Here’s everything you need to know about the new VMware Cloud Foundation on Google Cloud VMware Engine offering, incentives, price cuts and how it relates to Microsoft Azure and AWS’ VMware cloud solutions.

Google Cloud is putting the full court press on urging VMware Cloud Foundation customers to migrate their VMware workloads over to Google Cloud Platform by lowering its commitment pricing by 20 percent, offering up to 40 percent in migration incentives, as well as support for VMware license portability to Google Cloud.

“There has never been a better time to move your VMware workloads to Google Cloud, so you can bring down your costs and benefit from a modern cloud experience,” said Manoj Sharam, director of product management for machine learning, systems and Cloud AI, in a blog post.

With the VMware Cloud Foundation on Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) now generally available, Google launched a 20 percent lower commitment pricing for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) support.

[Related: Wanclouds Seeks ‘Helpless’ VMware Clients With Free AWS, IBM Cloud Migration Offer]

Additionally, the company is offering commercial incentives up to 40 percent of GCVE first-year spend as additional migration and consumption incentives. Alongside Google Cloud partners, Google is also offering free proof of concepts (POCs) and trials for customers seeking to migrate their VMware workloads to Google Cloud.

Finally, Google and Broadcom will support license portability for VCF that will enable customers to preserve their VMware investments by porting their on-premise VCF licenses to GCVE.

Before breaking down each feature inside the new Google Cloud VMware Engine offer, it’s worth looking at what has happened to VMware over the past 18 months.

Since Broadcom acquired VMware in late 2023 for $69 billion, Broadcom reduced VMware’s portfolio of thousands of products into four core product offerings. Broadcom has also changed VMware drastically, including increasing prices, eliminating the VMware Partner Program and forcing Amazon Web Services partners to no longer resell VMware Cloud on AWS.

Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and AWS compete in various technology fronts—from AI and generative AI to channel partner mindshare and VMware hybrid cloud customers. AWS currently owns 31 percent share of the global cloud services market, followed by Microsoft at 25 percent share, then Google Cloud at 11 percent share, according to Q1 2024 data from market research firm Synergy Research Group.

CRN breaks down the five biggest features of Google Cloud’s new VMware Cloud Foundation offerings as well as how it relates to both Azure VMware Solution and VMware Cloud on AWS.

GCVE Can Be ‘Up To 30 Percent Less’ Than Azure VMware Solution

One key feature in the new Google Cloud VMware Engine with VMware Cloud Foundation offering is multiple new GCVE node types that cost effectively align with workload requirements.

“In fact, GCVE with VCF can be up to 30 percent less expensive than Azure VMware Solution,” said Google Cloud’s Sharam.

GCVE is now offering enhanced discounting for its VE1 and VE2 license-included node platforms with new one- and three-year term commitments. VE1 nodes are now 22 percent lower compared to previous pricing, while VE2 nodes are offering up to a 55 percent discount for three-year prepaid commitments.

“These changes result in substantial savings,” Sharam said. “For example, for ve1-standard-72 , a three-year prepaid commitment in us-central1 (Iowa) is priced at $3.60/hour compared to $5.17/hour for Azure’s AV36P three-year reserved instance in the Central US location.”

Azure VMware Solution—which competes directly against GCVE with VCF—provides private clouds that contain VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure.

It is key to know that Microsoft, launched new licensing benefits and discounts this year as well to help VMware users migrate and run workloads on Azure VMware Solutions.

Click through to read the other four big features and important market aspects of GCVE with VCF.

Google Cloud Lowers Commitment, Free POCs And Incentives

Google lowered its commitment pricing for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) support by 20 percent in a move to entice VMware customers to make the move.

Another key feature is that Google Cloud will allow a no-fee assessments and proof-of-concepts (POCs) for customers that will be funded by Google Cloud and Google partners. This means that customers can now receive a free roadmap and cost structure on how to implement Google Cloud VMware Engine on VCF.

For new customers entering into a Google Cloud Enterprise Agreement or Flex Agreement, Google is offering migration services incentives of up to 25 percent of incremental year-one net spend to support migration services.

Additionally, new Google Cloud VMware Engine on VCF customers can receive incremental consumption incentives of up to 15 percent in additional credits for net consumption of GCVE in year one.

VMware Cloud Foundation License Portability

Google worked with Broadcom to create support for VCF license portability entitlement in GCVE. This enables customers to preserve their VMware investments by porting their on-premises VCF licenses to GCVE.

“With GCVE commitment types that support portability, you only pay Google for the VMware Engine service and infrastructure, and can apply previously purchased VCF licenses,” said Google’s Sharam.

By bringing their own VCF subscriptions to GCVE, clients can avoid the cost of purchasing new licenses that can result in potential savings compared to previous pricing models.

“For example, compared to previous pricing which included VMware licenses, you will be able to get a VE1 node that supports portability at up to a 35 percent lower price on a three-year prepaid commitment,” said Sharam.

Google Partner: We Can ‘Get VMware Cloud On AWS Customers To Switch’

The VMware Cloud Foundation platform integrates VMware’s compute, storage, and network virtualization capabilities as well as new innovation such as its Aria Suite Enterprise and Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise.

VMware Cloud Foundation is offered in various flavors on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and AWS.

However, in May Broadcom cut out AWS channel partners from the equation.

“VMware Cloud on AWS is no longer directly sold by AWS or its channel partners. It’s that simple,” said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan in May. “What this means is that customers who previously purchased VMware Cloud on AWS from AWS will now work with Broadcom or an authorized Broadcom reseller to renew their subscriptions and expand their environments.”

One top executive from a national Google Cloud and AWS partner said this move has caused concerns from VMware Cloud on AWS customers regarding future support.

“Google is looking at VMware Cloud on AWS customers with these new offers, these new nodes, new incentives, free POCs, etc.” said the executive who did not wish to be identified. “Because [VMware Cloud on AWS] customers are going to lose support eventually if [AWS] partners are unable to provide support for the solution, which is what’s happening.”

The executive said he will suggest the new Google Cloud VMware Engine on VCF offering to several of his current clients using VMware Cloud on AWS.

“This is an easy conversation for us because of all the TCO incentives Google is letting us, I think we can get VMware Cloud on AWS customers to switch over to GCP,” he said. “We’re a much bigger Google shop than we are AWS. So this is an easy decision for us.”

Convertible GCVE Commitments

Another big incentive GCVE on VCF includes is a new convertible three-year GCVE commitment that allows customers to convert part of their previous commitments to other services.

Google said customers evolve their workload architectures when they bring workloads to GCVE, but they’ve been unable to reuse their existing GCVE commitments.

“To support this flexibility, we are excited to announce new convertible three-year GCVE commitments that, for an additional cost, will allow you to convert part of your commitments to other services such as Compute Engine or GKE, or other options in GCVE,” said Google’s Sharam.

For example, users can extend VMware environments using dynamically scaling web-facing servers on Compute Engine or GKE.

Google Cloud VMware Engine with VMware Cloud Foundation sees Google acting as a cloud support system for VMware infrastructure. This means Google’s VMware engine can support all of VMware’s recently updated Cloud Foundation services.