VMware Explore I’ve attended VMware’s annual conference every year since 2007 and this year the event had a very different flavor.

The theme of all the conferences never varied much from “we’ve tamed the datacenter and have plans to make it even more manageable,” usually delivered in a two-hour keynote that sometimes featured VMware execs living out their fantasy of becoming talk-show hosts.

VMware by Broadcom kept the theme at this year’s conference and delivered it in a pleasingly brief one-hour keynote that added something new: an admission the virtualization giant hasn’t delivered on its promises.

On stage and in interviews during the event, execs admitted the absence of single sign-on across the components of the flagship Cloud Foundation (VCF) suite is symbolic of how VMware has under-delivered on its promises to create a highly manageable private cloud stack. The multiple SDKs and APIs across the company’s portfolio, and the need for several management consoles, each dedicated to different datacenter and management functions, were also held up as reasons for a little light self-flagellation.

I was told the organizational, licensing, and channel changes Broadcom CEO Hock Tan brought to VMware by were therefore “brave” and just the kind of ruthless reform needed to see VMware realize its potential. The shift in focus to private cloud, rather than hybrid multi-cloud, was also touted as a sensible narrowing of ambition.

But the change hasn’t fully taken root. The insistence that VMware has mastered datacenter complexity remains, even though plenty of complexity persists. Execs told me that VCF 5.2, released in July, represents 75 or 80 percent of Broadcom’s reform vision because it unifies lifecycle management of VCF’s components, allows users to import those components into a single VCF instance, and adds non-disruptive hypervisor patching.

Those features of VCF 5.2, execs insist, more than justify the licensing changes that mean holders of perpetual VMware licenses get bigger bills when they move to the now-compulsory subscriptions that include products they may not be ready to use and support that was previously optional.

But even as it offers its customers 80 percent of paradise, VMware used this week’s conference to pitch the forthcoming VCF 9 as the complete expression of its vision.

Sadly, it did not give customers much info about when it will arrive so they can plan their futures.

That disclosure matters because Broadcom’s licensing changes mean any sensible holder of a VMware perpetual license - which cannot be renewed - knows they must investigate alternative software suppliers.

Yet when I asked about a timeframe for VCF 9, and suggested revealing it would help customers, I was offered a string of strange non-answers.

Among the fudges were that it was an irrelevant question because VCF 9 is vision, that it would be illegal to discuss release schedules, that Broadcom is conservative about this sort of prediction, that VCF 9 should be considered a “Project” - a term VMware previously used to apply to new technologies - that parts of the new suite are in beta, and that it’s being developed and is the next cab off the rank.

Those explanations mean that for all its contrition, VMware hasn’t gone far beyond “we’ve tamed the datacenter and have plans to make it even more manageable.”

It's not going down well

Users I spoke to at the conference found the lack of detail unsatisfactory.

A senior rep from a Fortune 200 company who spoke on the condition of anonymity told me they came away from a meeting with VMware senior execs unsure if Broadcom is “a software company that will innovate, or a bunch of bankers.” He quit the event after one of its four days, leaving his technical team to learn what they could. And he told me he’s planning a Nutanix pilot.

Others told tales of VMware’s integration into Broadcom going badly. The May migration of VMware customer accounts to Broadcom’s account management and support tools was spotty, leaving some without access to help for weeks. One user told me they experienced a Severity One incident during the support systems migration and could find nobody at VMware to take responsibility for finding a fix.

I was also told of prices tripling for some VMware products that are sold outside its big bundles, and inconsistent advice about product lifecycles.

A top-tier VMware partner told me Broadcom’s changes to its channel were sudden, jarring, and challenging to implement.

I’m not just cherry-picking here and omitting happier stories. People approached me and grumbled.

This sort of thing is to be expected after any acquisition. But folks I spoke with felt that their difficulties with VMware signified decline and disdain, not reform.

Longtime VMware-watchers were also surprised by the small attendance at this year’s VMware Explore.

VMworld, as it used to be called, was a significant event. Veeam basically launched itself by taking a huge booth at the entrance of past VMworlds. I used to receive more than 20 invitations to interview vendors who sent senior execs to the show and announced VMware-adjacent news. This year I received one invitation.

The small and low-key expo was a far cry from past VMware events, which in the past drew 20,000-plus attendees seeking swag and prizes.

Longtime attendees mourned the diminution of a once-vibrant community.

I left VMware Explore feeling that Broadcom has brought VMware down to earth and that’s a good thing, and that some of the complaints about the current state of VMware are a very natural struggle to cope with sudden and significant change.

But other complaints have substance. The Fortune 200 company I met intends to pilot Nutanix due to increased VMware costs that they feel do not deliver extra value. And another colossus, US insurer GEICO, has decided the roll-your-own-cloud world of OpenStack is preferable to VMware. Both companies are exactly the sort of customers Broadcom carved out of its channel to serve directly. Losing them will hurt.

Whether there’s more pain will depend on whether VMware’s landing is soft or hard. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/29/vmware_explore_strategy_analysis/