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Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

theregister.com

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Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#21

Post by wolvoleo »

diego_moita wrote: post #10

They're not the only ones pissed off with VMWare [1]. What I don't understand is what prevents them to shop around for alternatives. What is VMWare's very good moat that prevents the competition from invading their castle? https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/03/24/half-of-vmwa...

Because there's no business potential.

20 years ago anyone and everyone had datacenters full of VMware. Now most of it is stuff that a company hasn't bothered to move to cloud yet. There's a few things it's still the best choice for but those are niche things. Like stuff that absolutely needs to be self hosted for privacy or security. The time of VMware being the default is long gone.

Moving from a mainstream to a niche product means a market that's shrinking. No growth potential. No potential for new competitors to start up. Proxmox is good but it's not exactly enterprise.

This is why Broadcom bought it and sucks the most value out of it before it completely disappears.

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#22

Post by bigstrat2003 »

wolvoleo wrote: post #21
diego_moita wrote: post #10

They're not the only ones pissed off with VMWare [1]. What I don't understand is what prevents them to shop around for alternatives. What is VMWare's very good moat that prevents the competition from invading their castle? https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/03/24/half-of-vmwa...

Because there's no business potential. 20 years ago anyone and everyone had datacenters full of VMware. Now most of it is stuff that a company hasn't bothered to move to cloud yet. There's a few things it's still the best choice for but those are niche things. Like stuff that absolutely needs to be self hosted for privacy or security. The time of VMware being the default is long gone. Moving from a mainstream to a ni…

> There's a few things it's still the best choice for but those are niche things.

That just isn't true. The reality is that being in the cloud is not beneficial for most businesses. They do it because it's trendy, not because it's the best solution. In recent years we've seen more and more recognition of that fact, and it has driven people to host stuff on prem.

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#24

Post by jaskerr »

Never thought I'd be able to say this, but Broadcom has out-CA'd Computer Associates.

For those not familiar with CA, their model was to buy up failed enterprise software companies and milk the s@*t out of the licensing and support contracts, while spending next-to-nothing on development. Broadcom follows much the same model with steroids and protein powder.

CA failed, only after years of profitable rent-seeking. The same may happen to Broadcom, but it will take years. In the meantime the companies who depend on the software they control will pay a heavy price.

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#25

Post by insaneirish »

jaskerr wrote: post #24

Never thought I'd be able to say this, but Broadcom has out-CA'd Computer Associates. For those not familiar with CA, their model was to buy up failed enterprise software companies and milk the s@*t out of the licensing and support contracts, while spending next-to-nothing on development. Broadcom follows much the same model with steroids and protein powder. CA failed, only after years of profitable rent-seeking. The…

Feel like it's burying the lede a bit to not mention that Broadcom acquired Computer Associates and said "hold my beer".

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#26

Post by solid_fuel »

bellowsgulch wrote: post #12

[flagged]

Would you say the same thing if Volvo Trucks or whoever Tesco relies on for their fleet suddenly changed their support contract? Some hard dependencies are always unavoidable.

It is good to be prepared and make sure you have the flexibility to move when possible, but if you've done multi-cloud work before then you know that it requires infrastructure and work of its own that won't ever pay off unless you actually migrate.

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#28

Post by vcdx69420 »

Making on premise hosting more costly changes the calculus making cloud migrations easier to sell to the board. Broadcom's revenue is literally a slice of hyperscaler capex and that capex is enormous. Combined AI infrastructure spending across the major players runs well past $600 billion annually. This aligns with the federal government's need to have data custody and supports whatever the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is called now. They are geniuses.

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#29

Post by henriquez »

bragr wrote: post #19
parasubvert wrote: post #4

Negotiating tactic. Never really makes it to court.

I do suspect they'll settle but I doubt it will result in a new contract. They've already made significant investments migrating off VMWare and none of those will snap back with a new contract. Tesco was also cut off from updates and support, and so had to purchase 3rd party support, so they have real damages.

[dead]

Re: Supermarket giant Tesco sues VMware for breach of contract (2025)

#30

Post by dreamcompiler »

throwaway85825 wrote: post #20
wolvoleo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this was clearly willingly and knowingly done.

They did the same rugpull to PLX customers. This is Broadcoms business model. Never ever do business with Broadcom.

Difficult for me because I really like Raspberry Pis.
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