Broadcom gives away VMware Fusion and Workstation for free
But while Broadcom giveth, Broadcom also taketh away
Broadcom has announced that its desktop hypervisor products, VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation, will be made available for free to all users, including commercial, educational and personal users.
This move, effective from 11th November, marks a shift away from the traditional paid subscription model.
Existing commercial contracts will remain valid until the end of their term, with enterprise-grade support and services continuing. But the paid versions – Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro – are no longer available for purchase.
The free versions will retain all the features of the paid versions, according to a post by Himanshu Singh, head of product marketing for compute and AI at Broadcom's VCF Division.
Price rises hit VMware customers
However, this announcement comes at a time when VMware customers are facing significant price hikes, with some reporting increases of up to 300% . The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom for $69 billion has led to a several changes, including the end of perpetual licence sales and the consolidation of products into bundles, meaning some customers, particularly smaller ones, are paying for features they don’t use.
The impact of these price hikes has been felt across the board, with disgruntled customers seeking alternatives, including OpenNebula and Nutanix, although migration away from VMware is likely to pose a serious challenge for most.
Broadcom's strategy
Broadcom's strategy has been to focus on the large enterprise market, streamlining VMware's product lines to maximise income and cut costs. In this it has apparently been successful, with the company’s revenues leaping by 47% in the most recent quarter, although much of that rise was due to AI infrastructure sales.
In September, CEO Hok Tan told investors the VMware business “continues to book very well,” adding that adding that VMware revenue contributed $3.8 billion to it’s $13.07 billion Q3 revenues.
However, around the same time, AT&T sued Broadcom alleging that it had breached contractual agreements related to VMware support, and claiming it would cost the telecoms giant "hundreds of millions of dollars."