Broadcom retires VMWare Registered partner tier amid EU scrutiny

A 'clear opportunity [for partners] to differentiate on value’

VMWare has dropped the lowest tier of its partner programme, in an announcement on Sunday.

The vendor is consolidating its VMware Advantage Partner Programme from four tiers to three - Pinnacle, Premier, and Select - and dropping the Registered tier.

This is the latest in a series of moves by the cloud computing vendor to trim its partner programme after Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023.

Broadcom is also raising the requirements for each tier.

Pinnacle partners must either hold Expert Advantage Professional Services Partner status for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or maintain a dedicated SMB practice.

Pinnacle and Premier partners must also have dedicated sales and technical staff and participate in joint business planning with VMware.

Partners not meeting the updated criteria will be transitioned out of the programme, a step Broadcom says is necessary to maintain the integrity of its ecosystem.

Selected partners will take on a broader set of customers and greater responsibility, with a focus on driving IT modernisation, AI adoption, and cyber resilience through the VMware Cloud Foundation, the vendor also said.

This is the latest in a series of moves by the cloud computing vendor to streamline its partner programme after it was acquired by Broadcom in November 2023.

Shortly after, in December, Broadcom announced a shift from perpetual licenses to a subscription-based licensing model for VMware products.

In January 2024, Broadcom notified VMware channel partners of the transition to the by-invitation-only Broadcom Advantage Partner Programme, leading to concerns among partners.

In February that year, Broadcom invited over 18,000 active VMware resellers to join the new Broadcom Advantage Partner Programme, trimmed VMware's product offerings, focusing on VMware Cloud Foundation and transitioning all solutions to subscription licenses and sold VMware's end-user computing (EUC) division to KKR for approximately $4bn.

Since then, Broadcom has continued to rationalise the programme, leading to confusion from existing partnerssit and growing regulatory scrutiny.

Most recently, the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers In Europe (CISPE) group - a trade association of 37 cloud providers tasked with monitoring software vendors accused of monopoly practices - issued a report suggesting that the current VMware licensing model relies on practices that appear to breach European competition regulations.

The report also stated that Broadcom’s overall business model “remains legally and ethically flawed.”

This article originally appeared on our sister site CRN UK