VMware drops the lowest tier of its partner program – except in Europe

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.”

We also asked what these changes mean for users of VMware’s vSphere products, the server virtualization bundles that Virtzilla has of late de-emphasized in favor of its Cloud Foundation private cloud bundle.

Falko said nothing will change for vSphere customers but added: “The focus on value realization for customers subscribing to VMware Cloud Foundation reflects a broader move to simplify, integrate, and modernize customer environments with and through our partners. Customers will be better supported by partners who can guide them toward this modern private cloud model.”

Moats described the changes as “a pivotal moment.

“For customers, it means access to a stronger, more capable partner ecosystem—one built to support IT modernization, fast-track AI initiatives, and strengthen cyber resilience, all powered by VMware Cloud Foundation.”

Yet more change

VMware has already made big changes to its partner program, including dropping some cloud service providers.

The company later modified those changes, because they meant some customers would lose access cloudy resources.

Mega-distributor Ingram Micro did not appreciate VMware's changes and ended its relationship with the virtualization giant.

“Broadcom seem intent on destroying what was one of the most successful partner ecosystems in the industry,” Gartner VP Analyst Michael Warrilow told The Register.

“Reducing the number of partners will only further galvanise the industry to find alternatives,” he added. “These partners will rush in to the waiting hands of Microsoft and Nutanix and AWS.

Warrilow said interest in VMware alternatives is so high clients want advice about them every day.

“The tragedy is that [VMware’s hypervisor] ESXi remains loved,” he said, adding “That’s becoming less relevant with every inflated quote [Broadcom] sent to a customer.”

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• ‘Infuriated’, ‘disappointed' ... Ex-VMware customers explain why they migrated to Nutanix
• Dell creates one private cloud to rule them all and in the datacenter bind them

Broadcom is not the only vendor changing channels. In early May, Microsoft also announced a plan to “deepen our investment in partners who are delivering transformational impact with customers, aligned to our strategic imperatives.”

VMware’s private cloud push accelerates

VMWare’s channel changes come as the organization prepares to deliver Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9), the bundle of products it says will allow users to build private clouds that are cheaper to operate and more efficient than comparable public cloud infrastructure.

Ahead of that release, VMware has published a licensing document [PDF] that includes a requirement for customers using version 9 to provide a “compliance report” every 180 days detailing their licenses and usage of VMware software. Failure to submit the report may “result in features and functionalities of the management plane of the Software will be degraded and/or blocked in addition to support entitlements for this Software being suspended.”

The company has also advised that some older hardware won’t support VCF 9.

The Register has also seen several social media posts claiming that VCF 9 will retire VVOLs, a storage management feature. VMware has not responded to our request for comment on the matter. A senior technical team member at one of VMware’s main storage partners, whose role does not permit them to make comments to the media, told The Register those posts are not entirely inaccurate.

VMware’s annual user conference commences on August 25th and The Register expects VCF 9 will debut at the event. ®