Broadcom forces AWS to stop reselling VMware Cloud offering

“VMware Cloud on AWS is no longer directly sold by AWS or its channel partners. It’s that simple,” says Broadcom CEO Hock Tan

Amazon Web Services and AWS channel partners can no longer resell VMware Cloud on AWS, as Broadcom forces joint customers to have to buy the offering direct from VMware by Broadcom now.

"We are disappointed that AWS is no longer operating as a VMware Cloud on AWS reseller but continue working closely with Broadcom to serve our mutual customers," said AWS in a statement to CRN US.

In a blog post, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan confirmed the news.

"VMware Cloud on AWS is no longer directly sold by AWS or its channel partners. It's that simple," said Tan.

"What this means is that customers who previously purchased VMware Cloud on AWS from AWS will now work with Broadcom or an authorised Broadcom reseller to renew their subscriptions and expand their environments."

Customers who have active one- or three-year subscriptions with monthly payments that were purchased from AWS will continue to be invoiced by AWS until the end of their term, he said.

Broadcom did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Broadcom has ‘evaporated' the channel

One top executive from a solution provider that partners with both AWS and VMware by Broadcom said this move, yet again, shows that Broadcom's plan for VMware is "to deteriorate" its channel partner community.

"VMware's long history of being what you would call a ‘Channel Champion' has evaporated because of Broadcom," said the executive, who declined to be named, whose company once won a VMware Partner of the Year award for North America.

"So now Broadcom blocked us from selling VMware Cloud on AWS. I mean, the nerve on those guys," said the executive.

"Why on Earth would we try to sell (VMware Cloud on AWS) to a customer ever again? We're going to get them off it as soon as possible."

The longtime AWS and VMware partner believes that Broadcom is trying to phase out the product.

"Who has any doubt that (VMware Cloud on AWS) won't be around in a few years?" he said.

We have several big customers using it. When their subscription is up, VMware Cloud on AWS is over."

AWS instructs customers how to migrate VMware-based VMs to Amazon EC2

Last week, AWS wrote a blog post encouraging AWS customers to migrate VMware VMs to Amazon EC2.

"We will walk you through the step-by-step process of completing VMware virtual machine (VM) migrations to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) using the (Application Migration Service). Moreover, we will show how to apply a custom post-launch action script to remove proprietary VMware tools from the migrated VMs," said AWS executives in the 29 April blog post.

AWS said migrating on-premises VMware workloads to Amazon EC2 can provide "significant" benefits including increased scalability, improved performance, and reduced operational costs.

AWS Application Migration Service simplifies this process by "providing a seamless, automated block-level replication solution for migrating VMware VMs" to Amazon EC2 instances.

Hock Tan on VMware cloud on AWS future

VMware first launched VMware Cloud on AWS nearly seven years ago.

Built specifically for multi-cloud, VMware Cloud provides a consistent platform across a wide array of hyperscaler cloud providers.

VMware Cloud on AWS aims to help customers migrate and optimise their VMware-based workloads to the AWS cloud.

In an email to CRN US, AWS said, "We remain committed to helping customers take full advantage of the best cloud services for their business, including VMware Cloud on AWS."

Seattle-based AWS is the world's largest cloud company, owning 31 percent share of the global market with a $100bn annual run rate.

Broadcom's CEO said VMware Cloud on AWS has transformed the industry by providing a reliable solution to move enterprise VMware workloads onto the public cloud without the expensive and unpredictable refactoring and migrations that come with native public cloud services.

"Today we deliver the same software in public cloud and on-prem as VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), helping organisations modernise their infrastructure with the best possible TCO, with the flexibility and portability to move and run their workloads wherever they choose," said Tan.

"So, again, VMware Cloud on AWS continues to serve customers just as it always has."