Deauthorized Broadcom-VMware Partner Angered By ‘Misleading’ Email To Customer

‘[The email] struck me as a questioning of our integrity and approach, which was quite disheartening. I’ll admit, it was upsetting,’ says Bob Cox, co-owner and president of Nothing But Net.

When an IT administrator received an email from Broadcom that his trusted VMware partner, Nothing But Net, was being deauthorized, he thought it was a scam from a bad actor looking to make a quick buck.

After all, Nothing But Net, a Chandler, Ariz.-based MSSP and VMware partner for 18 years, had been providing top-notch service to the customer for 16 years. What’s more, Nothing But Net had renewed the customer’s VMware license just weeks earlier.

The email—which was verified by CRN—said that Broadcom was “optimizing the VMware reseller ecosystem to focus on partners who are actively engaged, technically capable, and committed to delivering meaningful outcomes” for customers.

In support of that initiative, the email stated that, effective Aug. 2, “your incumbent partner will no longer be an authorized VMware by Broadcom reseller.”

The email then said that, in order to ensure a “smooth transition,” “national solution providers Connection, Insight and SHI have been sent quotes for your upcoming contract renewal.” The email also informed the customer that if it had a “preferred partner that is an authorized VMware by Broadcom reseller, we’d be happy to accommodate.”

As soon as the customer received the email, he reached out to Bob Cox, co-owner and president of Nothing But Net, a 24-year-old, 20-employee, $4 million MSSP that had done hundreds of thousands of dollars in VMware business over 18 years, including $127,000 in sales in the last 18 months.

“I told Bob, ‘This is probably [fake],’” said the IT administrator, who asked not to be identified. “It looked like a well-designed scam.”

When Cox investigated the email from Broadcom and found out that it was legitimate, he was furious.

The way Cox saw it, the email was at best “misleading” and at worst “disparaging” to his company by implying that he and his team were not “actively engaged, technically capable and committed to delivering meaningful outcomes” for customers.

“When they spoke of delivering meaningful outcomes for customers, I couldn’t help but feel how it reflected on the company and me,” he said. “It struck me as a questioning of our integrity and approach, which was quite disheartening. I’ll admit, it was upsetting.”

The email angered the customer as well, who said he’s standing by Cox and Nothing But Net and looking at Microsoft Hyper-V as an alternative.

“We’re going to move off VMware because of this. We had just renewed our license and now they are telling me I have to go with a different partner than Nothing But Net? … It’s just stupid on their part. Nothing But Net handles all our IT, yet here was Broadcom telling us that Nothing But Net is not big enough to carry their product. … That annoyed me, and I was already unhappy with Broadcom because I was being forced to pay thousands of dollars more.”

Cox, who has been a solution provider owner/executive for 36 years, said he has never seen anything like the channel turmoil that has ensued since Broadcom acquired VMware for $61 billion in November 2023.

“I’m uncertain about the rationale behind Broadcom’s recent changes to the VMware partner ecosystem. The decision to terminate numerous partnerships and concentrate on a select group of larger partners raises questions about their commitment to the small and medium-sized business sector,” Cox said.

Upheaval At VMware

After Broadcom acquired VMware, it took VMware’s top 2,000 accounts direct, terminated partner agreements and then invited select partners to rejoin the channel program. At the same time, it reduced the product portfolio, eliminated lifetime perpetual licenses and moved to a new per-core processor subscription model that resulted in sharp price increases for many customers.

Then, in a June 1 blog post, Broadcom Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Sales and Partners Brian Moats informed partners that Broadcom was reducing its four-tier Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VMware resellers, which included Registered, Select, Premier and Pinnacle, down to three tiers, eliminating its lowest Registered partner tier completely.

“This decision will enable Broadcom to focus on deepening our relationships with those partners who are committed to delivering the transformative customer experience around VMware solutions, as demonstrated by their historical performance levels, technical and other relevant expertise, and ability to make the investments necessary to offer customers the levels of service they expect and deserve,” said Moats in the post.

