Dive Brief:
- Broadcom underscored changes in its VMware partner program that reward providers for helping customers deploy and leverage VMware Cloud Foundation private cloud, not just for selling the product, in a Wednesday blog post authored by Global Partner Programs Lead Kaushik Ram.
- The company will use a points-based system to credit Advantage Partner Program members for VCF and VMware vSphere Foundation certifications, resource investments and services expertise. Partners will receive tiered discounts based on the number of points they earn to “incentivize partners, regardless of their size, to be highly skilled in the pre- and post-sales journey with the customer, not just the transaction,” Ram said.
- The changes are part of a broader private cloud platform push. Broadcom will prioritize partners that achieve certifications in the VCF 9.0 private cloud bundle rolled out earlier this year. Partners have until the end of April to meet certification requirements before the next evaluation period, per the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The VMware channel has been in flux since Broadcom completed its $61 billion acquisition of the virtualization software company two years ago.
Broadcom moved more than 18,000 VMware resale partners to its Advantage Partner Program in February 2024, just months after the deal closed. Earlier this year, the company eliminated the bottom tier of VMware partners and raised the bar for eligibility across the remaining three levels.
“We are beginning the process of transitioning partners who no longer meet the minimum program requirements or have not demonstrated consistent engagement,” Brian Moats, SVP of global commercial sales and partners, said in the June announcement.
Changes in the partner program were accompanied by major shifts in the VMware product line, as Broadcom replaced perpetual licenses with a subscription-based model for bundled offerings that eliminated thousands of individual SKUs. In October, the company ended general support for VMware’s vSphere 7.x virtualization platform, which was extended for six months earlier this year.
By midyear, Broadcom had successfully migrated more than 90% of its 10,000 largest VMware accounts to subscription-based VCF bundles, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said during a September earnings call. The strategy would then shift to helping those customers deploy and operate VCF 9.0, he added.
The latest partner missive underscores the pivot from selling to facilitating.
“We want to reward the partner who can prove they are helping customers with adoption, consumption and business outcomes, not simply the partner tied to the last PO,” Ram said. “Adoption, not just initial purchase, is where customers realize resilience, automation, security, and long-term ROI.”
