Cloud giant Oracle updated its VMware offering to a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model in line with Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) framework.

The update means a customer’s VCF software used via Oracle Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) is licensed using their own eligible VCF subscription entitlements, as purchased from either Broadcom or an authorized reseller.

Oracle framed the move as ensuring a consistent operating model across on-premises, hybrid, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) environments without changing the underlying infrastructure of OCVS.

The model change comes after VMware announced end of general support for various VCF Operations Management Packs, including those designed for OCVS, alongside Azure VMware Solution and Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Perhaps to calm nerves left jittery after recent controversies from Broadcom’s pivoting of VMware to the cloud – such as reported patch download issues and price hike claims – Oracle claimed it designed the OCVS transition to “enable uninterrupted operations, predictable scaling behavior, and transparent host-level lifecycle management.”

Starting from this week, existing customers can still use on-demand (hourly/monthly), one-year, or three-year license-included commitments. They will also be able to deploy new license-included instances of VMware certified software-defined data centers (SDDCs), and scale existing license-included SDDCs.

During the transition period beginning in late March, license-included monthly, one-year, and three-year SKUs will no longer be available during the transition, while new instances of SDDCs may only be deployed using the BYOL model once it is generally available beginning May 21. License-included SKUs will not be available for new SDDCs.

According to Oracle, existing SDDCs will be able to continue normal operation, but can scale using only hourly license-included hosts, with hosts on expiring commitments needing to transition to hourly license-included pricing in OCVS. Hosts operating on hourly or monthly license-included pricing must transition to BYOL.

Beginning May 21 when the BYOL system becomes mandatory, hosts under active license-included commitments are permitted to continue operating until the current commitment expires, or transition to BYOL earlier.

Oracle added that customers planning upgrades to newer VCF releases, including VCF 9, must transition remaining license-included capacity to BYOL as part of that upgrade. BYOL-enabled OCVS deployments will support the latest generally available VCF 5.2.x release.

The Oracle move is one example of a rosy relationship between Broadcom and hyperscale vendor as the former moves to a BYOL model. Broadcom remains relatively close to Microsoft, allowing VCF customers to use their licenses on the Azure VMware Solution platform. It also tapped Google Cloud in 2024 as its first hyperscale cloud partner for VCF licensing.

At the other end of the spectrum, Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts VMware Cloud, but is no longer able to distribute the service. The cloud giant recently launched an AI migration tool, AWS Transform, to help VMware companies migrate away from Broadcom.