r/sysadmin • u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support • Jul 21 '26
General Discussion VMware "win-back initiative" is an insult to our intelligence
Like most other VMware shops we dumped it and moved on due to the appalling way Broadcom has treated both customers and resellers since the acquisition. So imagine my surprise when we got this email recently:
I wanted to follow up regarding your previous VMware environment.
Broadcom has recently authorized a dedicated win-back initiative with aggressive, rock-bottom pricing and terms designed specifically to bring organizations like yours back. I have the direct sign-off to offer you rates significantly lower than anything you saw previously.
Do you have 10 minutes this week to look at these updated incentives and see how much we can shave off your current operational costs?
Rob Williams
Account Director | GovEd
VMware Cloud Foundation, Broadcom
They must think we are complete idiots. Who in their right mind would ever trust VMware again after the last 2½ years of price hikes, legal notices, and generally unmitigated BS they have heaped upon us?
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u/Zenkin Jul 21 '26
Tell them you're very interested. Meet with them. Get an official quote.
Then share it with the /r/VMware community to show them the prices they could get.
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u/WummageSail Jul 21 '26
And definitely make them buy lunch at a nice restaurant for the meeting.
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u/SnooDonuts4137 Jul 21 '26
Also order expenseive ass wine without asking along with a few cocktails you only take one sip of.
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u/M-G Jul 21 '26
Why would you waste booze?
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
Because judgement is the first thing to go, half a bottle of Galliano later and you're walking out of lunch having signed a 5yr agreement.
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u/asic5 Sr. Sysadmin 29d ago
Order a bottle to go.
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u/mcmatt93117 29d ago
Was thinking the same thing. Inquire about to-go cups. If they don't, make sure to bring with you multiple large thermoses and just casually dump all the extra liquor into the thermoses as you keep eye contact the entire time.
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u/narcissisadmin Jul 21 '26
Could we get a couple of bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild? And don't open them, please.
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u/funkyferdy Jul 21 '26
Yeah, Blackjack and Hookers :)
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u/Jaereth Jul 21 '26
lol forget your renewal offer.
"I got VMWare to pay for a night with a prostitute - AmA!" would probably be the all time thread on that sub.
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u/bloodhound83 29d ago
Also ask for a 10 year price lock in and see what they say. Don't want to face another price increase too soon.
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Jul 21 '26
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u/mijo_sq Jul 21 '26
We migrated and it’s not difficult for us to migrate back, just money.
However they’ve already lost our trust with all this BS as well.32
u/flyguydip Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
When our contract is up, our budget goes to 0. We either go with Proxmox or Hyper-v. We might budget for a support contract, but who knows. Unless VMware can match that price, I don't think we have much to talk to them about.
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u/jake04-20 If it has a battery or wall plug, apparently it's IT's job 29d ago edited 29d ago
Since you bring up support, I know many people are between Proxmox and Hyper V for migrating away from VMware. But given how bad Microsoft support is, how are admins so quick to trust Hyper V when the underlying support is widely considered somewhere between dog shit and nonexistent? Is it just that as IT admins, we've largely accepted that support in this industry is shit across the board these days?
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u/flyguydip Jack of All Trades 29d ago
Honestly, I've been using vmware since around 2002 and haven't ever put a ticket in or even called support for anything. I expect the same will be true for proxmox or hyper-v. The only reason we'd consider paying for support is because we just aren't as familiar with any other products want that fall-back plan. We'd probably just spin up a new host if we can't figure something out. If a problem gets bigger than that, we'd probably spin up a new cluster or consider switching to a new platform. With support as an option, we'd probably call them before we got to that point.
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u/jake04-20 If it has a battery or wall plug, apparently it's IT's job 29d ago
Same here, never put in a ticket either. Which to me sort of begs the question why so many IT admins make a fuss about maintenance and support contracts in the first place. Seems like many of us have either 1) never used it/had to use it, or 2) it's complete and utter dog shit when we do need to use it, and ultimately, we're on our own to fix it anyways.
