VMware customers get more storage per core, but will also pay more for the vSphere Foundation bundle.
VMware is meeting some criticism of its renewed offering under Broadcom’s reign. Specifically, the company is tinkering with the storage modalities that apply to the vSphere Foundation bundle. From now on, that comes with more storage per core. We can’t call that adjustment an encore, because the price is also going up.
With the VMware acquisition, Broadcom has forced customers toward large bundle subscriptions, even though they are almost exclusively advantageous to the very largest customers. Others mostly see higher costs for bundles not tailored to their needs. One of the many criticisms was the storage for vSphere Foundation. That was limited to 100 GiB per core. Needed more storage? Then you had to buy more cores.
More storage, more pay
With rivals betting heavily on higher storage capacity, VMware is now adjusting the offering to 250 GiB per core. That sounds good, except for the fact that the upgrade is not optional. 250 GiB becomes the standard, and the price grows with it. vSphere Foundation becomes eleven percent more expensive, even for those who do have enough with 100 GiB per core.
Broadcom and VMware are meeting a demand from the upper end of the market, but are still abandoning abandoned customers. CIOs are lambasting Broadcom’s behavior since the acquisition, but criticism from smaller parties seems to have little impact. Broadcom is sticking with its mandatory bundles, built around vSphere Foundation, Cloud Foundation and vSphere Standard. It does publish a variant called VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus with some additional features, but even that is not tailored to slightly smaller customers.