The US General Services Administration is flogging discounts of up to 64 percent under a OneGov Agreement covering Broadcom’s VMware portfolio – though the actual hypervisor that made VMware famous isn’t included.
The framework covers VMware Tanzu Platform, Tanzu Data Intelligence, Avi Load Balancer, vDefend, and the Tanzu AI Starter Kit. Notably absent: VMware vSphere Foundation, the virtualisation platform most agencies actually use.
“This agreement represents another major milestone under the OneGov initiative and advances President Trump’s call to accelerate AI adoption across government,” said Josh Gruenbaum, Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner.
Broadcom framed the deal as helping agencies extract more value from existing investments in its private cloud platform while “achieving zero trust through multi-layer defense-in-depth.”
Those existing investments are considerable. The US Army and other agencies signed a reportedly $477 million blanket purchase agreement for VMware licenses in 2024, while the Navy inked a $173 million deal. Last year, the Defense Information Systems Agency signed a contract pegged at nearly $1 billion, delivered via Carahsoft.
The discounts secured by the GSA expire in May 2027, giving Federal tech teams limited time to decide whether to hitch their container, security, or AI strategies to Broadcom’s wagon.
That might not be a decision to rush.
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware continues generating some customer fallout, with license and product changes prompting customers large and small to reconsider their commitment to the platform.
These include UK supermarket giant Tesco, which sued Broadcom and one of Europe’s largest resellers Computacenter “for not honouring a contract that gave the supermarket giant the option to acquire software at pre-determined prices and ongoing software support services.”
Computacenter in turn filed a claim against Broadcom and Dell, arguing that the companies – software supplier and distributor respectively – had not fulfilled their contractual obligations to the reseller.
Other upset customers included AT&T, Siemens, and the Dutch Government.
None of that has deflected Broadcom from its strategy of disruption and focusing on the biggest customers. Just last month it yanked its VMware vSphere Foundation bundle in parts of EMEA, a decision that could particularly hurt smaller customers.
"*" indicates required fields
Software Asset Management is a business practice that involves managing and optimising the life cycle of software within an organisation.
Software asset management is relevant to many facets of a business - take a look at some of the roles that it can form part of the focus of.
Software vendors come in all shape and sizes - all with their own set of licensing models and rules. We take a look at just a few of them.
As a constantly evolving subject, SAM is not without its challenges. We take a look at some of the most common ones.
Wondering what an investment in SAM could do for your business? Fill out a few details and find out what return you could get!
Answer a few questions about your SAM infrastructure & experience, and we'll put together a personalised recommendation for the future.
A simple health check of what's being used across your Office 365 estate in this FREE, Microsoft backed and easy to setup review.
Just like you would with your vehicle each year, get an annual check up of your software asset management programme.
Overwhelmed by the task of documenting the steps for a successful SAM programme? Get the experts in to help!
Concerned your SAM tools aren't covering your whole estate? Or on the look out for an entirely new tool? Get us in to assist.
Not content with covering all things SAM related, we've teamed up with Capital to provide a comprehensive hardware asset management review.
A simple, one-time reconciliation of the software you have deployed versus the licence entitlement you own.
A regularly scheduled analysis of your organisation's estate, specifically adapted to your needs and budget.
A full appraisal of your Microsoft 365 setup and how best to optimise it through automated recommendations.
An add-on to our SAMplicity One, MOT and Plus offerings, quickly diagnose your ability to migrate your resources to the cloud.
In collaboration with law firm Addleshaw Goddard, ensure the legality of your SAM programme and get assistance with any contract disputes.
Available as standard with SAMplicity Plus, ensure you're compliant if you're unexpectedly audited by a vendor.
We've teamed up with some of the forefront experts in licensing knowledge so you can teach yourself to be an expert too.
Stumped by the continually evolving complexities of SAM? Join us for one of our comprehensive courses, either in-person or online.
It’s chock full of useful advice, exclusive events and interesting articles. Don’t miss out!