastructure provider market. The Register understands CISPE feels regulators are receptive to its arguments.
In the Netherlands, local courts enforced a VMware support contract of the sort that Broadcom has tried to walk away from at other users.
Warrilow wonders if VMware might now change its policy regarding vSphere Standard in other countries.
The subsequent question is how can organisations in other regions get the same concessions from Broadcom? I would encourage them to amplify their voice by rallying industry associations and user groups to the cause whilst lobbying the regulators in their jurisdiction."
Overall, however, he thinks VMware's decision isn't enormously impactful.
Ultimately, all it does is buy a little more time to upgrade or migrate," he wrote.
It may not even do that, as The Register often heard that VMware seldom issued quotes for vSphere Standard or Enterprise Plus.
Paul Turner, chief product officer for VMware's Cloud Foundation Division, told The Register that inappropriate incentives for channel partners caused that situation, and that VMware later fixed it.
Continental users will be hoping VMware got that effort right. (R)