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The Shocking Truth About Broadcom’s 72-Core Licensing — No One’s Saying It Out Loud
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware was always going to come with changes. Big tech mergers do that. But what no one expected — or rather, what no one clearly explained — was just how jarring and disruptive Broadcom’s new licensing model would be. Especially for the thousands of small and mid-sized businesses now caught in the crossfire of a policy shift they didn’t ask for, don’t understand, and definitely didn’t budget for.
At the center of the chaos is a minimum licensing threshold of 72 cores per SKU, a change that’s left many in the infrastructure and virtualization world stunned — and scrambling.
Wait, 72 Cores? For Who, Exactly?
Let’s get one thing straight: This isn’t about a literal 72-core processor. It’s about licensing. Under Broadcom’s new VMware subscription model, contracts for key products like vSphere Enterprise Plus, VCF, and VVF now require a minimum of 72 cores per contract per SKU.
For massive enterprises, this might be a shrug. But for everyone else? For the lean IT departments running on modest two-socket servers? For remote offices, small clusters, and budget-constrained public institutions? It’s a punch in the gut.
