Broadcom announced a change to their VMware licensing policies that will impact Microsoft partners and Azure VMware Solution customers.
These changes require customers to bring their own portable VCF subscriptions when using any hyperscaler platform. This will mean customers must purchase VCF subscriptions directly from Broadcom, or the Broadcom partner Ecosystem, to use with hyperscaler cloud services. While this announcement limits how customers will be able to purchase new VCF licenses it does not impact AVS service availability.
Azure VMware Solution (AVS) already supports Broadcom’s model with the AVS VCF BYOL option which enables customers to use AVS with their own VCF subscriptions, and Azure will continue being the best cloud for customers to run their VMWare environments. AVS VCF BYOL option is priced lower than AVS with VCF subscriptions included.
This is a licensing change only – there is no product change to the Azure VMware Solution cloud service. Microsoft will continue to offer AVS as a fully managed VCF private cloud service in Azure, providing Microsoft-managed infrastructure and VMware host management including patching and upgrades. This frees up IT staff to focus on more high value tasks including workload modernization and new AI projects.
Recommended Actions
- If you have an existing AVS customer, reach out to them immediately and share the update. Automated updates will be sent by Microsoft to AVS customers on 9/9/2025.
- Prioritize customers with RIs that expire before January 15, 2026. Suggest extending their AVS RI term with VCF licensing included by exchanging their current RI. They must make this change by October 15, 2025.
- If the customer asks to move to Azure Native IaaS or PaaS, Dr. Migrate Benchmark TCO can assess, and Azure Migrate can help with their migration needs. For strategic opportunities >$500K please work with the field for additional guidance.
How is AVS changing to comply with Broadcom’s policy?
- Microsoft will discontinue selling AVS with VCF subscriptions included after October 15, 2025.
- After October 15, 2025, customers purchasing new nodes of AVS will need to provide a VCF subscription purchased from Broadcom.
Existing AVS RI customers purchased before October 16, 2025:
- Customers can continue to operate these AVS nodes without any licensing or product changes through the end of their RI term.
- For existing AVS VCF BYOL SKU customers, there are no changes.
- Starting October 16, 2025, any new VMware Firewall deployed will require the VMware Firewall add-on purchased from Broadcom.
Purchasing new AVS nodes:
- Customers can continue to add AVS nodes with VCF included to their existing AVS SDDC, last day of sale is October 15, 2025.
- New nodes purchased starting October 16, 2025, will require the customer to provide Microsoft with a portable VCF subscription license key.
AVS PayGo customers with VCF included:
- AVS PayGo customers can continue to operate existing AVS nodes without any licensing changes until October 31, 2026. Customers will then be required to provide a VCF license key before November 1, 2026, to continue using AVS.
- Customers may want to switch from PayGo to Reserved Instances by October 15, 2025. This allows the customer to lock in AVS with VCF included for multiple years and provides RI saving of 30-50% off the PayGo rates.
- New PayGo nodes starting on October 16, 2025, must use the AVS VCF BYOL SKUs and provide a VCF subscription license key.
If Customers want to Trade in RIs
- Customers that want to trade in their existing AVS RIs can leverage the Microsoft self-service exchange process.
- They can exchange their RI for a new longer-term AVS with VCF included RI on or before October 15, 2025.
- Reservation products are interchangeable; customers can also exchange AVS reservations for other types of compute reservations including Azure Dedicated Host, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Virtual Desktop, SQL Database services, and more.
Resources
- AVS VCF BYOL Pricing: AVS pricing page on Azure.com (coming mid Sept)
- AVS Docs page for How to use AVS VCF BYOL
Important Dates
- September 9, 2025: Automated emails to be sent to all AVS Customers
- October 15, 2025: Last day to buy AVS with VCF included
- October 16, 2025: New AVS Customers and expanding SDDCs will need to use AVS VCF BYOL SKUs and bring their portable VCF subscriptions to AVS.
- October 31, 2026: End of AVS PayGo with VCF included, customers will convert to AVS VCF BYOL PayGo SKUs and be required to bring a portable VCF subscription and license key to AVS.
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