As VMware evolves its cloud services portfolio to cater to the needs of our customers and partners, we continue to examine and, when needed, optimize our solutions to deliver the right features and capabilities they are looking for. The Tanzu portfolio for our Cloud Services Providers has rapidly grown during the last two years, and the shifting of the modern application landscape has created opportunities for us to deliver better value for our partners and their tenants.
As previously mentioned in our October 2022 blog post, Tanzu Basic entered end of availability for our Cloud Services Providers. This change was great for our partner community, as it simplified the way partners got access to Tanzu Kubernetes Grid – now a core component of Flex Core instead of an add-on. In addition, partners got access to build services and solutions using the latest Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.0 offering along with its expanded set of open-source software components.
With this recent backdrop in mind, the Tanzu and Cloud Services Provider teams have further examined the market and our customer requirements and determined that Tanzu Standard needs more capabilities than what is being offered. As of May 5th, 2023, VMware has announced the end of availability for VMware Tanzu Standard and Tanzu Mission Control Standard edition for our Cloud Services Providers.
Why is VMware making this change?
The Tanzu Standard offering is a package of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and the Tanzu Mission Control Standard edition SaaS offerings. While this package offering is simple to understand, it offers limited incremental value with the version of Tanzu Mission Control included and doesn’t address the requirements for partners needing more capabilities from the Tanzu portfolio. In addition, partners and customers want additional capabilities offered by newer package offerings available with Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations. To address this point, the Cloud Services Team is now able to offer an equivalent set of capabilities that match what can be offered with the Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations offering for our partners, leveraging the Tanzu Mission Control and Tanzu Service Mesh offerings delivered through our Cloud Services Provider – SaaS model. Partners can choose which additional offerings to include, creating a soft bundle of choices for their particular tenant use cases, personas, and workload needs. This works well as a partner builds up their modern application services offerings and invests in the Tanzu solutions, including VMware Application Catalog, Tanzu Application Platform, and VMware Data Solutions.
Where do VMware Cloud Services Providers go from here?
Although Cloud Services Providers will no longer be able to acquire new product licenses for Tanzu Standard or Tanzu Mission Control Standard edition as of this date, support will remain unaffected and will continue for partners enrolled in the Partner Connect program until their term entitlement for Tanzu Standard or Tanzu Mission Control Standard edition lapses, at which time partners will need to work with their Aggregator to acquire Tanzu Mission Control Advanced as a Cloud Services Provider – SaaS offering. It is important to note that there will be no impacts on deployed Kubernetes Clusters because of this change. Refer to the product usage guide available on Partner Connect for current information regarding Tanzu portfolio offerings for our VMware Cloud Services Providers.
Additional Resources for Cloud Services Providers
- Product Usage Guide (Partner Connect)
- Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.0 Announcement
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