Broadcom is set to bring a major release of VMware Cloud Foundation in March, as an SEC filing shows. $2.9 billion in R&D budget has been set aside for this release. A smaller release armed with 750 million in R&D is likely to follow in July.
The news was first unveiled by The Register. It found in the Form 10-K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that two releases will follow in March and July, respectively. It is suspected that the former is VMware Cloud Foundation 9. Broadcom’s ambition is to make this release of VCF the “AWS of on-premises,” with an experience virtually indistinguishable from the cloud.
Judgment approaches
These are big promises from Broadcom, the owner of VMware since November 2023. Since then, many components have been separated from VMware, leaving only VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation. The question now is what these platforms will offer in the future. The announcement of VCF 9 actually raised more questions, especially since Broadcom remained fairly vague about precisely what a simplified, streamlined VMware would look like. That VMware previously offered too many solutions has long been known. It was far too complex for resellers to tease out 60-plus SKUs, let alone price them custom.
Now that a date finally seems to have been pinned down for VCF 9 (at least, we’re assuming the impending “big release” is actually version 9), there will soon be a verdict to pass on VMware by Broadcom. It should be noted that the new version was already planned before the acquisition with a corresponding R&D budget. The question is how much influence Broadcom had thereafter.
Alternatives everywhere
There are plenty of VMware alternatives to flock to should the changes made by Broadcom cause too much of a headache, the main one being Nutanix. Although there are many switchers and this is leading to large revenue increases for competing products, leaving VMware sometimes proves more difficult than it seems. Prices have risen sharply, according to many customers, with staggering percentages regularly cited in the process. But Broadcom maintains that those who previously used at least four VMware components would now be cheaper. This is because everything is now covered by one license, whereas before, it was a sum of à la carte options. The problem: Most users don’t need all those extra solutions. It is up to Broadcom to change customers’ minds in that area with VCF 9.