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VMware Drops the Lowest Tier of Its Partner Program, Except In Europe (theregister.com) 33

Posted by BeauHD from the latest-developments dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Broadcom's VMware business unit has dropped the lowest tier of its channel program, a move one analyst told The Register will benefit its rivals. The virtualization pioneer currently operates a four-tier channel program spanning Pinnacle, Premier, Select, and Registered partners. On Sunday the business unit announced the retirement of the Registered tier. A blog post written by Brian Moats, Broadcom's Senior Vice President for Global Commercial Sales and Partners, states VMware made the decision because "the vast majority of customer impact and business momentum comes from partners operating within the top three tiers."

Laura Falko, Broadcom's Head of Global Partner Programs, Marketing & Experience, told The Register "The vast majority of these [Registered] partners are inactive and lack the capabilities to support customers through VMware's evolving private cloud journey. That's why the Registered tier is being retired to ensure every active partner meets a higher standard of technical, sales, and service readiness." Falko told us VMware will give Registered partners 60 days' notice before deauthorization and then "work proactively with affected customers to transition them to qualified partners in the new ecosystem, ensuring continuity and support throughout the change."

VMware has also introduced new requirements for partners in its remaining tiers. The virtualization giant will require Pinnacle and Premier partners to maintain dedicated sales and technical resources, and to "execute joint business plans with VMware to ensure alignment and delivery with mutual results." The Broadcom business unit is also "beginning the process of transitioning partners who no longer meet the minimum program requirements or have not demonstrated consistent engagement," suggesting even Pinnacle, Premier, and Select partners are not safe. The Register asked VMware to define "consistent engagement" and Falko told us it includes "regular deal activity," ongoing participation in joint sales activities, staying up to date with training, and "sustained, proactive commitment to a partner's VMware customer base." The changes will only apply in its Americas, and Asia-Pacific and Japan regions. Broadcom didn't explain why Europe was excluded.

The Register notes that trade associations in Europe have criticized Broadcom's changes at VMware and urged the European Commission to investigate the company.
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VMware Drops the Lowest Tier of Its Partner Program, Except In Europe More

VMware Drops the Lowest Tier of Its Partner Program, Except In Europe

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  • Broadcom (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fifth of Five ( 451664 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @09:14AM (#65424247)

    Broadcom has made it very clear that they do not want any small shop business. If you are not dropping $10M a year in their pockets you do not exist.

    • more than that (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      They want to wind up the company in 5-ish years. They want customers to pay out the nose before they leave, so Broadcom can make a profit on their investment, but VMware is not viable as a company anymore. It takes scale to develop, sell and support a product like that and the market has been undercut by free alternatives. VMware is pretty much in the same bucket as Solaris, technically it's supported but for all practical purposes it is EOL. Broadcom is doing the equivalent of turning on all the house ligh

      • Re:more than that (Score:5, Interesting)

        by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @10:34AM (#65424409)
        Hock Tan made it clear when Broadcom purchased VMWare that he only saw value in Cloud Foundation. Broadcom put $0 on its first annual report toward supporting non-cloud VMWare. So yes, VMWare as we know it is a classic cash cow. We are now 18 months into this process and all clients of the non-cloud products should understand at this point that they are on a cash cow product and that the vendor is optimizing for maximum short term returns before pulling the plug completely.

    • Why would any company dropping $10m+ a year choose to do business with Broadcom after all they've done?

      Broadcom is making it very clear they are going to milk every last cent they can out of their customers, so customers should take that as the warning sign it is and abandon ship as quickly as feasible.

  • heh (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

    VMware's evolving private cloud journey

    There's nothing evolutionary or even revolutionary about overcharging customers. It's SOP for BCM in particular. As a customer, take the L and Learn something about proprietary infrastructure.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      I'm a bit surprised that Broadcom hasn't tried filing a business process patent for their particular brand of screwing over customers yet.

  • RIP The word "Drops" (Score:3)

    by bobbutts ( 927504 ) <bobbutts@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @09:48AM (#65424325)
    It was ruined by people who use it to indicate the release of something.

    • It was ruined by people who use it to indicate the release of something.

      I dropped a deuce this morning. Was that or was it not a release?

  • What advantage? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Random361 ( 6742804 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2025 @10:41AM (#65424419)

    What advantage does VMWare at this point have over any of the other virtualization solutions out there?

    • Especially if you're virtualizing a Windows server. You're paying for that license anyhow, why not just use Hyper-V?

    • If you're already on it, and don't have the resources to get off it... and have the funds to pay the ridiculous licensing fees so you don't have to figure out how to escape... then VMWare is your solution!

    • Here is vmware's answer (for state and local governments), although it's a bit old (2020):
      https://www.vmware.com/docs/vm... [vmware.com]

      7 Reasons to Choose VMware Hereâ(TM)s why the VMware Cloud Foundation future-ready, full-stack hybrid and multi-cloud solution is ideal for your agency:

      • VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated, software-defined solution with built-in automated lifecycle management that combines virtualized services for compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management. It delivers
    • Migrating an enterprise company is a nightmare. That's why. They know they can bleed big companies for years until a new solution is available. They know they killed VMware, but they know they will make a lot of money killing it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by CEC-P ( 10248912 )
      You can still hire entitled, overpriced "officially certified" technicians to work on them. Wait...that's not an advantage, that's just another liability.
      Btw I got certified as a Scale Computing technician for free.
  • “The vast majority of these [Registered] partners are inactive and lack the capabilities to support customers through VMware’s evolving private cloud journey. That’s why the Registered tier is being retired to ensure every active partner meets a higher standard of technical, sales, and service readiness.”

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