VMware Backup After Broadcom: Key Changes and Best Practices
At the end of 2023, Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware, reshaping one of the most influential names in virtualization. This move introduced significant changes in licensing, product structure, administration and data protection.
As Broadcom reorganizes VMware and its ecosystem, the effects are being felt across customers, partners and backup solution vendors. This blog post explores how the VMware Broadcom acquisition is transforming the backup landscape and what it means for the future of VMware data protection.
Understanding the VMware-Broadcom Shift and Its Impact on Backup
Changes in VMware backup may not be obvious, but they are important. IT teams need to understand the new VMware Broadcom licensing restrictions, their impact and how to manage them effectively.
- Licensing changes. Broadcom has discontinued offering perpetual VMware licenses, instead providing only subscription and term-based options going forward. Renewals for existing perpetual licenses are also being phased out. Once current support contracts expire, customers with perpetual licenses will no longer receive updates, patches or vendor support. They can still use their existing VMware products, but without ongoing security updates or technical assistance.
- Product bundling. The freedom to choose individual VMware software licenses is no longer available. Customers can no longer purchase licenses for specific products like VMware vSphere, ESXi or vCenter separately. Instead, VMware software and licenses have been merged into larger bundled offerings. Previously separate VMware products and stock-keeping units (SKUs) have been consolidated into two main packages, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation, with some add-ons.
- Changed pricing model. With the new VMware Broadcom policy, licensing is now based on CPU cores rather than sockets. The former per-CPU model has been replaced by per-core pricing, typically with a 16-core minimum per processor, even if fewer cores are used. Licenses are now available only through term-based subscriptions (1, 3 or 5 years), replacing the previous perpetual model. As a result, many customers are seeing their costs rise significantly, even when continuing to use the same VMware software and services as before.
- Changes in partner, reseller and cloud service provider ecosystem. New partner programs, such as the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program, are now by invitation only. Some existing VMware partners have not been invited or have lost certain privileges. VMware Cloud Service Provider and White Label programs are being reworked. As a result, some White Label arrangements are being discontinued.
- Support updates. Existing perpetual license holders may continue to use their licenses. Still, new support patches and software updates are only available to those with an active support contract or a subscription status. When a support period ends for perpetual licenses, access to critical patches or updates may end or be delayed.
- Migration of customer support, accounts and portals to a Broadcom website. Some features of the old VMware website system (such as the customer portal structure) have been changed or renamed.
Impact on backup operations
If your backup solution relies on VMware licenses (ESXi hosts, vSphere, vCenter, etc.), transitioning from perpetual to subscription-based may increase your recurring operating costs. The minimum-core licensing means that small backup hosts may become relatively more expensive.
Some standalone features used by backup tools (specific APIs, plugins or components) may no longer be offered or may only be available via bundled subscriptions. Organizations must audit the features used by their backup software and map them to VMware product SKUs under the new bundles. Based on this information, they need to determine whether they should switch to a more inclusive bundle or explore alternatives.
A shift from CapEx (buy once) to OpEx (subscription) may alter how the backup infrastructure is funded or audited. Subscription renewals require ongoing budgeting. Generally speaking, the overall costs of using VMware vSphere for backup purposes have increased since the change in Broadcom VMware licensing.
If you relied on certain resellers, partners or cloud providers for VMware services (for backup storage, secondary sites, etc.), their status may be affected by the partner program reshuffling. Some partners may lose the ability to onboard new customers or renew services. Organizations may need to review their contracts and assess whether the partner is still authorized under the new program.
VMware partners and resellers have reported significant increases in the minimum core purchase thresholds for 2025. Vendors reacted quickly (surveys, guides, partner advisories from vendors) because backup solutions rely on specific VMware features, APIs and predictable licensing. Some features or bundles that backup vendors need (certain vSphere editions, vSAN add-ons or cloud mobility features) may only be available in pricier bundles.
If you are using perpetual licenses, you may need to decide whether to stay with VMware via subscription or migrate to alternative platforms (open-source, other paid hypervisors or cloud). Data backup and disaster recovery plans should be considered during the migration process.
How these changes affect backup and disaster recovery
Higher recurring costs for backup hosts and targets are a result of the new Broadcom VMware licensing. If your backup infrastructure (backup proxy/backup repository hosts, disaster recovery hosts) runs on VMware virtual infrastructure, per-core minimums and subscription pricing can significantly increase OPEX even for small labs or edge hosts.
What this means for backup vendors
Backup vendors rely on vSphere APIs (VADP – vSphere API for Data Protection) for features such as snapshots and changed-block tracking. If VMware restricts features to certain SKUs, vendors (or their customers) must know which VMware edition to purchase to get the required features. Backup vendors have published guides and are surveying customers to help navigate the changes.
A large number of vendors are also preparing multi-hypervisor support for backup and recovery or cloud-first strategies (stronger support for KVM/Proxmox, Hyper-V, AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform) to give customers several options.
If you already use VMware products for backup workflows, your existing backups and VMs will continue to run normally. However, you may lose access to vendor support, security patches and future feature updates if your subscription and support expires (SnS lapses) or entitlement terms change.
Critical VMware Backup Challenges and Priorities for IT Leaders
In light of the new VMware backup challenges, IT leaders should reassess their priorities. Let’s explain the main challenges associated with virtual machine backup after the Broadcom VMware acquisition.