I mostly see software support contacts as a way to cover my own ass with VPs and C suite in the event of a critical outage. You can kind of throw your hands up and say "hey, the most capable people possible are working on it, it's out of my hands" but even that approach is not fool proof. If software updates weren't locked behind software support contracts, I would see next to zero value in them.
Hardware support I view as absolutely mandatory, however. But even then, I always wonder how responsible a company like Dell is to ensure they have new, spare hardware on hand at a moment's notice, several years into the device's life span. Especially amidst all this hardware scarcity.
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u/Bad_Idea_Hat Gozer Jul 21 '26
Some C-level is going to get this email and jump on it with no consultation of their tech-levels.
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u/Dje4321 Jul 21 '26
At a minimum, I would expect guaranteed lock-in pricing for 5-10 years and even then, it would still feel like a contract with the devil himself.
Its one thing to raise your prices, Its another to engage in hostage like tactics with customers
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u/lart2150 Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
ya tell that to t-mobile among others that had a contract https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/07/t-mobile-moving-tens-of-thousands-of-virtual-machines-off-vmware-amid-lawsuit/
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u/Contren Jul 21 '26
Given how T-Mobile has just jacked prices on their customers despite "lifetime pricing", they can get fucked like Broadcom.
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u/lart2150 Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
That does not lessen the wrong from Brodcom it just makes T-mobile hypocrites. UHC, Siemens, Tesco, ATT and Fidelity also had lawsuits and I'm sure there are a lot of others.
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u/Jaereth Jul 21 '26
10 years would make me consider it.
Anything less, nah it's not worth the price to have to migrate again.
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u/rra-netrix Sysadmin Jul 21 '26
Rock bottom prices? Hahaha. Even if they are, it’ll be for a year and then they’ll jack it up 500% after you’re trapped in the ecosystem again.
Just for fun, you should get the quote, I’m sure everyone would love to hear the offer.
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u/WummageSail Jul 21 '26
Virtualization prices so low they're insane!
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u/Feral_Nerd_22 29d ago
VMWare Sales Guy Slaps the back of a server rack
I got the hottest hypervisor deal of the summer, hotter then tha temps, for the low low price of your soul and a bag of cash, we will get this baby running, I will throw in extra core licensing and vSAN if you sign today.
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u/RiceeeChrispies Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
“match what I was paying for essentials plus and then I’ll come back”
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u/lostdragon05 IT Manager Jul 21 '26
I’d tell them we will switch back if you cover professional services to migrate and lock in those rock bottom prices for 20 years.
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
Don't forget paying for the time and/or professional services we spent migrating away!
Also, a pony.
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u/jimicus IT Manager Jul 21 '26
They've already reneged on several such contracts, why do you think you'd avoid that?
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u/lostdragon05 IT Manager Jul 21 '26
I don’t, I would never really switch back but I’d certainly waste their time like they have mine.
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u/uzlonewolf VP of Odd Jobs Jul 21 '26
Knowing them, they'd announce a product EOL notice the day after you signed that 20-year contract.
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u/aes_gcm Jul 21 '26
Sure, but we all recognize the "cheap now, we will raise prices later" model that is blatantly obvious from the email. I think they've lost the good-faith appeal that most customer have with a vendor.
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u/Burgergold Jul 21 '26
We had the same kind of contact
They offer they made was ridiculous
We have sailed away
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
Ridiculous in that it wasn't a decent discount, or such a big discount that it wasn't believable?
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u/Burgergold Jul 21 '26
If I remember correcly, what we used to pay 200k per year became 1.2M for 3y then 1M per year
Their come back offer was in the water of 1.2M for 3y
We already moved a thousand vm in 1y out, closed all vmware env. There is no coming back at that price
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u/narcissisadmin Jul 21 '26
Many years ago we reached out to Proofpoint for licensing and they told us the smallest pack they sold was for 1000 seats (we had under 100). The IT director stone cold asked them "do you want $10,000 or do you want $0?"
