Broadcom revealed that come May, VMware’s resell partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will no longer be part of the lowest tier in its partner program.

Broadcom first announced in June 2025 that it would reduce its four-tier Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware resellers to three tiers in EMEA, eliminating its lowest Registered partner tier as it rolls out the program globally.

By streamlining its partner ecosystem, some customers will either exit or be re-elevated to the higher Select tier.

Explaining this decision as part of the company’s strategy, Brian Moats, SVP of global commercial sales and partners at Broadcom, said last summer that the decision will enable it to "focus on deepening our relationships with those partners who are committed to delivering the transformative customer experience around VMware solutions."

The revamped Broadcom Advantage Partner Program now includes a points-based system focusing on capability, competencies, and certifications over sales volume, as Broadcom is pledging to push all professional services through channel partners.

The company’s partner program leader, Laura Falko, recently explained to CRN that for deals that are worth $50,000 and above, the firm now requires “an adoption plan to be associated with that deal registration program.”

“So that way, we’re [incentivizing] the partner sellers to have a conversation with the customer around, ‘Why you should look at this offering,’ but also, ‘How are you going to leverage it to maximize the value that you’re investing in?’” Falko said. “So they have that adoption plan depending upon where that customer is and their specific pain points.”

Broadcom also launched a new Partner Journey module that provides role-based, prescribed learning paths for partner sales, pre-sales, architects, and implementation specialists.

Market challenges post-acquisition

In the meantime, recent CloudBolt Software research, conducted with more than 300 IT decision-makers at large North American organizations, showed that two years after Broadcom’s VMware acquisition, 86% of VMware customers were actively working to reduce their dependence on the platform, underpinned by price pressure and strategic uncertainty at the company.

A majority of respondents experienced the changes as disruptive, mainly due to higher costs and uncertainty about VMware’s long-term plans. The switch to subscription licenses and changes in the partner and support model are also contributing to the unrest.

More specifically, most cited drivers of disruption were price increases (89%), followed by uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans (85%), support quality concerns (78%), and Broadcom shifting VMware from perpetual licenses to subscriptions (72%).

Broadcom’s changes to VMware were also seen as especially unfriendly to small- and medium-sized enterprises, while Gartner previously forecast that 35% of VMware workloads would migrate elsewhere by 2028.