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.
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.