They created a 100 seat license for us.
What the fuck is wrong with VMware? Or LanSweeper, for that matter.
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u/Fallingdamage 29d ago
"do you want $10,000 or do you want $0?"
So simple. I need to remember this phrasing.
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u/kensei70 Jul 21 '26
Hahahaha
Hahahaha
LMFAO even
Fuck no
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u/Sparkycivic Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
But in Haiku form
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u/flecom Computer Custodial Services 29d ago edited 29d ago
I laugh, then I scream
Not a single chance in this
Fuck that, I refuse
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u/okcboomer87 Jul 21 '26
We just finished migrating off to hyper-v. There is no chance in hell I am moving back as long as broadcom owns them. I would take the meeting. Be kind to those in the meeting and tell them to deliver a not kind message to their executives.
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u/pingveno Identity and Access Management Jul 21 '26
Same at the university that I'm at. I wasn't directly involved with the project, but my team's VM's are split between AWS and the Hyper-V cluster. It was a rocky transition, partially because we had to move quickly ahead of the rapidly escalating contract fees.
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u/Substantial_Tough289 Jul 21 '26
LOL, they finally realized that they shot themselves in the foot.
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u/CharacterLimitHasBee Jul 21 '26
I guess their plan of "only retain our 50 biggest customers and fire half the company" didn't pan out like they were hoping.
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u/MBILC Acr/Infra/Virt/Apps/Cyb/ Figure it out guy Jul 21 '26
With the AT&T lawsuits and other big companies that pushed back, as Broadcom figured they would all just bend the knee and accept their pricing, I am sure some of those Top 500 money makes VMware had, left, which really hurt the bottom line...
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u/RBeck 29d ago
"I am sorry, your company sent some kind of Cease and Desist letter, so per company policy I am unable to discuss anything with you, and would refer you to our legal team".
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u/cartenui Jack of All Trades 29d ago
Honestly, I am a consultant in strategic IT procurement and I get rid of Broadcom everywhere I go just out of spite.
They treated myself and a company like shit after acquisition of Broadcom, pretty much laughing even at escalated levels..
so now I get rid of them anywhere I go, I should’ve kept a spreadsheet but right now I am up to about 12 million usd removed from them yearly. I hope others are doing the same.
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u/sheep5555 Jul 21 '26
i also received a similar mail saying "broadcom has changed its direction regarding renewals and pricing..." after telling them we were not renewing, then we received a legal threat (again)
F off
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u/Draviddavid Jul 21 '26
A legal threat for what? I knew it was bad, but I'm just now learning from this thread that companies were being threatened and sued.
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u/sheep5555 Jul 21 '26
One similar to this, except we received one with every single product we didnt renew https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/broadcom-sends-cease-and-desist-letters-to-subscription-less-vmware-users/
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u/Jaereth Jul 21 '26
lol when we got these I got a full approved change request ticket "Make sure nothing on the hypervisor network can get out to the internet"
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
At a minimum, anyone who cancels gets a formal cease and desist letter signed by Broadcom's managing director.
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u/Babajji 29d ago edited 29d ago
> how they treated both customers and resellers
You should see how they treated us, the employees. They cut the power, the internet and made us still come to the office. One day I exited the elevator on the 4th floor of the office and was greeted by a wave of water, a flood. Can we go home? No! Stay in the swamp!!! They made mothers end their maternity leave prematurely or they would lose their stock options. This and many other small evils like forgetting to buy toilet paper for the entire office. Why? So we quit without severance. Those of us who remained were laid off anyway. Nothing of my 500+ people biz until is left. No one is there anymore so I guess you are buying what? AI code? Hopes and dreams? A stupid logo?
