VMware will keep selling vSphere Standard and Enterprise Plus version 8 in the European Economic Area until October 2027, with extended support through October 2028, a concession that appears aimed at appeasing regulators.

VMware has quietly extended the availability of its low-end vSphere Standard and Enterprise Plus products for European customers, a move that appears designed to ease regulatory pressure from the European Commission.

The virtualisation vendor slipped the announcement into a November 4 blog post introducing vSphere Express, a new low-end product. The Register’s initial report on vSphere Express, based on an interview and materials VMware provided, did not include the extension. The version VMware sent omitted a paragraph stating that customers in the European Economic Area can buy vSphere Standard version 8 and vSphere Enterprise Plus version 8 until October 31, 2027. Active subscriptions to those offerings will include Extended Support until the earlier of the subscription end date or October 31, 2028.

That date extends more than a year past the October 11, 2027, end-of-general-support date for the more capable vSphere 8 and Cloud Foundation 5.x products.

“This has the potential to be a positive development for organisations within the European Economic Area,” independent analyst Michael Warrilow told The Register. “It could provide them up to an extra 12 months to transition vSphere 8 to VCF 9 and/or migrate workloads to another platform.”

Warrilow urged European users to seek “absolute clarity” from VMware about the specifics of the offer. “What level of extended support will be provided and what longer-term commitments will need to be made? I cannot find any of that detail,” he wrote.

The extension follows a history of friction between VMware and its customers. VMware previously promised patches for users who kept perpetual licenses instead of moving to subscriptions. The Broadcom business unit later paused patch downloads for months, claiming it needed to adjust its website to make them possible.

Warrilow suggested “regulatory muscle” is behind the decision to keep selling vSphere Standard only in Europe. Regulators worldwide cleared Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, but European authorities have since revisited the matter. Lobby group Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) succeeded in having the European Commission open an antitrust investigation into whether VMware’s channel changes inappropriately shaped the cloud infrastructure provider market. The Register understands CISPE feels regulators are receptive to its arguments. In the Netherlands, local courts enforced a VMware support contract of the sort that Broadcom has tried to walk away from at other users.

Warrilow wonders if VMware might now change its policy regarding vSphere Standard in other countries. “The subsequent question is how can organisations in other regions get the same concessions from Broadcom? I would encourage them to amplify their voice by rallying industry associations and user groups to the cause whilst lobbying the regulators in their jurisdiction.”

Overall, however, he thinks VMware’s decision isn’t enormously impactful. “Ultimately, all it does is buy a little more time to upgrade or migrate,” he wrote.

It may not even do that. The Register often heard that VMware seldom issued quotes for vSphere Standard or Enterprise Plus. Paul Turner, chief product officer for VMware’s Cloud Foundation Division, told The Register that inappropriate incentives for channel partners caused that situation, and that VMware later fixed it. Continental users will be hoping VMware got that effort right.