Arista Networks is embroiled in a dispute over VeloCloud support services, mirroring customer grievances levelled against Broadcom, the brand’s former owner.

Managed service provider TPx Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late June as it sought to restructure, having accrued debts of around $1.1 billion. During the bankruptcy process, the company forked out for perpetual VeloCloud licenses and support to Arista to ensure its mission-critical infrastructure kept on running.

According to TPx, Arista throttled updates, security patches, and administrative access while dangling a $46 million, three-year subscription deal as the price of getting full service back – a steep rise considering that the company said it has paid $59 million for VeloCloud access since 2016.

TPx has taken a complaint to the courts, requesting a judge grant an order finding Arista to have breached its contract and that its restructuring efforts would “suffer irreparable harm.”

“The balance of hardships favours injunctive relief. Without an injunction, TPx faces substantial, irreversible harm, and Arista comparatively would experience little harm from having to return to its decade-long offering of services,” a Texas bankruptcy court filing reads.

TPx has been using VeloCloud for years to support offerings like its managed SD-WAN delivery platform. The company contends that a deal signed with former VeloCloud owner Broadcom in 2021 locked in prices after its subscription licenses converted to perpetual, along with three years of support.

But Broadcom sold VeloCloud to Arista last July for a price believed to be a cool $1 billion.

Having paid what it believed it owed Arista in the summer – some $2.34 million and a further $1.84 million for support – TPx alleges the vendor pulled the rug out from under them, going as far as to remove high-privilege account access, citing apparent security risks.

Arista argues that the amount paid by TPx covered license conversion as well as limited technical support, but not software upgrades, hosted orchestration, or other subscription-tier services. Such options required separate payment under a different contract clause, the vendor contends.

Arista says it did provide subscription-level services for about four months as a courtesy but warned in a letter that upgrade access would end May 20, and that its $46 million subscription quote already reflected a “significant discount” for TPx’s perpetual licenses.

The VeloCloud owner also objected to TPx’s bankruptcy efforts. A 98-page filing saw it challenge TPx’s attempts to hold onto VeloCloud contracts through bankruptcy, and claim it only gave Arista eight days to object after the restructuring-plan notice. The vendor also took issue with TPx for failing to list every relevant agreement, not disclosing potential-purchaser information, and not supplying financial projections for the reorganised company.

“[TPx] have provided virtually no adequate assurance information relating to the party that will purportedly perform under the Arista agreements post-assumption,” the filing dated July 21 reads.

The pair are set to duke it out before a court-appointed mediator. The case continues.

Former VeloCloud owner Broadcom has faced its fair share of customer legal actions after revamping VMware’s flagship Cloud Foundation (VCF) offering. The likes of Siemens, AT&T, and retail giant Tesco took action in the wake of licensing and support changes.

Just last week, the VMware parent pulled the plug on a software development kit (SDK) used by rivals to migrate virtual machines away from the platform, much to the chagrin of virtualisation competitors.