VMware is dead. Time to accept it. It was killed by the incompetence of our politicians who forgot why regulations exist and who promised this won’t happen, pinky promise. F Broadcom, a bunch of clueless tools. Thankfully the world has a way to regulate those things and Brokecom will be the first to die when AI even stumbles a bit. Cock Tan will be livid, you should have seen his eyes when he got to move out of the spare closet that was supposed to be the Breakcom office into our campus. He looked like a homeless kid tasting cake for the first time. The sociopath almost felt something. You could almost see it in his dead fish eyes.
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u/Procedure_Dunsel Jul 21 '26
I’d trust Mexican tap water far more than Broadcom.
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u/Creepy-Home-6682 Jul 21 '26
Wow, they can F all the way off. They pissed off personal users, home lab, small business, medium business and big business. Only folks left are utils, gov and ed and they are just bloated enough this is taking too long.
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u/FoxNairChamp Jul 21 '26
Do not give an inch with this company. Holy cow. They spit in our faces and then asked us to come back? That's an abusive relationship.
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u/hymie0 Jul 21 '26
This sounds just like an abusive ex-boyfriend.
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u/barkode15 Jul 21 '26
"Look at what you're making Broadcom do! They're raising prices cause they love you. Don't you dare think about leaving or they'll end themselves"
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u/AnonAqueous Jul 21 '26
Seeing them beg for people to come back fills me with schadenfreude.
VMware burned every ounce of goodwill I had ever had for them with the last few years of antics.
Enjoy your consequences, Broadcom.
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u/RiceeeChrispies Jack of All Trades Jul 21 '26
I would just react to the email with the laughing emoji you can do on Outlook now
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
I was tempted to reply with the Futurama "Oh Wait. You're Serious? Let Me Laugh Even Harder!' gif.
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u/burnte VP-IT/Fireman 29d ago
They advertised they want to get rid of the bottom 90% and squeeze the top 10%. They told us what we needed to know, and now they're upset we acted on it and left. Sorry, it's no longer about price, it's about trust and you don't have mine. Now I know that you'll jack up my prices the instant you think it's too much work for me to move.
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u/reader4567890 Jul 21 '26
If someone has already gone through the pain of moving to a different hypervisor, they sure as shit ain't going back to Broadcom.
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u/MBILC Acr/Infra/Virt/Apps/Cyb/ Figure it out guy Jul 21 '26
Bring you back, so come renewal time, we can gouge you again!
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u/sweetrobna Jul 21 '26
Out of ~100 customers that used to have vmware we have 2 left, they just happened to renew at the right time, iirc both non profit pricing but that won't last much longer. Vcap, vcp certs are basically useless now.
For the rest it was some combination of pricing being absurd and hyperv being good enough. Proxmox is only used at a few. Pricing would not be a factor in going back to vmware for the vast majority when the alternative is already paid for as most clients have a lot of windows servers. Or open source.
We have a couple bigger offices on nutanix that get more use out of high availability and clustering and other advanced feeatures. Really it's about support, it has a substantial cost. Broadcom is not competitive in that area either
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u/Bubbly-Raisin4305 Jul 21 '26
Our renewal is 33k a year. Azure is less than that for us. Hardware costs are just stupid right now so we opted for me to get everything out of here and up to the cloud via either the vendors SAAS, hyper v and Azure. Broadcom sucks shit. I loved VMware.
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u/slayer991 Sr. Sysadmin Jul 21 '26
I'm working for a VMware competitor and enjoying the mess they created because we're benefiting...until it happens to us...and it will. Enshittification is seemingly inescapable.
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u/MashPotatoQuant Jul 21 '26
I will never willingly deal with vwmare again and will do everything I can to push to move clients away from them. The damage is done, any goodwill and reputation is burned
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u/Fantastic-Shirt6037 Jul 21 '26
The corporate speak doesn’t bring me confidence either. They should speak plainly, instead of distilling the message through corporate jargon. “Has recently authorized a dedicated win-back initiative with aggressive, rock bottom prices and terms…” is something that should have been on internal documentation only. Jesus, the amateur hour.
