ITAM Roundup: 5/18/25

roundup May 18, 2025

📰 News

Broadcom’s Cease-and-Desist Letters: A Brazen Move in VMware’s Licensing

Broadcom is issuing cease-and-desist letters to VMware customers still using perpetual licenses without active support, demanding removal of updates and pushing them toward subscription models. This aggressive enforcement risks system stability and leaves organizations with limited, disruptive options: comply, negotiate, or migrate to alternatives like Nutanix. Opscompass helps affected businesses monitor compliance and plan strategic responses, while House of Brick offers expert guidance to navigate this licensing upheaval.

Microsoft proposes sweeping global concessions to Teams for up to a decade

Microsoft has proposed a series of global concessions to the European Commission, including unbundling Teams from Office 365/Microsoft 365, reducing prices, enhancing interoperability, and improving data portability, with commitments lasting up to ten years. These measures follow longstanding antitrust concerns about Microsoft tying Teams to its productivity suites, which rivals argue stifles competition. The European Commission is now seeking public feedback, while a monitoring trustee will oversee Microsoft's compliance and mediate disputes.

Databricks to buy open source database startup Neon for $1B

Databricks is acquiring open source database startup Neon for approximately \$1 billion to enhance its AI capabilities by integrating Neon's serverless Postgres platform. Neon’s cloud-native database supports rapid, automated deployment by AI agents, with features like point-in-time recovery, database branching, and usage-based scaling. This acquisition aligns with Databricks’ broader strategy to support AI-native applications, following previous buys like MosaicML and Tabular.

W19 SAM & ITAM Jobs | #ITAMjobs

The weekly roundup highlights a diverse range of SAM and ITAM job openings across global companies, including MongoDB, Netflix, NBCUniversal, and Mastercard. Roles span from entry-level analysts to senior consultants and managers, with positions available in the U.S., India, Europe, and beyond. Salaries vary, with some disclosed ranges such as \$65K–\$160K USD, while others remain unspecified.

Microsoft winnows: Layoffs hit software engineers hard

Microsoft's latest layoffs, affecting nearly 7,000 employees globally, have hit software engineers particularly hard, including key contributors to Python, TypeScript, and the Azure SDK. Despite recent claims about AI writing 30% of Microsoft's code, the company denies AI directly caused the cuts, instead citing broader organizational restructuring and economic considerations. Notable layoffs include CPython core developers, long-time TypeScript contributor Ron Buckton, and AI director Gabriela de Queiroz, highlighting growing tensions between AI investment and human software development roles.

Salesforce beefs up agent capabilities with Convergence acquisition

Salesforce is acquiring Convergence.ai to enhance its Agentforce platform with more advanced agentic AI capabilities, enabling complex task automation and real-time adaptability. The acquisition aligns with Salesforce's strategy to evolve beyond copilots toward fully autonomous AI agents that integrate across its CRM ecosystem using customer data. Alongside the deal, Salesforce introduced a flexible pricing model for Agentforce to support scaling and accommodate the growing shift from traditional user seats to AI-powered workflows.

Kyndryl expands cloud alliance with Microsoft

Kyndryl has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to integrate its Distributed Cloud services with Azure Arc and Azure Local, enhancing hybrid cloud management across industries like retail, manufacturing, energy, and healthcare. The alliance supports clients in modernizing legacy systems and unifying hybrid multicloud operations, contributing to Kyndryl’s recent profitability and significant revenue growth. With hyperscaler partnerships fueling cloud adoption and AI initiatives, Kyndryl expects its cloud-related revenues to rise by 50% next fiscal year.

Crayon strengthens FinOps leadership with Cloud Cost Control platform FinOps Certified Platform certification

Crayon has earned the FinOps Certified Platform status for its Cloud Cost Control solution, reinforcing its role as a trusted partner in cloud financial and sustainability operations. The platform offers visibility, accountability, and actionable insights across complex multi-cloud and SaaS environments, aligning with FinOps Foundation standards. This certification strengthens Crayon’s ability to help organizations optimize cloud costs and sustainability while addressing skills gaps and complexity in cloud financial management.

📖 Tips

Strategic Microsoft Renewal Scenarios: How to Prepare and Stay in Control

Microsoft renewal negotiations vary significantly based on how your agreements—such as EA, Azure, and Unified Support—are timed, with alignment offering the most strategic leverage. When renewals are staggered, Microsoft tends to isolate each deal, reducing customer influence and pushing aggressive commitments aligned with their own priorities, like Azure growth, E5 adoption, and AI products. To counter this, organizations must unify internal stakeholders, approach negotiations holistically, and proactively drive strategy to avoid falling into Microsoft's fragmented and reactive negotiation playbook.

Oracle Enterprise Edition Features That Could Cost You Millions

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition includes powerful features that can trigger massive licensing costs if used without proper entitlement, even accidentally or for testing. Common culprits like Partitioning, Advanced Compression, and Active Data Guard are often enabled by DBAs unaware of the licensing implications, leaving organizations vulnerable to retroactive compliance bills. Tools like Opscompass and expert guidance from House of Brick help monitor feature usage, match it against entitlements, and prevent costly surprises from Oracle audits.

How FinOps Helps Banks Tackle Cloud Costs

Cloud computing has transformed financial services with enhanced innovation and agility, but many banks struggle to realize expected cost savings, with up to 94% of enterprises overspending on cloud. FinOps—a cross-functional cloud financial management approach—addresses this by promoting real-time visibility, collaboration, automation, and proactive cost optimization. By adopting FinOps frameworks and engaging both leadership and engineering teams, banks can control cloud expenses, improve efficiency, and unlock long-term value from their cloud investments.

🐛Bugs & Exploits

Hackers exploit VMware ESXi, Microsoft SharePoint zero-days at Pwn2Own

At Pwn2Own Berlin 2025, hackers earned $435,000 on day two by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in products like VMware ESXi, Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle VirtualBox, and Mozilla Firefox. Notable exploits included a $150,000 integer overflow attack on VMware ESXi and a $100,000 combined auth bypass and deserialization flaw exploit on Microsoft SharePoint. The event, which introduced an AI category, has awarded a total of $695,000 so far, with over $1 million in rewards available for demonstrating zero-days across various enterprise and AI technologies.