The German arm of telecoms biz Telefónica has shifted support for its VMware installed base to Spinnaker after Broadcom quoted it a renewal figure five times the size of what it was previously paying. Telefónica Germany made the switch to Spinnaker at the start of the year when its existing support with VMware, now a subsidiary of silicon-and-software giant Broadcom, expired. VMware must support crucial Dutch govt agency as it migrates off the platform, judge rules READ MORE The telco was running vSphere, largely on perpetual licenses it had purchased previously, with regularly renewed agreements to cover maintenance and other support. However, as Reg readers will be aware, Broadcom decided to end perpetual licenses after it bought VMware, and has sought to move customers to subscription packages covering both software and support. These bundle together multiple pieces of software, typified by VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), which includes vSphere, vSAN, NSX and other components to provide a complete private cloud platform. The result is often a far higher price tag than customers paid before. "Our offer from Broadcom was five times higher than we expected," Holger Berndt, Professional Lead for Software Asset Management at Telefónica told The Register. "We told them that we don't use all parts of the VCF. They offered us the whole solution, and it was very good, and it's a lot of things that we don't need, that was the main problem," he added. Telefónica currently uses only vSphere 8.0 and 7.0, so the full-blown VCF suite is considered somewhat overkill for its requirements. "They told us we are a valued customer, then they offered us a price it was, let me think, five times higher than expected. And that was not acceptable, because we had paid approximately €5 to €8 million over three years already, and so you can figure out what they offer[ed] us," Berndt said. It seems Broadcom was not prepared to be flexible on licensing in order to keep the telco, one of Germany...
First seen: 2025-07-14 09:59
Last seen: 2025-07-14 13:59