Broadcom’s VMware is joining forces with Dell. The two parties will once again offer solutions together. HPE and Lenovo are also participating.

Dell and VMware enter into a new agreement. Dell ended its strategic partnership with VMware after Broadcom took over the virtualization specialist. This takeover is characterized by an aggressive new pricing and partner strategy in which long-standing partners are downgraded and loyal customers see their bills multiplied. Things also went sour between Dell and VMware after Broadcom replaced the existing licensing model with a subscription formula.

Developed together

This move meant that manufacturers like Dell could no longer simply sell their own hardware bundled with VMware software. That is now possible again. “The new agreement builds on the more than two-decade-long relationship between Dell and VMware and enables the companies to continue to deliver jointly developed solutions that help enterprises leverage modern cloud applications and optimize their data centers,” Dell said in a statement.

The collaboration includes the hyper-converged infrastructure Dell VxRail and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, Dell PowerEdge servers and the software-defined infrastructure Dell PowerFlex.

Broadcom is said to have also included HPE and Lenovo in a similar agreement. VMware itself has communicated this, but a statement from the two server manufacturers is currently not available.

normalization

The agreement is good news for Broadcom, which has been under heavy fire. Industry organizations in Belgium and beyond have already described Broadcom’s strategy with VMware as derogatory, and the European cloud provider association has spoken of blackmail-like practices. By re-engaging with the major server manufacturers, Broadcom is taking an important step toward normalizing VMware’s new strategy.