I wrote this post more than 6 months ago and I find it still relevant today. Hopefully, it will give you all some insight on the sentiment as this business is transforming.

I know. It’s been such a stretch of time between my posts and I deliberately stayed silent as the Broadcom acquisition of VMware began to wind down to it’s final hours.

I will recap now the turbulent changes I’ve been navigating alongside many of our colleagues in and outside of the former VMware.

In addition, the lack of technical posts was due to the change in portfolio strategies that kept whip lashing from left to right. It was impossible to provide accurate and relevant guidance in the face of these changes.

I recap now as I believe we are finally turning the last bend to a clearer portfolio strategy that will stay consistent through the next 18 to 24 months.

Let’s be clear – VMware was a great company and vSphere, vSAN, and NSX are in a league of their own. They will persist as the enterprise grade virtualization layer in any serious organization. Like all organizations, it had pros and cons. Broadcom brings a dearly needed balance to VMware. What balance am I talking about? Financial and organizational discipline.

Yeah, I said the quiet part out loud. In print.

It’s not going to happen overnight but I would guess about 60% of it has been completed. I’m referring to both the logistical and cultural changes. These changes are too numerous and too rapidly evolving to try to describe. So let me try to summarize on what the outcome might be like and how it will affect you and me who have been long time community members.

First, the technology itself is NOT going to change overnight. NSX is not suddenly going to be morphed into something that doesn’t resemble it’s current form. Sudden controls into the software CANNOT be implemented overnight. So everyone just BREATHE.

How can I say this?

Because I was unexpectedly yanked into the heart of the VMware software portfolio a year ago as a Product Line Manager and was thrown into the deep end of building our software. Very few of you knew this and I was not vocal due to the confidential nature of the work. As a result, going forward, my posts will continue to be limited. Sorry, but I’m trying to make a better world for both you and me. Oh, and Broadcom’s bottom line. Remember, I came from sales. Just saying.

Ok, so how should you think about the VMware software you use and how to plan for changes?

Knowing that any changes that are introduced into any of the software will require at a minimum 6 to 12 months, you’re not likely doing squat differently for the next 6 to 12 months in terms of operating your datacenter and the virtualization layer.

The immediate impact is for those who need to renew contracts. No hiding we are going subscription model. Perpetual is dead. Quit complaining. Adobe did it. Microsoft did it. Why are you giving us a hard time? Suck it up. All our crap is going subscription and all our costs are creeping up. Have you seen NetFlix’s increase in subscription? Like dayum….my family subscription went from $20 to $27 a month!

Some of you are complaining it’s double(or more). Well, duh. I just said VMware sucked at financial and organizational discipline. What do you think was artificially holding the costs down?!

Alright. That doesn’t fundamentally change the way you should value the software you choose to use so each of you need to make that business choice. Do your math. Count your own butt in your own seat and do some calculations. What happened with the price changes basically equated to moving the dollar point where paying for a VMware subscription made financial sense moved to a different place. Find your organization’s place. That necessarily means changes in the field and where our software is implemented. The company is aware of this and obviously, this was intentional for the survival of the business.

Let’s move on to more positive changes as I am excited to move forward.

Finally, we’ve consolidated our product groups and the core products from vSphere, NSX, vSAN, and Aria have been aligned both from a organizational standpoint and from a product revenue standpoint. We all are incentivized on the same revenue now. Not gonna lie – we’re not used to playing in the same sandbox so give us some time to learn how to get along.

The good news is we all want the core products to work well together and give you that REAL enterprise software feel that stitches the experience together. This is hard work. Have you ever witness a brand new kindergarten class on the first few days? Everyone is sitting at their own desk. Everyone is afraid to speak up. No one knows each other’s personalities. There are no friend groups formed. And yet, we all must work together to complete a project. How awkward. That’s where we are right now.

We know we must make the entire stack of VMware’s software a better experience and this is an area I am focusing on. The changes will take time. They will be small. They will be incremental. And over time, they will stitch themselves together to form a more unified way of operating our stack. The direction is clear – make it easy to operate our software in all the ways that impact your business (upgrades, patching, viewing, etc). In accomplishing that, we want to earn the right to continue running your business now and in the future.

I’m here for you because I used to be one of you. I’m here rallying to build the best software that runs enterprises and makes the people who run these datacenters the rockstars of our industry – you. In saying that, I also must say I and the remaining team that has moved to Broadcom are worth the new subscription price. I understand many of you can no longer afford us. I think it’s fair to say we no longer are the right fit for many of our customers. It’s ok to dislike and judge the new business model. Just remember, the people are not the business model. Over the next few years, the people here will be the ones to build a software portfolio that does our customer base justice – the integration of the stack, improve the operating experience, and so much more. I hope many of you will stay with us during this extended ride. If you can’t, that’s ok too. Perhaps you can rejoin us in the future when our portfolio and your business needs align again.