As Broadcom continues to refine and tighten its VMware partner program, VMware customers find themselves asking:

• Is our incumbent partner still qualified to sell VMware?
• How do we ensure there are no gaps in renewal support?
• Can our partner provide the expertise needed to guide our VMware investment?
• How do we adopt VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) without delays, disruption, or wasted entitlements?

Broadcom first consolidated VMware’s partner ecosystem in fall 2025, removing thousands of resellers from the program and radically restructuring licensing models. In response to this market evolution, SHI has poured even more into its VMware practice, building on three decades of VMware partnership. This includes expanding advanced certifications, increased VCF advisory capacity, and strengthened lifecycle services, so customers can move forward with a partner built for continuity.

What’s changed with VMware since the Broadcom acquisition?

Licensing contracts, subscription models, product packaging, and the partner ecosystem have all transformed in the last few years.]

Here’s a quick recap of what has changed since Broadcom acquired VMware in November 2023:

• Core-based licensing shifts: Customers have been asked to migrate from CPU-based to core-based licensing, including 16-core minimums and high-core processor implications.
• Bundle consolidation: VMware offerings have been consolidated into bundled platforms, including VCF and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).
• A reduced, more selective VMware partner ecosystem: Broadcom streamlined VMware’s vast legacy partner ecosystem, reducing the overall number of authorized partners.

That’s a lot of simultaneous change to manage, particularly at a time when most organizations are already under pressure to introduce and support AI workloads, modernize infrastructure to match, keep costs from spiraling out of control, and maintain operational readiness.

How can SHI help you solve core VMware challenges?

Technology decisions today carry greater financial, operational, and strategic risk. This requires a partner that can guide , not just transact. In response, SHI has significantly expanded its end-to-end VMware by Broadcom capabilities to ensure you continue to get the most out of your investment with minimal disruption.

Here’s how we can assist with some of your biggest VMware challenges:

1. Reduce uncertainty across VMware licensing, renewals, and budgets.

New subscription models and product bundles will impact how you budget and plan for renewals. That’s why we’ve strengthened our licensing advisory services with our VMware Strategic Assessment. Through this process, SHI’s VMware experts bring you needed decision clarity on:

• The CPU-to-core licensing impact across your actual environment.
• Bundle and packaging changes, like VCF vs. VVF.
• Renewal timing considerations and assumption-based planning scenarios.

Our goal is to provide scenario walkthroughs, including guidance on mixed (hybrid and multi-cloud) environments if needed, so you feel confident in your renewal, budgeting, and platform decisions. Less friction enables faster adoption.

2. Accelerate value from VMware Cloud Foundation — not just deploy it.

Like many technology tools, the VCF value accelerates when it’s adopted with structured, executable intent. You know you’re interested in the results VCF offers, but how do you intend to roll it out? To help with that question, we leverage Broadcom’s VCF Functional Consumption Plan (FCP) Discovery, so you have a clear, executable framework in hand prior to day one.

Your FCP will:

• Surface blockers early: No one wants an unexpected problem springing up on adoption day.
• Align delivery teams prior to adoption: Everyone should understand their purpose and role, especially with an investment like VCF.
• Reduce deployment delays: Faster rollout leads to faster realization of VCF outcomes.
• Ensure entitlement funds are consumed effectively: Return on your investment should be maximized.

Through this 60-minute structured discovery, we’ll help you produce a draft of your VCF adoption timeline covering all four VCF workstreams — Infrastructure, Automation, Security, and Kubernetes — within five business days.

3. Prepare for changes that impact your end-to-end VMware investment.

Customers grappling with existential VMware choices often ask us:

• What’s the long-term viability of private cloud?
• How do we modernize without disrupting critical workloads?
• What’s the best way to forecast VMware solutions to meet our future AI needs in such a dynamic landscape?

We’ve long invested in our VMware teams so we can support your end-to-end VMware journey, and now we’re proud to share that we’ve attained Broadcom Knight-level engineering status. This elite recognition program is only granted to the highest-performing partner professionals worldwide. It enables us to better accelerate both your business and technological transformation across VCF, vSAN, vDefend, Kubernetes, Symantec security, VMware Avi Load Balancer, and beyond.

When you ask our team deep VMware questions that can’t be answered by a quick Google search, we offer tangible guidance tailored to your organization, making those existential choices a little less daunting.

Why SHI for VMware?

With fewer accredited VMware by Broadcom partners, your choice matters now more than ever. SHI blends high-level architecture guidance, deep hands-on engineering, expert enablement and knowledge transfer, and ongoing lifecycle and renewal support, so you can feel confident that you’re working with a partner aligned with the latest VMware products.

Our service catalog includes:

We’ve helped customers with:

We were also named VMware Geo Partner of the Year (North America) and VMware Technical Enablement/Support Partner of the Year (Americas) in 2024. Plus, we’re a VMware Pinnacle partner and VMware Expert Advantage Program (Pinnacle+) participant.

Other differentiators that set us apart:

• Over 1600 certified VMware professionals: Our in-house experts help you unify people, skills, and innovation by breaking down IT, security, cloud, and AI silos.
• SHI’s AI & Cyber Labs: Test new technologies in a safe environment with our expert-led proofs of concept, so you can adopt and scale with confidence when you’re ready.
• Relationships with leading hardware partners: Leverage our VMware expertise and decades of premier-level partnerships, so you can deliver GPU‑enabled architectures across compute, storage, and networking that balance performance, security, and compliance.

Our joint solutions are designed to offer the visibility required to avoid renewal surprises, reduce cost volatility, identify optimization opportunities, and plan phased transitions with minimal operational risk.

What business outcomes should VMware customers expect?

SHI knows you crave clarity and continuity despite the changes. Our VMware customers achieve:

• Renewal confidence: Starting with a clear understanding of subscriptions, bundles, and timing is critical to making the right decisions for your organization.
• Reduced deployment risk: Identifying potential technical and organizational blockers early saves a lot of disruption later.
• Faster time-to-value: Executable adoption roadmaps accelerate results.
• Operational control: Governance-led planning reduces surprises and volatility.
• Future readiness: VCF adoption aligned to hybrid cloud, security, and AI initiatives sets you up to plan and scale as needed in the coming years.

Here’s how to start accelerating your VMware success with SHI

If you’re one of the many IT leaders exploring your options, our VMware Strategic Assessment is for you. We’ll help you:

• Assess: Evaluate the performance, integrations, and total cost of ownership of your VMware setup.
• Educate: Understand Broadcom’s changes and their impact on your VMware renewals and explore alternative offerings.
• Strategize: Create a customized plan and optimize costs based on your strategic goals.
• Execute: Implement your new plan with SHI’s support, including proofs of concept and financing solutions.

NEXT STEPS

Book SHI’s VMware Strategic Assessment now to receive a strategic VMware blueprint tailored to your organization.

Interested in knowing more about how the release of VCF 9.1 could impact your organization? Read more.

Let’s build your future together.