


VMware Drops the Lowest Tier of Its Partner Program, Except In Europe (theregister.com) 33
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.
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.
Broadcom (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Broadcom (Score:5, Insightful)
Their countries protect their citizens from corporate abuse just slightly better.
Re: Broadcom (Score:2)
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They won't. The prices are not that elastic and the competition is fierce.
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Re:Broadcom (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do Europeans again get the special treatment?
Because Europeans again have a central government that is mostly functional.
Even the "left wing" (aka centrist) party in the USA is overwhelmingly dedicated to support of corporatism, so we don't enforce antitrust law.
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Also, corporatism is a planning and management structure for command economies, not something having specifically to do with corporations. Well, not past the root word 'corpus' anyhow. It is still popular in some places in Europe, despite being a remnant of Fascism.
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Also, corporatism is a planning and management structure for command economies, not something having specifically to do with corporations.
Yeah, it's "the control of a state or organization by large interest groups" ... like corporations. In the USA, corporatism is overwhelmingly a corporate activity, since Citizens United.
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Secondly, no, that is not the definition of Corporatism! Corporatism works the other way, with the state organizing the interest groups, which are subordinate to the state. Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
You're talking about corporatocracy.
Corporatism is not used in the US. The closest we come is when the government mediates a labor dispute. If we wer
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"centrist" lol
It is perhaps more accurate to say that they are fiscally conservative but socially centrist, but that's a lot of words which don't change much, especially given how far towards the reich the GOP has shifted.
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Why do Europeans again get the special treatment?
Because Europeans again have a central government that is mostly functional.
Even the "left wing" (aka centrist) party in the USA is overwhelmingly dedicated to support of corporatism, so we don't enforce antitrust law.
By global standards, even Bernie is a bit right of centre. A bog standard Democrat is right wing, it's just that a Republican is even further right.
more than that (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:more than that (Score:5, Interesting)
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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)
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.
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I'm a bit surprised they have any fans here to mod me down for saying true things about them :)
RIP The word "Drops" (Score:3)
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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)
What advantage does VMWare at this point have over any of the other virtualization solutions out there?
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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!
Re: What advantage? (Score:2)
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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:
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Btw I got certified as a Scale Computing technician for free.
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"Btw I got certified as a Scale Computing technician for free"
How?
VMware’s evolving private cloud journey (Score:2)