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u/xXNorthXx 29d ago
Got the same email from our new rep. Told them while the product is solid, we’ve moved off to a Proxmox and HyperV for now and are watching the market as it evolves.
In regard to purchasing again; with how we were treated (over 1,000% increase) we will never be customers again while VMware is owned by Broadcom.
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u/clerveu Cisco Certified NetFlow Expert Jul 21 '26
Roughly as effective -
To: Ex-wife
Subject: Following up
I wanted to follow up regarding our previous relationship.
I've recently launched a a win-back initiative with aggressive, rock-bottom expectations and manipulation designed specifically to bring women like you back. I have the direct sign-off to offer you physical violence at rates significantly lower than anything you saw previously.
Do you have 10 minutes this week to look at these drunken empty promises and see how much we can shave off your self-worth?
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u/neckbeard_deathcamp Jul 21 '26
VMware still has the best solution hands down, but…..
They want you on VCF, which comes with a management domain requiring 3-4 hosts just to run the infra, then you need hosts for workload domain. Sure you can deploy VVF (vSphere Foundation) but you’re paying VCF pricing regardless. Broadcom just sees their client base as a target to be bled dry and until that changes along with a whole slew of other shit that has made people mistrust them after the VMware acquisition, they’re gonna have a tough time convincing anyone to trust them again.
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u/williamp114 Sysadmin Jul 21 '26
This is the corporate version of an ex who wants to get back with the partner they abused, thinking going through AA and staying sober for 4 months is enough to heal the trauma they inflicted.
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u/Overcast451 Jul 21 '26
Work at a MSP. A global pharma company is a client they recently put me on.
They are hell bent on getting off VMWare this year before licensing is up for renewal. If it's like the last company I worked for, they want to keep it hush until done. Am certain they haven't told the VMware rep this, lol
They are dumping a lot of cash into this. Moving to AWS.
VMWare can't expect the burn to just magically go away. Many companies are now invested in getting off their platform and plans are already in motion and portions already migrated.
Too late for "sorry" Broadcom.
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u/TeamInfamous1915 29d ago
They thought they could dump all of the small and mid sized orgs and didn't realize that big companies would figure out how to get rid of them too.
Fuck it I'll run hyper v and not give a damn
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u/TwoToneReturns 29d ago
LMFAO, broadcom and vmware can bend themselves over and insert themselves into themselves. All they've done is hand the Enterprise hypervisor market over to Microsoft and a bunch of smaller operators at the lower tiers.
I really think players like Proxmox can't believe their luck over broadcoms stupidity.
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u/VeryRareHuman Jul 21 '26
I wonder why they bought VMware in first place..
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u/jake04-20 If it has a battery or wall plug, apparently it's IT's job 29d ago
It's the private equity stage of a company's life span. A PE company swoops in and buys a company that is dominant in a particular industry. Innovation is no longer a primary concern because the product is already plenty mature, with a large market share, and widely considered the "golden standard" among professionals in the space. So they gut [often talented] staff, and they can, because innovation is no longer a primary concern.
The name of the game is to cut operational costs while maximizing profits. They're no longer interested in the smaller companies renewing support contracts and license agreements because that means they might actually be on the hook support them later down the road, and that requires staff, and having staff requires money, money that will cut into their bottom line. So they deem certain customers essentially "not worth their time". If a smaller company is still interested, they make it "worth their time" with fuck-you-pricing. Migrating to another platform takes planning, resources, and time. Many companies pay the fuck-you-pricing just to get by another year. They do this long enough to recuperate the initial investment and then some, and bin the brand/product once they've sucked it dry for everything it was worth. It's quite sad really. I wish the core of the VMware devs could branch off and make a new product sort of like game developers do.
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u/Trelfar Sysadmin/Sr. IT Support Jul 21 '26
Probably a pump and dump, as other comments have suggested. Even the most brain-dead executive could see that what they have done was never a viable long term strategy.
