back to article CIO who dropped VMware 18 months ago now feeling thoroughly chuffed

Gregg Lowe is feeling thoroughly chuffed about his technology buying decisions. A couple of years back, the CIO of Boyd Gaming, operator of 28 hotel and casino properties across the US states, was hip-deep in negotiations for a fresh enterprise agreement with VMware prior to its acquisition by Broadcom. Nutanix, which offers …

  1. EvaQ
    Thumb Up

    non-native here

    The meaning of CHUFFED is quite pleased : delighted

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: non-native here

      I think the thousands of people caught up in the DWP systemic IT failure led overpayment and malicious clawback of Attendance Allowance aren’t chuffed. Esp. As the promised to fix if over 5 years ago.

      https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/18/ministers-clawing-back-251m-carers-dwp-allowance-failures?utm_term=664843e56a8bddb57c1642fcd6f56dab&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: non-native here

        I'm not sure whether that's anything to do with the platform the software runs on?

    2. nematoad Silver badge

      Re: non-native here

      ...some he deals with behave like used-car salesmen with their eagerness to secure any sort of sale.

      He wouldn't be talking about Oracle by any chance, would he?

      It's nice to see that giants like Wells Fargo are agile and dedicated enough to get out from under when their current supplier starts treating them as a cash-cow.

      1. WolfFan

        Re: non-native here

        Hell's Cargo knows a thief when they see one.

    3. grizzo

      Re: non-native here

      Thanks, I had to look it up because I thought it meant the opposite.

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: non-native here

        No. That would be dischuffed

        1. MiguelC Silver badge

          Re: non-native here

          I'm most unchuffed by your comment :)

          1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: non-native here

            Hmm so that would suggest you are neither chuffed nor dischuffed but sort of in the middle.

            P.S. dischuffed is an ancient term, first heard by me at school in the 1960s and uttered by the history of architecture teacher describing the feelings of the monks when kicked out of their monasteries.

            (phew!)

            P.P.S I have no idea what relevance any of this has to the original topic

            1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

              Re: non-native here

              Hmm so that would suggest you are neither chuffed nor dischuffed but sort of in the middle.

              I think that would be achuffed.

              1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

                Re: non-native here

                {upvoted for continuing the discussion} :P

                I don't think that has quite the same sense of neutrality, but more a total absence - or even removal - of chuffness capability (which would be rather sad).

            2. boblongii
              IT Angle

              Re: non-native here

              Unchuffed suggests that he was not chuffed before and remains so. Dischuffed implies that a formally chuffed person now has become unchuffed, perhaps even miffed.

  2. IGotOut Silver badge

    Yay...

    Someone with low morals increases profits by not using someone else with even less morals.

    Can't they just both lose?

    1. trindflo

      Re: Someone with low morals

      You're not confusing Rajiv Ramaswami with Vivek Ramaswami are you? I know very little about Rajiv.

      1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
        Holmes

        Re: Someone with low morals

        I think IGotOut is expressing his disregard for the gambling industry.

    2. UnknownUnknown Silver badge

      Re: Yay...

      Do you have that the right way around ?

  3. Mike Pellatt

    Mind-numbing

    if "Broadcom’s revised licensing strategy will please investors but not customers", then Broadcom's investors are stupid.

    No company's long-term outlook is improved by pissing off its customers. Growth by acquisition is far too often financial engineering for a company's BoD to hide its underlying poor performance from its Investors.

    1. Vulture@C64

      Re: Mind-numbing

      Broadcom don't care about the long term. They have bought VMware for the short term gain, 5 years, maybe 10 at most. If it took a 27 site casino business 18 months to migrate from VMware and it's still not finished, then imagine how long it will take larger businesses like banks, insurance companies, shipping businesses, government institutions all over the world - years ! Broadcom have probably tripled their profit from VMware over night by increased revenue and reduced costs (who said support team ?) and they will rape the living poo out of VMware customers until they see profits declining and offer it for sale to another venture capital business which has a different vision and thinks it can rebuild it and create profit with a sale in 3 or 4 years.

      Broadcom don't care about customers, they care about profit and giving it to shareholders whilst trimming a little of it for themselves.

      1. TimMaher Silver badge
        Alert

        Re: Broadcom

        Perhaps they should be called “Broadcon”?

      2. Neyda

        Re: Mind-numbing

        Paying 64b dollars expecting a 10 year profit at most while stomping the valuation of the acquired company to the ground so no one wants to buy it back?...

        Yeah, that's definitely the strategy they have in mind)))

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge

          Re: Mind-numbing

          The larger the company, the more self-destructive its behaviour.

          This seems to be because the incentives become shorter term. Managers, salescritters and often others get paid based on monthly targets, and after a while everyone spends more of their time justifying their position than actually doing their jobs. Many don't expect or even intend to be in the same post a year later.

          Eventually the whole room comes down of course, but most of the people involved in cutting down the supporting columns have left with their bags of gold before then.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mind-numbing

          Yes, it really is.

          Their calculation is that they will be able to rinse the existing customers of VMware for more than the acquisition cost before they burn it to the ground. If they can sell the ashes for anything at the end of the process it's just a bonus. They're doing the same at Symantec, just a few years further along.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wells Fargo

    If Well-Fargo have 128,000 databases across their organisation… I think they have bigger problems than VMWare v’s Nuantix..

