Re: Downpour
Oh, I'm sure Broadcom will ride it out.
If they get more in revenue (with time value of money stuff calculated in, of course) than they paid for VMware, it will even be a win.
There are too many companies out there who are too committed to VMware (first mistake) to make a quick change. Or even a slow change. So VMWare will be a money maker for a number of years to come. As customers scale back, chop VMware R&D staff, then support staff, customer relations staff. A small billing department can take in a lot of money. Couple people to deal with security patches (who am I kidding? Whaddya gonna do, shut down your VMware servers? move to another product? Chop the security people, too! Oh wait, that looks bad. Outsource that to Elbonia, and show your "commitment to security"). It becomes almost pure revenue, minimal cost to produce that revenue.
Broadcom is going to ride it out just fine. VMware will probably vanish as a "product" in a decade or so, but the money will be made. Return on investment had. Success.
If this gets companies to realize bedding down with one vendor is a Really Bad Idea, that's all fine with me. If this gets companies to realize their vendors are in business for the same reason they are (to make money), again, all the better.