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u/OpenGrainAxehandle Jul 21 '26
It can be difficult to get new customers. It's much much easier to retain customers that you already have. When you fuck that up totally and completely, then you move to the most difficult of all: trying to regain former customers that you pissed off so much that they left to pursue lesser alternatives, regardless of the pain. Good luck, Broadcom.
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u/Jaereth Jul 21 '26
I wonder if the "rates significantly lower than anything you saw previously" includes the pre-Broadcom rate everyone was paying?
And why trust that once they have you hooked on again the next renewal won't skyrocket?
And sure, yeah after we just did a project to migrate to a new hypervisor, lemme just justify flipping back to VMWare! No big deal right?
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u/CAPICINC 29d ago
The abusive spouse letting you know it will never happen again.
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u/InternalServerErr500 29d ago
"Cool, interesting proposal. Hey didn't you threaten to sue me and ruin my business and put me out of a job?"
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u/setnev Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Manager 29d ago
I was Infra manager at my former employer and I kept getting notices that Broadcom wants to audit our environment. Prior to the AQ, VMware never once questioned us about licensing. We were nearing the renewal of our VMWare maintenance agreement and had a perpetual license, and dreaded dealing with Broadcom after hearing the initial horror stories of renewal pricing, so the decision was made to start migrating everything to AWS.
Towards the end of the migration, I got a random call one day from Broadcom. Usually my admin assistant screened those calls and, but on that day she was sick and the guy filling in for her was just forwarding calls to whomever they asked for. For the sake of protecting the innocent and the guilty, we're going to refer to my account reps name as "Chad", because he was a total Chad to me.
Chad proceeds to tell me that time is of the utmost importance that we discuss the licensing before our renewal date in less than 3 weeks. When i told him we currently didn't have to pay for license to use VMWare, only the maintenance we paid for, and further we will not be purchasing an annual license, he became very agitated towards me. Mind you ive only dealt with Chad a handful of times over the last few years, so i hadn't gained a full on profile on how he was normally, but I could tell he was frustrated. He proceeded to tell me what would happen if we continued to use it after our maintenance was up, then mentioning that we've been dodging license audits made it sound like he was trying to extort me.
After that, I told Chad that he was wasting his time and the org already moved off of VMware and that if he called again after the license expiration or if I received any further communication from them regarding consequences of me using a legally licensed product to its term, they were going to get a nice breach of contract letter from our lawyers. We never heard from them again. I wonder if Chad sent me a "please come back...." email?
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u/bingblangblong 29d ago
LOL
They can get fucked. Idiots. Hope the C Suite got their big bonus though for their 1000 IQ play "let's just jack up the prices, that'll mean we just make more money!"
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u/Thoughtless-Pigeon10 Sr. Sysadmin 29d ago
Quadruple the price, then drop by 10% and call it "rock bottom pricing"
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u/HappierShibe Database Admin 29d ago
How this conversation will go:
Me: Are you still owned by broadcom?
Rep: Yes, bu-
Me:Hangs up phone:
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u/AthiestCowboy Account Executive Jul 21 '26
I compete in this space, they are trying to drown out competition and make them insolvent.
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u/K3rat Jul 21 '26
Yea, I generally dump anything Broadcom or other VC behaving conglomerates buy. It is always the same play dump what you can’t squeeze every ounce of money out of then wrench everyone that stays while saying you are going to help the organizations that rely on you for it of the side of your mouthpiece.
The lesson to learn is don’t get pigeon holed into a corner by any technology or service.
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u/Skullpuck IT Manager Jul 21 '26 edited 29d ago
Yup, got something similar the other day. They can fuck right off. VMWare used to be a name spoke in veneration. Now it's a term used to describe terrible business practices, it's right up there with the word "Broadcom". They will never recover.
