VMware tries to win back SMBs after trust collapse
Original: “Trust, not features, is the real deficit”: VMware tries to appease SMBs
Why This Matters
VMware's SMB trust crisis signals lasting channel and customer damage from Broadcom's post-acquisition strategy.
Broadcom's VMware admitted overemphasis on its expensive VCF bundle alienated SMBs. CPO Paul Turner stated sales incentives were corrected, and an updated vSphere Standard is coming soon, with details expected at VMware Explore Frankfurt in October 2026.
Following Broadcom's 2023 acquisition of VMware, the company ended perpetual licensing and shifted focus to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), a premium subscription bundle many SMBs found unaffordable and feature-bloated. Reports emerged that sales reps actively steered customers away from lower-cost options like vSphere Standard, with some customers claiming reps said Standard was no longer available.
VCF Chief Product Officer Paul Turner acknowledged to The Register that Broadcom's sales incentive structure drove this behavior, stating 'We corrected this' and admitting VMware had 'too big a focus on VCF.' Broadcom President of Infrastructure Software Ram Velaga said VMware prioritized VCF to promote private cloud adoption, and that introducing a lower-end product earlier would have been a distraction.
VMware confirmed an updated vSphere Standard is coming 'soon,' with details expected at VMware Explore Frankfurt in October 2026. The product had not been updated since 2022, even as VCF 9 received a new vSphere version in 2025.
However, partners and customers remain skeptical. Dean Colpitts, CTO of Canadian MSP Members IT Group—cut from VMware's reseller program after 19 years—told Ars Technica: 'Broadcom has burned all the bridges.' Competitors Nutanix, Proxmox, and Microsoft Hyper-V are actively targeting displaced VMware SMB customers.