VMware extends supported lifespan of vSphere 7 by six months • The Register

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VMware users have had a little win, as the Broadcom business unit has extended the supported life of its flagship vSphere software.

vSphere 7.0, a product launched in 2020, was due to exit support in April 2025 – but support docs recently changed, and the date found online is now October 2025.

Pe-acquisition VMware made a similar move in 2021, when it extended support for vSphere 6.5 and vCenter 6.5 by a year. Readers may recall that a certain virus (hint: rhymes with BOVID-19) meant 2021 was a weird year. At the time, VMware decided vAdmins were having a hard time getting hands-on with servers, making it tricky to perform upgrades.

Broadcom did not offer a reason for this extension, but whatever its rationale, the decision is likely welcome. VMware users have had a lot to consider in recent months, as the licenses offered for their software-defined infrastructure changed to per-core subscriptions for bundles of products.

An extra half a year in which to plan their migration to vSphere 8 – or maybe version 9.0, which The Register‘s virtualization desk understands may be on the agenda at next month’s VMware Explore conference – will therefore be greeted enthusiastically. As would any act of generosity, after Broadcom’s changes shocked many customers by bringing with it significant cost increases.

Some VMware customers, however, must confront those licensing changes in coming days – the option to use on-demand hosts in the VMware Cloud on AWS service will end on August 1.

AWS’s reseller agreement with VMware ended in April, and with it the option to use on-demand vSphere servers from the VMware Cloud on AWS service. Customers were offered the chance to buy 12-month licenses as an alternative, before the August cutoff.

The Register has seen an email from VMware urging customers to acquire those licenses by July 26, and warning “any hosts not covered by a subscription may be removed to match your existing subscription plan.” Which sounds disruptive.

Sources tell us such messages only started to arrive from July 12, but Broadcom claims it engaged with customers before that timeframe and has even extended the time during which affected users can acquire licenses. ®