How to Get VMware

The shift happened quickly and affected nearly every purchasing decision around VMware. In January 2024, VMware announced the end of perpetual licensing and transitioned to a subscription-only model centered on two core offerings. 

The first is VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), which packages compute, storage, networking, and management into a single integrated stack. The second is VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), which covers core virtualization. Many standalone products that organizations previously purchased separately are now either bundled inside VCF or VVF or available as add-ons. You can no longer buy individual point solutions the way you used to.

This matters in practice because the question “how do I get VMware?” now involves considering subscription bundles, deployment models, and entitlement management. It is a more layered decision than it used to be, and approaching it the same way as five years ago will cost you.

There are three clear paths to getting VMware right now. Each serves a different type of organization, and they differ significantly in what they ask of your internal team.

This path fits organizations with in-house VMware expertise that want full control over their environment. Broadcom sells qualified VCF and VVF subscriptions directly, and its authorized distributors and resellers are also valid acquisition channels. After purchase, you manage your entitlements through the Broadcom support portal.

One useful detail for teams mid-migration: VCF 9.0 extended the default evaluation period from 60 days to 90 days, giving buyers more time to finalize licensing and get their environment properly set up before full commitment. It is a small change, but if your rollout is complex, that extra runway helps.

Not every IT team wants to navigate VMware’s new subscription structure alone. For organizations that need licensing guidance, migration support, or help designing a proper architecture, working with an authorized partner is a practical option. Broadcom’s Partner Locator lets you find local resellers, distributors, and service partners based on your region and specific requirements.

A good partner can walk you through the differences between VCF and VVF, help map your current environment to the appropriate subscription tiers, and flag compliance gaps before they become problems. If you know what you need but want someone in your corner to deploy it correctly, this path cuts through a lot of trial and error.

This is the right fit for organizations that do not want to manage the full VMware stack themselves. Lean IT departments, teams in regulated industries like healthcare or finance, and businesses that prefer an OpEx model over capital infrastructure investment are all strong candidates for this path. A VMware Cloud Service Provider runs VCF-based services from its own compliant, secure infrastructure, and you consume the environment as a service.

We operate as a VCSP at OTAVA. We hold Pinnacle tier status in Broadcom’s Advantage Partner Program, which is the highest tier available, and in early 2026, Broadcom named us VCSP Innovation Partner of the Year for the Americas. We have over 15 years of VMware experience with thousands of workloads under active management. The main benefit for customers choosing this path is predictable OpEx, no upfront hardware investment, and built-in security and compliance support.

License portability is one of the more significant structural changes in the new VMware model, and it is worth understanding before you commit to a path. Qualified VCF subscriptions purchased directly from Broadcom or an authorized reseller or distributor after December 13, 2023, are eligible for License Portability. That means you can move qualified licenses across compatible endpoints: your own data center, a hosting provider, a cloud service provider, or a hyperscaler environment.

In practice, you are not locked into one deployment model at the time of purchase. You could start with a managed VCSP environment and migrate workloads in-house later, or begin on-prem and shift to a managed service as your team changes. The license travels with you. For organizations that want long-term optionality as their infrastructure strategy evolves, this is a real differentiator compared to how VMware licensing worked before.

For organizations buying direct or through a partner, the work does not stop at purchase. Once you acquire a VCF subscription, you manage entitlements through the Broadcom support portal. Tracking usage carefully matters more now than it did under perpetual licensing because subscription models come with defined metrics, and compliance reporting is your team’s responsibility.

VMware also provides APIs to automate portions of license usage handling, which is valuable if you’re operating at scale or want to integrate entitlement data into existing operations workflows. However, if you’re going through a VCSP, that layer largely goes away.

At OTAVA, we handle entitlement management, portal administration, compliance tracking, and environment maintenance on behalf of our customers. Your team does not own that overhead.

The decision usually comes down to two things: how much VMware expertise your team has, and how much infrastructure ownership you want to carry long-term.

None of these paths is mutually exclusive either. License portability means you can start in one model and move to another without losing your subscription investment. Therefore, if your situation changes, your VMware environment can change with it.

Figuring out how to get VMware today, whether through subscription bundles, entitlement management, deployment models, or license portability, is more layered than it used to be. Choosing the wrong path can mean overspending on licensing, compliance exposure, or building an environment your team cannot realistically sustain. 

At OTAVA, we help organizations acquire VMware and actually run it well. As a Pinnacle-tier VCSP and Broadcom’s 2025 VCSP Innovation Partner of the Year for the Americas, we deliver managed VMware Cloud Foundation in a secure, compliant, and human-orchestrated environment. Whether you are evaluating VCF for the first time, migrating from a legacy VMware setup, or looking for a provider that handles the full stack on your behalf, we are a direct and qualified route. 

Reach out to schedule a consultation with our VMware team and talk through your options.