Its next plan is to “encourage” VMware customers onto subscriptions, by ending the sale of Support and Subscription renewals for those who invested in perpetual licenses.

VMware described this to customers as part of its plan to "complete the transition of all VMware by Broadcom solutions to subscription licenses." "We are ending the sale of Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual offerings beginning today" SVP Krish Prasad said in a FAQ.

VMware perpetual licenses were described by its own Office of the CTO earlier this year in a short blog as its "most renowned licenses."

The on-premises licenses for the virtualisation software come with a license key, with SnS separately licensing users for support and software updates. Perpetual license keys never expire but the SnS lapses and now will not, seemingly, be renewed -- meaning that customers reluctant to shift to an alternative licensing model will be left without support or updates.

Of course there is nothing to stop customers using perpetual licenses with active support contracts and Broadcom has promised to provide support as “defined in contractual commitments.”

However, the company “encourages” customers to review their inventory of perpetual licenses, including Support Services renewal and expiration dates," Broadcom said.

The company is also announcing a new "bring-your-own-subscription license option, providing license portability to VMware validated hybrid cloud endpoints running VMware Cloud Foundation," it added, without initially sharing details.