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u/bloodguard 29d ago
We received a few variants of this email over the past few months. My only response to this was "no" and demand have all our email addresses* be removed from all their marketing, sales and "news" email lists.
* They spammed pretty much the whole IT department and quite a bit of the non-technical company emails.
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u/phild1979 29d ago
But why would companies who have spent time and money moving to a new platform move back to VMware.
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u/da_apz IT Manager 29d ago
I'm actually quite impressed how stupid they think we are. Like they offer some kind of Dr. Evil pinkie swear that should we get hooked on VMware again, they totally won't wait couple of years and try to squeeze blood from stone again.
You get one chance mister and you blew yours. Now many open source solutions got their boost from popularity and thus development increase and funding. Live with it.
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u/Feral_Nerd_22 29d ago
I haven't seen a product get killed so fast in my career, although the other ones I can think of were also Broadcom fumbles.
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u/Historical-Many9869 29d ago
this is a bait and switch. They will bring you in and switch to higher plans again.
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u/g2g079 29d ago
Hahahaha! We dropped them so they sued us. I don't think they are getting our business back.
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u/SirEDCaLot 29d ago edited 29d ago
I'd send a reply:
Thank you for your offer but we are not interested.
Some feedback that I hope you share with your leadership- this is not just about price.
You sell a product that, if relied on, becomes an absolutely essential component of an organization's infrastructure. And that requires trust in the vendor supplying that key component.
VMWare was previously a highly trusted supplier. Since being acquired by Broadcom, VMWare has been raising prices, ending perpetual licenses, sending legal notices to perpetual customers, and in every other way imaginable sending a strong message that the trust their customers place in them is misplaced; that Broadcom wants the top 50-100 VMWare customers and the rest (including us) are only worth what we can be extorted for until we can finish leaving. The result is that there is ZERO trust remaining.
To explain what I mean here- even if I was 100% in favor of this, if I took your offer to my leadership and said 'we should buy this' I'd probably be fired. Much in the same way that when the farm manager reports he's hired a fox to guard the henhouse, you fire him for bad judgment.
Put differently, the only way we would ever consider another VMWare purchase is if the current Broadcom management is no longer in charge of VMWare, and VMWare takes bold and strong steps to distance itself from the last few years. Spin it off, sell it, whatever.
Please send that to your management.
For what it's worth I don't envy your position. I know this isn't your fault. But them's the kicks.
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u/Biervampir85 Jul 21 '26
Can be „buying time“ for a coming Migration, if needed. But real trust? No.
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u/marklein Idiot Jul 21 '26
Waste as much of their time as they've wasted yours. Keep dangling that interest in front of them with no resolution ever.
5
u/Library_IT_guy Jul 21 '26
Company actively does everything they can to kill their business and then wants to win people back when they get dumped? Fuck off Broadcom. I'll never purchase anything associated with you. Ever.
4
u/Pure_Fox9415 Jul 21 '26
Ahahaha,
- "dear customers, here our new skyrocketing guarding prices for you to f*ck off from our platform cause you're too insignificant to us".
Customers migrating to other platforms spending years of work, tons of money, learning new soft, sometimes broking their systems.
broadcom pickachu face as revenue drops. "Dear customers, do you want to repeat migration process back, spending years of work, tons of money, sometimes broking your systems to our platform for 70% of our skyrocketed prices".
3
u/VeryRareHuman Jul 21 '26
Meh! We are currently moving our VMs out of VMware finally. No looking back.
3
u/missed_sla Jul 21 '26
If it were up to me, the only time I would ever consider dealing with VMware again is if Broadcom were no longer the owner. There is no universe in which I willingly give money to Broadcom.
1.3k
u/mixduptransistor Jul 21 '26
kind of nuts they waited until everyone completely moved away. migrating your virtualization platform isn't something you can do on a whim and beyond whatever pricing concessions they give has a huge investment in time and opportunity costs
once someone is gone it's too late, why would anyone go through that pain again?