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County IT warns of VMware licensing disruption and possible high relicense costs after Broadcom acquisition
Summary
The county’s IT director reported one VMware physical server failed and that license activation portals are inconsistent after Broadcom’s purchase of VMware; Dell and Broadcom have given conflicting explanations, and relicense quotes could drastically raise multi‑year costs if licensing is not honored.
Todd Jones, the county’s IT lead, told the board that one of four physical VMware servers failed about four weeks earlier after a licensing‑activation issue emerged during Broadcom’s transition period. County staff temporarily stood up a bare‑metal replacement to keep sheriff’s office services (including evidence relay and camera uploads) running.
Jones said the county purchased five‑year VMware licensing with the original server, but after Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware the portal Dell used to activate licenses no longer links to Broadcom’s system, leaving activation unresolved. Dell and Broadcom have given conflicting explanations about the activation process and whether prior licenses remain active.
Jones provided an example of market reactions: what once cost about $900 per server annually for licensing is being quoted at roughly $5,000 per server, and because licensing tiers may jump when an organization has more than three physical servers the county was quoted figures that could total roughly $120,000 to relicense four servers for five years. Jones said he is not requesting immediate funds but wanted the board to be aware and said the county will pressure vendors for a commercially reasonable solution while exploring alternatives, including other hypervisors or hybrid architectures.
Jones said backups and disaster recovery are intact and that current operations remain functional on three servers; the county has time to monitor the market and pursue options if vendor cooperation does not restore the existing license activation.
