AT&T Sues Broadcom over VMware Contracts 'Bullying'
channelfutures.com
channelfutures.com
If AT&T's software support contracts can put critical government services and national security at risk then either the government needs to abandon its use of AT&T as soon as possible to prevent that possibility, or if that is impossible, then AT&T is itself a risk to national security and they should be taken over by the government and operated as the critical government service that it is.
I personally have seen much greater damage from other contractor's failures (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.) than AT&T or Verizon could cause. When you've suddenly lost email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, the phone is as useless as the computer.
But the sad reality I've experienced is that a fiber seeking backhoe hundreds of miles away cripples half your network and Lumen insists there is nothing that can be done to prevent this. And everyone just goes along with this.
All users of both AT&T and FirstNet get access to a much larger pool of wireless bandwidth, resulting in faster speeds for everyone involved, and a much lower cost to build out a network dedicated to first responders. In the event of crisis, FirstNet will get priority on the band 14 spectrum.
Dish is not a viable provider todau and didn't exist in 2016 when FirstNet went out to bid.
Verizon is unwilling to densify their suburban and rural networks to meet the coverage requirements, so they passed on bidding for FirstNet.
T-Mobile felt FirstNet was too big a lift when they didn't have clarity on the 600Mhz spectrum auction (which wrapped up in 2017) nor the rural coverage and suburban density they have today.
https://www.designworldonline.com/firstnet-bids-are-in-now-t...
Iv used proxmox way more than VMware so I might be hazy on the details of what I remember.
Proxmox, I wish had a desktop application for doing what the web browser UI does but is more clean like the workstations and iirc vsphere application.
Might be mixing some names up cuz its been a while since iv used anything other that workstation on uni's labs.
There is a little companion app that the website can launch to view a console. It has a couple features the web console lacks. That said, last time I tried to download it (during the Crowdstike issue) it was locked away behind Broadcom’s walls and needed an account to get it, so we had to use some jump servers where it was already downloaded. We didn’t have time to deal with their nonsense. If memory serves, it used to download from the vCenter, but not anymore.
> AT&T is exercising that option for at least one more year
> it would “take years” for AT&T to “devise alternative solutions” to its reliance on VMware.
If it will "take years", then it seems like a last-minute 1-year extension is pointless, other than saving AT&T some licensing fees, which is all this is really about IMO.
I find it extremely hard to have any sympathy for AT&T over "vendor lock-in" (aka signing short-term contracts for a single-source products and making their business critically depend on it).
Don't view this through the lens of the common person or small business who absolutely do need particular protections and consideration under the law. That's because people have an extreme disadvantage in negotiating power in many markets, and don't have millions of dollars to spend on lawyers and analysts.
Filed in New York County Supreme Court on Aug. 29, AT&T’s lawsuit states that Broadcom is “threatening to withhold essential support services for previously purchased VMware perpetually licensed software unless AT&T capitulates to Broadcom’s demands that AT&T purchase hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bundled subscription software and services, which AT&T does not want.”
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But many customers, AT&T included, remained on pre-acquisition VMware contracts that featured perpetual licensing. Now, though, things are coming down to the wire. Broadcom’s contractual obligation to provide support services to AT&T applies through Sept. 8 — four days from now.
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And yet, AT&T says, “under an amendment the parties signed in August 2022, AT&T obtained the right to renew the support services for ‘up to’ two more years at its ‘sole option’ as long as it does so prior to the end of the current term.”
AT&T is exercising that option for at least one more year but Broadcom, it alleges, “is refusing to honor AT&T’s renewal.”
These Broadcom issues impact a lot of companies that aren’t ATT.