Open letter to all VMware partners on behalf of Copaco Cloud

Dear VMware partner, 

The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom and the cancellation of all global contracts caused quite a stir in the market. Meanwhile, the dust is beginning to settle and the new direction is becoming apparent. A course that simplifies the VMware landscape and offers new opportunities.

Read our press release here >

Seizing those opportunities requires change. As always, the Copaco teams are ready to support you. Because whatever course you take, Copaco will put the wind in your sails.

What does this change mean?

A different billing model

In the "old" monthly VMware model (VCSP), your costs were calculated based on points, centered on GB vMemory. In the new model, you are charged per number of cores per CPU per host, with a minimum of 16 cores per CPU.

Reporting VMware usage through Copaco Cloud  

If your organization was not invited or does not wish to participate in Broadcom's renewed Premier Partner program, with the minimum commitment of 3500 cores, it is possible to report and settle your usage via Copaco.

• You decide how many cores you want to 'commit' and how many cores you want to purchase 'on demand'. Of course, a more favorable rate applies to committed cores. This allows you to retain the flexibility you desire.

• It is possible to make customer-specific commitments.

Reporting will be based on the 'UsageMeter'. To offer more convenience, it will be possible to link your UsageMeter to the Copaco Cloud platform, so you won't have to report your usage manually. On the contrary, Copaco automatically invoices the VMware licenses, consolidated on the Copaco Cloud invoice. Should you purchase other services such as Microsoft 365, Veeam and Acronis via Copaco Cloud, VMware will be billed in your usual way and offered via the Billing API for automatic processing.

Are you using hosts with less than 16 cores per CPU? If so, this leads to a significant increase in your cost.

• If you want to continue operating your own platform, it may pay to off purchase or lease new hardware with a more favorable core per CPU distribution.

• You can also partially or fully house your platform on one of the Copaco VMware Cloud environments. This way, you maintain full control over your virtual datacenters and those of your clients. Moreover, you are not bound by commitment contracts.

Because all Copaco VMware Cloud platforms are set up according to the latest standards and are continuously growing, you are assured of a good price at Copaco Cloud.

Simplification through bundles

There are more than 150 VMware products. To simplify the landscape, Broadcom is going to work with bundles. The two most important ones are:

• VMware vSphere Foundation: this bundle includes Tanzu, Aria Operations and Operations for Logs, among others. Good products to optimize traditional vSphere environments.

• VMware Cloud Foundation: in addition to the previously mentioned products, it offers the full stack of Aria solutions, vSAN and NSX. Copaco VMware Cloud is based on this technology.

Both bundles can be expanded with add-on services. For small environments, vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus can be used.

The end of perpetual licenses

Broadcom will stop selling perpetual licenses. This means you have two options. The first option is to enter into a (large) commitment contract, an option that is costly or risky for many parties and for which you need to be invited by Broadcom. The second option is to report your usage via the UsageMeter as described earlier.

OEM  

Until recently, it was possible through Copaco to buy Dell or HPE hardware with OEM VMware licenses included. For now, OEM sales have been halted until further notice. Broadcom and hardware manufacturers are consulting and investigating the possibility of continuing OEM if necessary. At this time, we expect more clarity in late Q2, early Q3. Want to host your own platform and move forward now? Then the UsageMeter-based reporting option, as explained above in this letter, may be of interest to your organization.

Alternatives

Like many MSPs, many of our colleagues at Copaco Cloud 'grew up' with VMware. We are still VMware adepts and are happy to continue supporting you with our VMware knowledge and platforms. Nevertheless, there are and will be alternative solutions worth exploring. Think Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud. All available through Copaco. And the great thing is, you don't have to choose. Tooling that makes setting up and managing multi and hybrid cloud environments easier is getting better and better.

Stay up to date

With this letter, we seek to clarify recent developments. More and more information will become available in the near future. If you would like us to proactively inform you about this, please send an email to cloud.belgium@copaco.com with the subject VMware-Broadcom. If you want to talk to us personally about VMware developments, we are happy to come to you or schedule a (video) call.

Copaco remains the party that works exclusively with partners, where reliability of service is paramount and where a personal and simple way of doing business is paramount. We are at your service.

Have questions or would you like to set up a POC? Send an email to cloud.belgium@copaco.com or register for the VMware webinar on Thursday, March 28.

Inschrijven

Kind regards, 

Pascal Nuyttens & Rick van den Hoogenhof 

CTO Copaco Cloud | Manager Copaco Cloud