VMware channel braces for pricing changes

New prices due to come into force next Wednesday

VMware channel partners are preparing for the vendor to tweak its price list next week.

The virtualisation giant is understood to be reducing the discounts it gives to partners on certain products from 1 April.

IT consultant Aidan Finn published a note he had seen – which he claims was sent from VMware to a distie – on his blog.

"VMware will be adjusting the licence discounts available to authorised partners across product lines," the note reads. "This will result in an increased licence cost to all VMware partners, both distribution and resellers.

"New discounts will be applied on VMware perpetual licences, term licences and subscription on-premise SKUs and will be based on the vSphere and non-vSphere product family."

Current deals which are in the pipeline will be valid at existing prices until the end of the calendar month in which they are quoted, the vendor added in the email.

The exact percentages and product details were not included in the document, and VMware was unavailable to provide further information or comment at the time of publication.

One partner told CRN that the new discount rates will vary based on whether or not the product is classed as core on non-core.

"We've been told they are dividing products up into core and non-core products... and are changing our discount model around [that division]" said the partner, who did not want to be named. "Non-core gets less of a discount than core. It is all about balancing out across the globe."

The partner added that the move should not have a huge impact on business because the customer base their firm serves does not buy with them purely on price, but on their other expertise as well.

Another partner said although they were not aware of these specific price changes, they were braced for movement on vendor price lists across the board due to ongoing fluctuations.

Update

VMware provided CRN with a statement in which its senior product marketing manager for software-defined datacentre in EMEA Rory Choudhuri said:

"There is no planned change to end-user pricing. We are changing and adjusting reseller discounts to better suit the capabilities of our channel, and to create global alignment in our business practices and reseller pricing.

"That also means we will be investing more money in a range of other channel incentives, demand generation and marketing activity to better reward partners that are actively promoting and selling a broader range of our products."