The VMware Cloud Service Provider Program (VCSP) is the Broadcom partner program under which cloud and managed service providers license VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and related add-ons to deliver hosted services to their own customers. Broadcom documents also call it the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VCSPs, and the VCF Specific Program Documentation (SPD) refers to it as the Cloud Service Provider Program.[1][8] Providers sign a commit contract, create licenses against it, and report consumption through the VCF usage meter appliance, which converts usage into core usage per hour for each license.[2]
The program exists because ordinary VCF subscriptions do not permit hosting for third parties. The VCF SPD allows customers to deliver only Deemed Internal Purpose Applications (DIPA) to third parties. It gives “a service provider Customer hosting a third party’s application on Software for its customers” as an example of an application that is not a DIPA.[8] A provider that wants to sell VMware-based infrastructure or managed services therefore needs rights granted under the provider program rather than an end-customer subscription.
Editions
The program is not sold in editions. What a provider may deliver depends on the products in its commit contract. Public Broadcom documentation for providers covers:
- VMware Cloud Foundation, licensed to providers through commit contracts and managed in the VCF Business Services console.[2]
- VMware vDefend Firewall add-ons. From VCF usage meter 9.0, VCSPs may consume VMware vDefend Firewall, vDefend Firewall with Advanced Threat Prevention and the vDefend Advanced Threat Prevention Add-On “on a committed contract and overage basis”, metered through NSX Manager endpoints.[5]
- VMware Cloud Director, which the January 2024 End of Availability table lists as included in VCF for cloud service providers only.[10]
Broadcom also runs a White Label arrangement for providers; KB 383452 gives separate metering instructions for “Partners participating in the White Label program”.[7]
Metrics
The provider metric is consumption, not a fixed quantity of licensed Cores. VCF 9.1 documentation states that the usage meter “collects the licensing data and usage data” in metered environments and that “The data is converted to core usage per hour for each license.”[2] The catalog records this as Core usage per hour (VCSP). It is related to, but distinct from, the end-customer per Core subscription metric with its 16-Core-per-Processor floor.
The VCF Business Services console shows three attributes for each provider contract:[3]
| Attribute | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Commit Capacity | The capacity in the signed commit contract; “Can be in a number of cores or TiBs” |
| Total Licenses | Number of licenses created against the contract |
| Consumed Capacity | Usage from running and non-running workloads; above commit, “you might get billed for over use” |
Counting / floors
License creation and caps
After a commit contract appears in the Broadcom Support Portal, the provider creates licenses “against the contract serial number and the product in the contract”.[2] Each license must be between 1 and 100 000 cores. Depending on the contract type, the created licenses may exceed the commit capacity.[4]
Broadcom has changed the ceiling on generated keys twice:
| Effective | Cap on generated license keys | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-05-12 | 200% of committed quantities (a 10,000-core commit capped at 20,000 cores) | Usage Meter 9.0 announcement[5] |
| 2025-07-07 | 125% of the contract commitment (a 10,000-core contract capped at 12,500 cores) | KB 374738[1] |
Subscription-only keys
KB 374738 records the License Management Process Changes effective July 7, 2025. All keys generated from the Consumption Portal “will now be Subscription-based keys”, expiring with the contract end date. Perpetual keys generated before that date were removed from commit contracts, “as perpetual licenses are no longer permitted in the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VCSPs.”[1] The change mirrors the end of perpetual sales to end customers described in VMware perpetual licensing end of availability.
Mandatory metering
Metering has been mandatory since the start of the Broadcom Advantage Program on April 1, 2024. Usage Meter 4.8 was then described as “the sole and mandatory tool” for metering core utilisation.[6] VCF usage meter 9.0, released May 7, 2025, is “a mandatory metering tool for all VMware Cloud Service Providers”. VCSPs had to move to it by the revised deadline of November 1, 2025. After that date Broadcom stops accepting usage data from outdated versions, with “eventual removal of authorization to act as VCSP.”[5] Version 9.0 also moved meter management to the VCF Business Services console and introduced OAuth token registration for each meter.[5]
Operational errors can inflate billed consumption. KB 383452 (dateModified 2026-06-12) warns White Label partners to power down older usage meters after deploying new ones: “Failure to deactivate old meters can lead to overage and inflated billing.” It also warns that missing vCenter permissions can cause license swap failures and hide license keys in hourly reports.[7] The Usage Meter 9.0 announcement adds that legacy NSX license keys are no longer supported for metering. Outdated NSX versions with existing firewall configurations “may inadvertently trigger vDefend metering”.[5]
Licensing in VCF 9
From VCF 9.0, providers license environments through a VCF Operations instance and a license server registered with the VCF Business Services console, in connected or disconnected mode; connected registration is recommended for providers.[2] Licenses cannot be transferred between tenants. As for all VCF 9.x customers, licenses must be updated “at least once every 6 months (180 days)”. Otherwise licenses are treated as expired, hosts disconnect from vCenter, and no workload operations can start.[9]
Virtualization & partitioning
Provider consumption is measured per host core by the usage meter rather than through a partitioning policy. Usage Meter 4.8 added support for metering “independent clusters”, so separate clusters can be metered within one provider estate.[6] Retrieved public documents do not publish a provider-specific per-Processor floor comparable to the 16-Core minimum in end-customer SPDs.
Cloud / BYOL
VCSP licenses and end-customer License Portability are separate mechanisms. The VCF SPD states that the right to port VCF to a Certified Cloud Service “does not apply to” software “licensed to a partner under the Cloud Service Provider Program or Metal-as-a-Service Program.”[8] In the other direction, VCF 9.1 documentation says end customers may share licenses for portability with a provider “If you and the end customer meet certain requirements”, under a License Sharing procedure.[2] For a VCF environment hosted by a provider, the licensee is therefore either the provider (VCSP commit contract) or the end customer (ported subscription), and the two sets of terms should not be combined for the same cores.
Programs
The catalog records the program as VMware Cloud Service Provider Program (VCSP), linked to the dated rules on subscription-only keys, key caps, mandatory metering, over-use billing and the portability exclusion. Related end-customer programs are License Portability and the Value-Added OEM Program.
Out of scope
- VCSP tier criteria, minimum commitments, rebates and price lists: published only in the Broadcom partner portal.
- Hyperscaler-operated VMware services (Azure VMware Solution, Google Cloud VMware Engine, Oracle Cloud VMware Solution) sold by the cloud provider as licensee. The VCF SPD entitlement for VCF Operations on these services is covered in VMware vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation licensing.
- Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (also abbreviated VCSP), an unrelated program; see Veeam Universal License.
- Usage meter data-privacy terms: in the VCF Usage Meter Data Privacy guide, not summarised here.