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Re: Wells Fargo

      In all fairness, those critters do have a tendancy to multiply like they were promiscuous or something.

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Wells Fargo

      I was wondering about that. I assume each slot/networked PC maintains its own local DB, but that would assume each hotel effectively has circa 4,000 slots…

      1. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

        Re: Wells Fargo

        Wells Fargo is a mutinational banking/financial services company operating in 35 countries, not the much smaller casino operator which the article also mentions.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Wells Fargo

      128,000 databases doesn't strike me as extraordinary for a major financial institution.

  5. Bebu
    Windows

    "dedicated to encouraging the optimistic to part with their cash."

    Sound like a sizeable part of the industry to me.

    Unlike many other industries IT has a infantile management afflicted with insane amounts of unfounded optimism with a ready access to ludicrous quantities of cash.

    Visually its analogous to watching someone trying to put out a lithium battery fire with a petrol pump.

    1. Kevin Johnston Silver badge

      Re: "dedicated to encouraging the optimistic to part with their cash."

      "infantile management afflicted with insane amounts of unfounded optimism"

      Made worse by their goldfish grade memory causing them to forget the reason the last supplier was a disaster is that they simply took everything the salesmen said as TRUTH since they were trying to urgently replace a system which the salemen had assured them would...etc etc etc

  6. CPU

    Lucky Nutanix

    Broadcom's purchase of VMware was the best thing that every happened to Nutanix- they actually posted a profit this year, as all of us rats desert the VM ship :-)

  7. James O'Shea Silver badge

    Has anyone actually got the 'free' VMWare download?

    Asking for a friend.

    1. CPU

      Re: Has anyone actually got the 'free' VMWare download?

      Unless you are a customer with a pukka VM siteID, you can't even download the "free" software. I tried last week and they told me "no". And you can't DL from VMware any more either.

      The "for free" was just a bit of PR.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Has anyone actually got the 'free' VMWare download?

        Actually, some folks here were able to find the free personal download; I saw links posted in an earlier article. Or maybe that was a discussion elsewhere. I did definitely read posts from people saying they'd found it, with links.

        I didn't bother saving them because I have no reason to ever use VMware again on a personal machine.

        1. blather and bluff

          Re: Has anyone actually got the 'free' VMWare download?

          Yes - a couple of days back. When the announcement went out it wasn't possible as Broadcom hadn't actually set up the site to do it. You do have to register, but no payment involved as long as you select the personal use option. The links here now work https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2024/05/vmware-workstation-pro-now-available-free-for-personal-use.html

      2. James O'Shea Silver badge

        Re: Has anyone actually got the 'free' VMWare download?

        I decided that I was going to get the 'free' download. So I clicked on the indicated button... and was sent to a page to 'register'. Hmm. I step out, go to [name redacted] and generate a throw-away account. Test that it works. Put that in as the 'registered account'. Generate a stupid password which meets the minimum. .So where's the download? Hmm. Where _is_ the download? Can't find it. Can find a 800 number to Customer Support. Call Customer Support. Customer Support walks me through finding the download button. Hmm. Before downloading, I must provide an address. I give them the address for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. (note that my throwaway was in the name of bradrick99@[redacted]; the Sheriff is Ric (no k) Bradshaw.) The download is currently proceeding.

        I may/may not bother to actually install it.

  8. Piro

    Nutanix? No thanks

    You're not necessarily saving money, and just ending up with some much less mature and flexible platform that can quickly be bought up or hike prices even further.

    I'd rather have VMware than Nutanix.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Broadcom? Casino?

    Were they not able to build their own hypervisor? With blackjack and hookers.

  10. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Slogan!

    "Broadcom: We're CA, but without the innovation!"

    Hell, I remember three decades back when CA was a joke in the industry for buying ISVs and letting the products die a slow death. It's hilarious to think they're now fondly remembered by those living under Broadcom's reign.

    1. Mike Pellatt

      Re: Slogan!

      Along with shafting the existing VARs. We were beginning to do quite nicely out of M-Link, had a good relationship with the company. CA:s acquisition of it terminated that as a business opportunity.

  11. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

    Its a joke Mr Gregg wouldnt even know what VMware does, that someone can be incharge when they have no fucking clue what they just did.

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Yup 2 down votes from the brainwashed who believe their corporate leaders know everything...

  12. Ambivalous Crowboard

    Nutanix has a long way to go before it can properly compete with vmware

    I've been installing vmware for about 10 years and picking up Nutanix was like trying to pick up a tin of paint but without the handle, or the tin.

    I'm still struggling to get their Move (migration tool) appliance to download from the portal. Freeloaders like us are apparently licenced for it but Nutanix staff (in the Discord) are directing me to third-party websites that show me how to work around a bug in their portal.

    At least with vmware they called things by unique names (vmotion, esxi, vsan) so you could Google things. Who calls a tool "Nutanix Move" when everyone's already talking about "how to move to Nutanix"? How am I supposed to get support for that?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Be careful of Nutanix

    Nutanix was a real shady outfit when we looked at them 8 years ago. They were somewhat new and making insane promises that we knew could never be kept. We made the right choice with VMware then and we just renewed our ELA last year before the merger. However, management is believing all the Cloud hype and we will be be reducing our on-premise footprint down to almost nothing in the next few years. Our cloud costs are skyrocketing but that doesn't seem to matter because CIOs don't want to be in the business of managing data centers anymore. I need to post this anonymously for job security.

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