A recent report from The Register confirms another significant step in Broadcom’s consolidation of the VMware Cloud Service Provider ecosystem. Broadcom has formally notified partners that the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSP) has been closed and that contracts will not be renewed beyond January 26, 2026:
“We are providing this formal notice that we have closed the current Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) partners, and will not be renewing any of your VCSP partner contracts with Broadcom after 26 January 2026.”
With that deadline already passed, many CSPs are forced to reassess the future of their VMware-based service offerings under significant time pressure.
This follows a year of tightening licensing models and partner restrictions. The direction is clear: a smaller, more controlled partner ecosystem centred on large strategic providers, leaving many regional and mid-sized CSPs with reduced flexibility and growing exposure to vendor-driven commercial decisions.
From VMware Virtualisation to the Multi-Tenant Service Delivery Layer
For most CSPs, the challenge goes beyond virtualisation. VMware environments have historically been paired with platforms such as vCloud Director to deliver multi-tenant IaaS services, providing hierarchical tenancy, delegated administration, isolation, and consistent lifecycle management. This multi-tenant control layer became the foundation of commercial cloud service delivery.
As CSP infrastructures evolve toward more heterogeneous environments with multiple hypervisors, service tiers, and regions, tightly coupling governance and tenancy to a single execution platform becomes a constraint. Changes in licensing or partner strategy then translate directly into operational and commercial disruption.
A Practical Migration Path with Open Source Cloud Platforms
This is driving growing interest in Apache CloudStack – an open source control-plane-centric platform. CloudStack provides native multi-tenancy as a core architectural construct, enabling CSPs to deliver commercial-scale multi-tenant clouds independently of the underlying hypervisor stack.
Importantly, CloudStack is not positioned as a long, disruptive replacement programme. It offers native integration with existing VMware environments and structured migration paths to KVM-based infrastructure, enabling CSPs to transition workloads progressively rather than through disruptive large-scale migrations. Depending on application requirements, large parts of the infrastructure can often be migrated in relatively short timeframes rather than over months or years.
At the same time, CloudStack’s multi-hypervisor-by-design architecture allows VMware environments to coexist alongside KVM under the same orchestration layer. CSPs can retain selected vSphere clusters to support legacy systems or certified applications, while moving the majority of workloads to open infrastructure tiers, all managed within a single control plane.
For providers beginning this transition, the VMware to Apache CloudStack Migration Guide is a practical starting point. This guide outlines integration approaches, migration flows, and key architectural considerations that help frame a structured transition from VMware-based stacks to a CloudStack-managed, multi-hypervisor environment.
As Broadcom continues to tighten control over the VMware partner ecosystem, the conversation for CSPs is shifting from short-term licensing adjustments to long-term architectural sustainability. Reducing vendor lock-in, preserving multi-tenant service delivery, and enabling flexible infrastructure evolution are becoming strategic priorities.
For many CSPs, this moment represents not just a commercial change but a critical opportunity to regain control of their cloud architecture while maintaining service continuity.
Ivet Petrova is the Marketing Director of ShapeBlue. She is responsible for strengthening ShapeBlue’s global brand and market awareness of ShapeBlue’s services. Specifically, Ivet’s team is responsible for brand, advertising, content and digital marketing, social media, and media relations.
Ivet is also an active member of the CloudStack community, working on increasing the awareness of the technology and showing its benefits to a wider market.
Ivet has 13+ years of experience in marketing for IT service providers including a number of cloud and hosting providers, storage companies, SaaS providers and software development companies. She holds a Masters degree in Marketing.
Away from work, Ivet is passionate about travelling around the world and exploring new cultures.
