Global distributor Ingram Micro is to end its relationship with Broadcom and its VMware range in “select regions” from “early January 2025”, reported The Register this morning.
In a statement sent to The Register, an Ingram spokesperson confirms: "We were unable to reach an agreement with Broadcom that would help our customers deliver the best technology outcomes now and in the future while providing an appropriate shareholder return."
Ingram Micro will “no longer be doing business with Broadcom and have limited engagement with VMware in select regions”, The Register was told, with the distributor saying channel partners and other vendors “had been informed”.
"For us...the future of business is focused on transforming relationships, not just transacting sales," Ingram added. So far, it has not been confirmed by either Ingram or Broadcom which territories are affected by the Ingram announcement. Broadcom hasn’t publicly said anything about it, yet.
As a continuing VMware partner after Broadcom’s acquisition of the virtualisation and cloud services giant at the end of last year, Ingram was handed more responsibility for VMware support. In North America, for instance, it was responsible for technical support, while Broadcom retained responsibility for non-technical support.
According to partners in the channel though, the writing was on the wall, or the internet, as to failings in the arrangement. On both the Broadcom Community board, and Reddit, multiple complaints about service from Ingram were plain to read.
On Broadcom Community, one person wrote: “Yes, it’s terrible [Ingram Micro support]. They close tickets for no reason. They give workarounds. Refuse to escalate tickets. Language barriers.
“Worst support I've ever experienced.”
On Reddit, another observed: “Remember that Broadcom dumped the VMware support on partners like Ingram with no notice and no time to build up. If you buy direct, it would be a different story, but support may vary. This is unfortunate in how Broadcom handled [it].
“My support for [VMware] Velocloud still goes direct to the Velocloud team, and have gotten good to great support in timely fashion, like even 15 mins on a P2.”
Now, some resellers will have to search for another distributor, and TD Synnex may well be an obvious port of call for some, despite other potential problems exposed in this Reddit post from last month: “Wondering if anyone has heard this news or if we are being misinformed.
“Today, we were told that Ingram Micro will no longer be a distributor for VMware licensing, and that we must move over to TD Synnex for licensing.
“We are a partner with TD Synnex as well, so that is not the end of the world.
“In speaking with Synnex we were informed that VMware has pricing changes in November, MSRP for Standard is staying at $50 per core, BUT, and this is the key, VARs no longer have any margin on the licensing, our cost is $50 and MSRP is $50.
“If this is true, how in the F is a VAR to make money off the licensing and why would we sell it?
“Broadcom is bat **** crazy if they think resellers would sell a license that we make $0.00 on.”
This is obviously a developing story, if channel players have any updates for me I can be contacted on email: a_savvas@yahoo.co.uk