Broadcom VMware backup challenges
- Rising and unpredictable licensing costs. Per-core licensing with minimum thresholds inflates the cost of running even small VMware clusters used for backup targets, replication or disaster recovery. Budget predictability is diminished because license renewals are tied to subscription cycles and some features that were previously included (for example, advanced vSphere APIs or Site Recovery Manager) are now bundled in higher-cost packages. The negative impact includes increasing backup budgets and organizations must justify higher recurring OPEX for the same backup capability.
- API and feature lock-in. VMware snapshots, Changed Block Tracking (CBT) and vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP) are proprietary features. Backup vendors rely heavily on these APIs. If VMware moves them to pricier bundles, customers will have to pay more just to continue using standard backup workflows. As a result, there are hidden costs and reduced flexibility. Moreover, the risk of vendor lock-in increases.
- Complexity in multi-site and DR deployments. Changes in VMware’s partner and cloud provider programs might disrupt disaster recovery services. Some cloud service and managed service providers lost authorization or special pricing. Multi-site disaster recovery (DR) using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) or third-party replication can be more challenging to plan consistently. This disruption has led to reduced disaster recovery options and longer RPO/RTO.
Key priorities for IT leaders
Below are key recommendations and strategic priorities for IT leaders to ensure continued data protection across virtual environments following the VMware Broadcom acquisition.
- Audit and map VMware backup dependencies. Identify which VMware products, APIs, and editions your current backup workflows depend on. Document contract, subscription and support expiry dates. Map which workloads are most critical to restore (use the tiering approach).
- Estimate the budget according to the new Broadcom VMware licensing. Work with finance to project 1, 3 and 5-year costs under subscription and core-count minimums. Identify where VMware costs disproportionately affect backup environments (for example, small disaster recovery sites). Negotiate multi-year terms if possible to stabilize costs.
- Evaluate multi-platform and cloud backup readiness. Test restoring VMware workloads into alternative hypervisors (Hyper-V, KVM, Proxmox) or public cloud. Push vendors to prove the portability of backups beyond VMware. Consider migration for development/test workloads.
- Plan disaster recovery beyond the VMware virtual environment. Explore storage-based replication or agent-based backups as VMware-independent disaster recovery strategies. Ensure at least one disaster recovery path that does not depend exclusively on Broadcom VMware licensing.
Best Practices for VMware Backup in the Broadcom Era
In the Broadcom VMware era, an effective VMware backup strategy must balance strong technical resilience with careful attention to licensing and cost efficiency. To stay protected and compliant, organizations should follow best practices for VMware VM backup that align with the new VMware Broadcom acquisition framework.
- Audit license entitlements. Identify if your VMware edition still grants access to required backup APIs (VADP, CBT, snapshots). Some features may now require higher-tier bundles. Plan for per-core licensing and take into account Broadcom’s minimum-core rules in your backup cluster design. Consolidate workloads where possible to minimize the number of licensed cores. Estimate the budget with multi-year terms in mind. Lock in longer contracts (3–5 years) where feasible to avoid unpredictable cost spikes.
- Adopt the 3-2-1 or 3-2-1-1 backup rule. Have at least 3 copies of data stored on 2 different media types (disk + object, or disk + tape) with 1 copy offsite (cloud, DR site) and 1 copy immutable or air-gapped (critical for ransomware recovery).
- Validate recovery, not just backup. Perform regular recovery testing. Test full VM, file-level and application-consistent restores. Validate RPO and RTO values. Ensure that recovery times and points match business service level agreements (SLAs). Use isolated networks to test the recovery of production workloads without disruption.
- Prepare for multi-platform recovery. Test the portability of backups and confirm that the solution can restore VMware VMs into other hypervisors (KVM, Hyper-V, Proxmox) or public clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform). Consider agent-based backups as the last measure. For critical workloads, you can install backup agents as a secondary path to ensure recovery options beyond VMware APIs (if APIs do not work with your backup solution after Broadcom updates them).
- Engage with ecosystem vendors. Ask backup vendors about VMware support under the new Broadcom licensing and their multi-hypervisor or cloud strategy. Check changes in VMware Broadcom partner programs. Verify your service provider is still authorized under the new partner rules, especially if you use a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution. Monitor community signals by tracking feedback from user groups and forums to stay ahead of sudden changes (price increases, bundle realignments).
How NAKIVO Supports VMware Backup in the Broadcom Era
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a dedicated multi-platform data protection solution that supports VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Proxmox VE and Nutanix AHV as virtual platforms for backup and recovery.
- VMware vSphere 9 support with all related updates in terms of licensing and software components.
- Cross-platform recovery. Recover VMware virtual machines to other virtualization platforms that support VMDK and VHD (VHDX) virtual disk formats. This means you can perform cross-platform recovery of VMware VMs to Hyper-V and Proxmox. You can migrate to another virtualization platform smoothly while keeping existing backups if a new Broadcom VMware licensing change is not suitable.
- If you use BaaS, RaaS and DRaaS from a Managed Service Provider using a multi-tenant version of NAKIVO Backup & Replication, you should not notice any changes related to the functionality of the solution when backing up and recovering VMware VMs.
- Backup to cloud. If your backup infrastructure was tied to VMware vSphere virtual machines, you can back up VMs to the public cloud, such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage with the NAKIVO solution.
- Backup to other platforms. You can back up physical and virtual machines to NAS devices, SMB and NFS file shares and tape.
Conclusion
The VMware Broadcom acquisition has reshaped how organizations approach virtualization, licensing and data protection. IT leaders must now adapt their VMware backup strategies to maintain efficiency, compliance and resilience in this changing environment. By understanding new licensing models and backup dependencies, businesses can reduce risks and control costs. Continuous optimization of VMware backup practices is key to ensuring long-term stability in the Broadcom VMware era.
