Broadcom has continued molding VMware into something it expects will live up to its $69 billion price tag. This week the company shared changes to VMware’s software delivery models and licensing, with Google Cloud as the inaugural hyperscale partner providing VMware Cloud Foundation on Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Though “change is never easy,” it’s necessary to accelerate innovation, according to VMware Marketing VP Prashanth Shenoy. By shifting to a subscription-based software delivery model, as most of the software industry has already done, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) users will see more deployment flexibility, Shenoy said.

License portability now comes with the purchase of VCF, meaning customers can deploy the software on-premises and use the subscription in supported hyperscale cloud environments. “You retain your license subscription as you move,” he said.

Current customers of VCF can transfer the remaining value of their existing subscription to Google Cloud VMware Engine or opt to buy access to a full-integrated Google Cloud VMware Engine environment with VCF software directly from the hyperscaler.

“As the first public cloud partner to announce plans to support VMware Cloud Foundation license portability, Google Cloud remains committed to improving the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of our customers’ cloud migration and digital transformation initiatives,” Google VP Mark Lohmeyer said.

The two partners expect VMware Cloud Foundation license portability to Google Cloud VMware Engine will be available publicly by Q2 2024, and expanded cloud provider support for VCF license portability will follow.

Broadcom also announced organizational changes to VMware designed to heighten the vendor’s focus on its VCF software.

First, the VMware product portfolio is shrinking. “We’re putting all our R&D investment towards fewer offerings,” Shenoy said, which should result in “a double win for customers.”

VMware recently announced end of availability for a handful of standalone products, including the software-as-a-service (SAAS) iteration of its Aria multicloud management platform and dozens of its vSphere, VCF, vCenter and NSX products.

Keeping “a few offerings that are lower in price on the high end and are packed with more value for the same or less cost on the lower end,” makes good business sense for customers, partners and VMware, he said.

Broadcom also helped VMware consolidate its product teams into one division focused on VCF. These teams are now prepared to build “a single, integrated product across all core technologies with a single vision,” Shenoy said.

As part of this restructuring, professional services and global support are now more closely intertwined with R&D in the same division of the business. “This gives us a laser focus on building one product with the services and support needed to drive maximum value.”

While VMware acknowledged this transformation and portfolio simplification has raised substantial customer concerns, it claims to be proactively engaging its sales teams and channel partners to help ease this transition. “It will only get better,” Shenoy said.