Broadcom have brought about another set of licensing changes for hyperscalers that run public cloud-hosted VMware solutions. The big change is Broadcom are moving pretty quickly to an only BYOL model.
Headlines from Microsoft are:
- If you buy now, or extend current capacity reservations, nothing will change until end of that contractual period.
- Microsoft is not retiring AVS, it remains a strategic commitment and stays as a one party managed solution.
- You will still be able to do compute exchanges if you are modernising and migrating resources from AVS to native Azure.
- The pricing in the new model should be cost neutral, possibly even cheaper depending on customer scale and direct licensing negotiations with Broadcom account managers.
- Microsoft advises customers to contact Broadcom and understand how DR licensing will work so customers are not caught unawares if they need to invoke their AVD DR plan and suddenly need BYOL keys.
Broadcom announced changes to their VMware licensing policies. The change now requires new customers to bring their own portable VCF subscriptions when using hyperscaler platforms. Our current Azure VMware Solution (AVS) customers can continue to operate their AVS nodes without any licensing or product changes through the end of their Reserved Instance (RI) term.
This is a licensing change only – there is no product change to the AVS service. Microsoft will continue to offer AVS as a fully managed VCF private cloud service in Azure.
What you need to know:
- After October 15, 2025, new or existing customers purchasing new/additional nodes of AVS will need to provide a VCF subscription from Broadcom or one of its reseller partners.
- For AVS with VCF included using an RI option: You can continue to operate the AVS nodes without any licensing or product changes through the end of the RI term.
- If you would like to trade in your current AVS RI on or before October 15, 2025 for a new AVS RI that provides a later expiration date, you can leverage the self-service exchange process.
- For AVS with VCF included PayGo subscriptions: Please contact your Microsoft Team for details & key dates for PayGo subscriptions.
Please reach out to your Microsoft Team now so they can help you manage this licensing change before the October 15, 2025 cut-off to make important changes.
Broadcom VMware Licensing Changes: What Azure VMware Solution Customers Need to Know | Microsoft Community Hub
