VCF license entitlement

[Vjeran Babic]

Hi,

Do I understand correctly that customers with perpetual VCF licenses with active support&subscription contract (the "subscription" part meaning access to upgrades) are denied access to VCF9?

Kind regards

[Shen88]

@Vjeran Babic,

Yes, your understanding is correct. Customers with perpetual VCF licenses, even with an active support & subscription contract (meaning access to upgrades), are generally denied access to VCF 9.x and future major releases.

Here's why, based on Broadcom's licensing changes:

 * End of Perpetual Licenses: Broadcom (who acquired VMware) has ceased selling new perpetual licenses and will not renew support for existing perpetual contracts once their current term expires.
 * Shift to Subscription Model: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) are now primarily offered under a subscription model.
 * Upgrade Restrictions for Perpetual Licenses: Official documentation states that VCF perpetual licenses are only entitled to upgrade through the 5.x version release. They are explicitly not entitled to upgrade to the next major release (e.g., VCF 9.x). To access VCF 9.x or newer versions, customers must purchase a new VCF subscription offer.

 * VCF 9.x Licensing: VCF 9.0 introduces a new licensing approach where it's licensed through a license file accessible via the VCF Business Services Console (vcf.broadcom.com), and it requires VCF Operations. This aligns with the new subscription-based model.
In essence, while your perpetual license allows you to continue using the version you are licensed for indefinitely, the active support and "subscription" part of your contract will not grant you upgrades to major new versions like VCF 9.x. To get those, you'll need to transition to Broadcom's new subscription-based VCF offerings.

You may refer the FAQ Page 3, Q23 - https://www.vmware.com/docs/vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0-general-faqs

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Thank you!

Regards,
Shen
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[Vjeran Babic]

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed answer but all of that basically says, yes, you payed for upgrades but since then, we decided to break that contract, but hey, it says so in the new faq so just pretend it's all fine...

We have 2.5 years of that S&S contract left which means our environment will reach End Of Support before our contract expires without being allowed to upgrade, which puts us in a...tricky situation.

Kind regards, Vjeran

[Simon Knappe]

It is the same for customers with new vSphere Standard and Enterprise Plus subscriptions. The can purchase 3-year subscriptions, but are not allowed to access vSphere 9.0. 

vSphere 8.0 is going End of General Support on October 2027, so they will remain one year on an unsupported outdated version even with an active subscription contract!