The world of cloud technologies is preparing for a major «reset.» Broadcom, the new owner of VMware, has decided to radically reduce the number of partners and is restarting the cooperation program «from scratch.» For Ukraine, this is not just corporate news — the clouds on which dozens of government and commercial services operate are under threat.
The world of cloud technologies is preparing for a major «reset.» Broadcom, the new owner of VMware, has decided to radically reduce the number of partners and is restarting the cooperation program «from scratch.» For Ukraine, this is not just corporate news — the clouds on which dozens of government and commercial services operate are under threat.
Big changes await VMware, which was acquired by Broadcom for $61 billion in November 2023. Broadcom is one of the world’s largest technology companies from the United States, which develops chips, software and infrastructure solutions. VMware is also an American company, one of the leaders in the field of cloud solutions.
This summer, Broadcom officially announced that the current VMware Cloud Partner Program (VCSP) will close on October 31, 2025. Instead, a new one will start on November 1 — «by invitation only,» meaning it is available only to selected players.
These are not cosmetic changes. In essence, Broadcom is drastically reducing the number of partners authorized to provide VMware services and is moving the business to a hyperscale model — fewer players, more controlled and powerful data centers in each region.
For us, this is far from an empty bell. A large number of not only commercial, but also government services and registries are built on VMware infrastructure.
On Prozorro you can find quite large and fresh tenders for the purchase of cloud solutions, where there are or, most likely, will be elements of VMWare software. For example, this is a tender of the State Center for Cyber Defense for 140 million (the purpose of which is to protect Ukrainian data). Or a tender for a cloud for Ukrposhta for 115 million UAH. After all, «Diya» is also stored in clouds, which also run on VMWare.
Broadcom has already launched VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, a new platform that will serve as the foundation for the new VMware ecosystem. The company says it is now focusing on «simplification, stability, and innovation,» but the translation from corporate language means one thing: not everyone will survive.
Partners who do not receive an invitation to the new program will be able to work as usual only until October 31, 2025. After that, no new contracts or extensions will be possible. And even the so-called white label models (when one provider operates under the license of another) will disappear.
Broadcom calls this a «new stage of development.» The community has already dubbed it the VMware cliff — a precipice beyond which chaos awaits those who have not had time to prepare: SLA failures, data loss, additional costs, and forced migrations under time pressure.
For Ukrainian data centers that build their services on VMware, there may also be risks. They may lose their partner status — without an invitation from Broadcom, they will not be able to update or expand their infrastructure. This means that eventually , there may be a forced migration of customers to alternative cloud platforms (Hyper-V, Proxmox, OpenStack, Red Hat OpenShift, Nutanix, etc.).
If a company uses a cloud or backup service that runs on VMware, it will be worth checking to see if its provider appears on the list of new Broadcom authorized partners.
The press service of one of the largest Ukrainian data centers, De Novo, says that the announced changes to Broadcom’s global partner program, effective October 31, will indeed affect a large number of cloud service providers around the world.
«The situation affects thousands of companies — and is part of a large-scale transformation that Broadcom is implementing in its global strategy,» De Novo emphasizes.
Ukrtelecom, the largest fixed-line provider, says that they do not provide the VMWare service, so the problem does not concern them. «But we, as a customer , also feel some turbulence in the vendor’s position, and are thinking about alternative products,» the press service emphasizes.
Chief product officer of Kyivstar Misha Nestor believes that Broadcom will not let the whole world go to bed. Therefore, he believes that a new reseller/integrator will be appointed in Ukraine and everything will be fine.
There will indeed be even fewer cloud providers in the Broadcom partner program, but there are no detailed participation criteria yet, emphasizes Kyrylo Naumenko, CTO of GigaCloud.
According to him, the company must personally invite all new VCSPs in most regions by October 31, 2025.
«The rules for working with partners (cloud providers and data centers) are not final and will probably be further adapted according to the region. A new system of partners and software suppliers is currently being built,» De Novo adds.
And Kyrylo Naumenko from GigaCloud says that for legal reasons in the European Economic Area these changes will be somewhat delayed, but it is quite possible that as a result the principles of partner selection will be the same as in the USA and Asia.
«In addition, it is not yet known what the conditions will be for Ukraine. Therefore, we are already preparing for any scenario today,» emphasizes the GigaCloud service center.
GigaCloud’s cooperation with Broadcom is officially fixed in contracts until mid-2027. As Kyrylo Naumenko emphasizes, this means that all their clients are guaranteed to receive VMware-based services in a stable mode.
«If the client wants to change virtualization, we can switch them to other alternatives, for example from Microsoft or OpenStack, with which we have been working for more than one year,» he emphasizes.
De Novo says roughly the same thing: «If in the future Ukrainian companies have to adapt their infrastructure stacks or switch to alternative software, this will not be a critical challenge.» Similar transformations, as the Ukrainian company emphasizes, are already taking place in EU countries — in favor of open, standardized, and locally controlled platforms.
And in general, according to GigaCloud’s customer service, the cloud provider takes full responsibility for managing the virtual infrastructure. The client interacts with the VMware environment minimally.
«Nothing will essentially change for the client: we will configure everything, be responsible for proper quality, and select the best option for everyone,» summarizes the CTO of GigaCloud.
