As you probably know vCloud Air, VMware’s public cloud service, offers different options for consuming IaaS cloud services. Most of these options are subscription based, however you could consume services in a pay-as-you-go model with vCloud Air onDemand. All that was needed is a creditcard.

Yesterday a message from VMware reached my inbox, stating that VMware discontinues this option:

SPP will replace the credit card payment method for vCloud Air OnDemand, and will enable you to purchase credits that can be used to either pay-as-you-go or prepay for subscriptions. As we shift to SPP, the direct credit card payments will be discontinued on August 1, 2016.

SPP stands for Subscription Purchase Program (SPP) and means that you buy credits in advance, and use them afterwards while you’re consuming resources.

If you’re a current vCloud Air onDemand customer and want to continue the service, you have to convert your payment option from creditcard to SPP. As an alternative you can contact a local vCloud Air Network (vCAN) partner that offers a credit card payment option. A list of vCAN partners is available on this page.

There’s also a FAQ on this change, provided here.