Broadcom has declined to specify the number of partners it currently has, though sources say it reduced the VMware partner ranks from 30,000 to approximately 18,000.

Nothing But Net Fights Back

In reaction to the email his customer received, Cox went into action to protect his company’s reputation as a long-standing, trusted VMware partner, sending his own email to his VMware customers to make sure they understood that the company would stand behind them even as Broadcom-VMware was abandoning Nothing But Net.

“Let us be clear: Our relationship with VMware was terminated solely by them, with no cause from our perspective other than arbitrary sales volume thresholds,” Cox wrote in the email to his customers. “There were no complaints about our technical capabilities, our service quality or our ability to support VMware solutions—because we have always delivered at the highest standard.”

He also noted that the company is “taking steps to ensure this mischaracterization is corrected and does not affect your ability to make the best decisions for your business.”

Cox’s commitment to his customers included supporting their VMware environments during and beyond any transition period, offering alternative solutions to VMware, sourcing VMware solutions through authorized distribution channels and maintaining a technical team ready to deliver exceptional service.

“We’re here to support you—regardless of corporate restructuring or partner reshuffling,” he said in closing. “Thank you for your continued trust.”

In response to CRN seeking information on the Nothing But Net termination and the letter sent to customers, Broadcom said it is unable to comment on individual partners and pointed to the Moats blog post.

Broadcom did not disclose how many partners were impacted by the elimination of the Registered partner tier or how many customers it had sent emails directing them to transact business with national solution providers.

‘Trying To Be A Good Partner’

Before Cox received the email from Broadcom, he had been actively reaching out and renewing customers with VMware, even at the higher pricing level. “I was just trying to be a good partner and continue to support our customers, but Broadcom has made it extremely difficult,” he said.

Cox’s company, by the way, has also been hit with a nearly 3X increase in VMware pricing on the servers it hosts as a colocation provider for customers from $14,500 annually to $43,000 annually based on the new Broadcom-VMware per-core subscription model. “Broadcom-VMware wouldn’t allow us to stay with the same standard version,” he said. “They were forcing us to go to the VMware Cloud Foundation version.”

Nothing But Net serves enterprise and SMB customers, said Cox. “We are diversified,” he said. “All our eggs are not in one basket.”

The heart of the Nothing But Net business model—like any solution provider in a rapidly changing technology landscape—has been the ability to constantly change and provide higher-end security services as an MSSP.

“We started out being a hardware reseller doing 95 percent hardware and 5 percent services. As time went on, we have evolved. That is what has made us successful,” he said. “We are constantly changing.”

Among the Nothing But Net MSSP offerings are a full stack of managed security services and other IT services including products and services from SentinelOne, the Check Point Software Technologies Harmony email protection product as well as products from Cisco Systems, Proofpoint, Acronis, Microsoft, Veeam Software and Kaseya.

As this point, Cox is in the process of moving his Broadcom-VMware customers to offerings such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V. “We are getting emails and calls from vendors every day asking us to evaluate their solutions as Broadcom-VMware replacements,” he said.

Cox said it has been gratifying to have his customers reach out to him after receiving the Broadcom-VMware letter, standing by his company and offering to move to another virtualization software provider recommended and supported by Nothing But Net.

“Whatever you give out in this world you get back,” he said. “Our customers trust us. It’s all about the trusted relationship and partnership we have built with them over many years.”

The customer said Nothing But Net has provided superior service to his company over 16 years, especially as IT has become more complex with cybersecurity attacks. “We trust Nothing But Net,” he said. “It’s nice to have someone we can call when there is an issue. Nothing But Net has always been there for us. That is a comforting thought and feeling. They have very good techs. They have a good team. It’s important to have a good set of people like them to take care of our IT needs.”

The customer said his message to Broadcom is this: “Stop alienating trusted partners that have always provided your product to customers. All of a sudden you are trying to jettison them. That’s not right. It is not the way to sell your product. Based on what is happening I will find another product recommended by Nothing But Net. I don’t have faith in Broadcom anymore.”