Since the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom in 2023, the company’s new owners have been doing their utmost to alienate a broad swathe of its customers. Or, as the company would have it, “build the world’s leading infrastructure technology company.”
In addition to discouraging the next generation of systems developers and architects from using the platform by nixing the free-to-experiment-with ESXi option, the company has tried to force many of its customers off the VMware platform with a series moves that include:
- VMware price increase can be in the hundreds of percent,
- tier-bundling so users pay for products they don’t wish to use (AKA portfolio simplification [PDF]),
- going back on previous contractual agreements,
- ending the sale of lifetime licences,
- ending support for products on perpetual licences.
The latest move by Broadcom/VMware is to charge its customers late fees for subscription-based services, or threaten to levy such fees if renewals are not taken up in a manner timely-enough for the commission-hungry account managers at the company.
Speaking to Business Insider, Ignacio Llorente, CEO of OpenNebula Systems, said: “Many customers who transitioned from perpetual licenses to […] subscription-based services are […] unaccustomed to the ongoing renewal process. This has led to some being caught off guard by unexpected additional costs, especially when renewals are missed.”
Source: Tech HQ