AWS and Broadcom will offer VMware Cloud Foundation customers an AWS-native version of VMware after a similar service became Broadcom-exclusive earlier this year.
Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS) enables customers to run VCF workloads natively within Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, a private networking service. It provides a customer-managed alternative to VMware Cloud on AWS, which is managed by Broadcom and since May has been exclusively sold through Broadcom-approved channels.
Existing VCF customers can use their license portability entitlement to bring VMware workloads into AWS and connect with other AWS-native services, according to AWS. The service will be released in preview starting during next week's AWS re:Invent 2024.
Following its acquisition of VMware last year, Broadcom took a hard-line approach to selling and licensing the VMware platform, but that messaging has softened in recent months, according to Scott Sinclair, an analyst at TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group.
Cloud hyperscalers will remain priority partners for Broadcom, he said, as the vendor looks to keep customers within VMware over migrating to alternative hypervisors or modernizing applications fully for the cloud.
"There was a lot of messaging about dialing back with partners, but there was always a plan with the major public cloud and infrastructure partners," Sinclair said. "It's critical for [Broadcom] to keep applications within the VMware environment."
Back on speaking terms
In May, Broadcom said it planned to sell VMware Cloud on AWS exclusively, discontinuing sales through AWS and its channel partners.
Broadcom's VMware Cloud on AWS managed service remains available, but the EVS offering provides distinct features for hybrid cloud customers. These include native connectivity to other AWS services, the ability to bring VMware workloads to the cloud without refactoring or replatforming, and the use of existing VMware management tools to supervise VCF workloads in AWS, according to an AWS blog post about EVS.
Broadcom's switch to an all-inclusive subscription model for VMware upset enterprise customers still running apps on specific pieces of VMware software, according to Steve McDowell, founder and lead analyst at NAND Research.
Recent updates to VCF's offerings such as an increase in storage licensing and a new basic virtualization tier indicate Broadcom is attempting to refine its messaging without deviating too far from its VCF private cloud platform ambitions, he said.
"Broadcom realized they swung a little too far in one direction and are walking [it] back," McDowell said. "VMware is targeting large enterprises, and large enterprises are multi-cloud."
As much anger as there is [at Broadcom], there isn't a one-to-one alternative.
Scott SinclairAnalyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
Customers looking to migrate from VMware or vendors looking to offer alternatives, such as AWS' cloud services, both find themselves stymied by the breadth and depth of the capabilities VMware has accrued over the years, Sinclair said.
Also, Microsoft Azure, an AWS competitor, offers Azure VMware Solution, a Microsoft-managed VCF service that connects VMware to Azure cloud services without replatforming, he said.
Azure and AWS can both promise connectivity to their wider services, but neither can offer an exact replica of VMware itself without Broadcom's involvement, according to Sinclair. Nutanix, the closest hybrid cloud virtualization competitor to VMware, lacks a public cloud-native version of its platform, he said.
"As much anger as there is [at Broadcom], there isn't a one-to-one alternative," Sinclair said.
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for TechTarget Editorial covering cloud and data storage.
