Broadcom’s licensing overhaul has already reshaped the VMware partner landscape, and the 31 October 2025 deadline is another decisive step. Capacity orders beyond this date will fall under rules that make survival nearly impossible for anyone outside the absolute top tier of providers.
The rules themselves leave little room to manoeuvre. Departing partners can only transact co-termed capacity commitment orders for customers already under contract as of 31 October 2025. There is no pathway for growth or new opportunities, no matter how strong the customer relationship may be.
Even before the cutoff, the bar to entry is set high. Customer Commit contracts require a minimum of 96 VCF cores, while Aggregate Commit contracts begin at 72 VCF cores. For partners, these thresholds are a squeeze, not an opportunity.
The real trap sits in the Product Licensing Guide. Aggregate commitments can only be expanded once per quarter in January, April, July, or October. Each expansion must be for 500 cores or more. Add-ons remain unrestricted, but that detail is little comfort against Broadcom’s rigid, large-scale minimums.
What makes this worse is the way it is being managed. Partners are not dealing with a fair or transparent system, but with an environment designed to corral behaviour and force compliance. Licensing mechanics, arbitrary windows, and shifting rules are backed by a clear message: unless you are one of the very few, largest partners prepared to bend entirely to Broadcom’s will, you are no longer valued.
This goes beyond punitive licensing. It is about disdain for the partner community itself. The VMware channel was once the foundation of VMware’s growth. Under Broadcom, that foundation is being actively dismantled.
The hard truth is that another contract or expansion may buy time, but it will not change the destination. VMware under Broadcom is no longer built for partners who want control, flexibility, or respect. For service providers and enterprises across Australia, this is creating urgent pressure to plan a VMware exit strategy and to identify long-term alternatives that do not punish customers with arbitrary thresholds or anti-partner behaviour.
That is why so many organisations are already looking at Proxmox. It has become the standout alternative to VMware for building private cloud platforms, combining enterprise-grade stability with open-source flexibility. For Australian businesses, the missing piece is not the technology itself, but the ability to access trusted local expertise.
At Instelligence, we deliver exactly that. We provide Proxmox support in Australia that allows organisations to adopt Proxmox with confidence, knowing they have a local partner to guide design, migration, and ongoing operations. Whether you are planning a clean VMware exit or looking to migrate workloads incrementally, our team specialises in Proxmox migrations that de-risk the transition and restore control of your infrastructure.
Broadcom has made its priorities clear. The question is whether you want to continue on their terms, or take back control on yours.
If you are ready to leave VMware behind, talk to us at Instelligence. We provide local Proxmox support in Australia and help businesses migrate, build, and run private clouds that are free from Broadcom’s licensing straitjacket.
Contact us today to begin planning your move to Proxmox.
