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Yes—some surveyed companies are reducing their VMware use, but the evidence points to gradual, partial transitions, not a mass exodus of customers that have fully migrated. The strongest recent survey found active footprint reduction among many respondents, while also documenting the cost, skills and operational hurdles that make leaving difficult.
What the surveys say about customers leaving VMware
The clearest recent snapshot is a CloudBolt survey of 302 director-level-or-higher IT decision-makers at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees. The survey was conducted in January 2026 and reported by Ars Technica in February. In that sample, 86% said they were actively reducing their VMware footprint. That means they reported cutting back—not necessarily replacing every VMware system or completing a migration.
The same survey found that 88% still considered the acquisition disruptive and 85% were concerned VMware could become more expensive. Respondents’ reported price experiences varied: 14% said costs had at least doubled, while 33% reported increases of 24–49%. These are respondents’ accounts, not independently measured price changes across the VMware customer base.
Those findings differ from a June 2024 CloudBolt/Wakefield survey of 300 enterprise IT decision-makers using VMware. At that earlier point, only 5% had decided what to do. Respondents most often selected staying with VMware wholly or partly, while also considering other options. The surveys are not a controlled before-and-after study: they sampled different people at different times, and the earlier survey allowed non-exclusive answers.
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| Survey | Who was surveyed | What the result establishes |
|---|---|---|
| CloudBolt/Wakefield, June 2024 | 300 enterprise IT decision-makers at organizations using VMware | 40% selected staying wholly and 43% staying partly; choices were non-exclusive. Only 5% had decided what to do. |
| CloudBolt, January 2026; reported by Ars Technica in February 2026 | 302 director-level-or-higher IT decision-makers at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees | 86% said they were actively reducing their VMware footprint. This does not mean 86% had fully migrated. |
A separate 2025 Omdia report commissioned by Tencent Cloud found that 73% of respondents were considering moving within three years. That group was specifically made up of people already seriously considering, planning or undertaking a migration; the figure should not be generalized to all VMware customers.
Why companies are considering a move
Cost and uncertainty are prominent concerns in the surveys. The 2024 CloudBolt/Wakefield survey listed uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans, subscription licensing, expected price increases, changes to partner relationships, support quality, bundling, concerns about innovation and respondents’ personal experiences as reasons for concern. The January 2026 CloudBolt findings suggest that cost worries and disruption remained salient in its sample.
Competitors also describe customers exploring alternatives. In its 2025 annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nutanix said changes to VMware’s portfolio, pricing and partner programs had led many customers to consider alternatives. That is a competitor’s account, not an independent survey of customer departures.
An individual case can illustrate the decision without representing the market: Ars Technica reported in January 2025 that an anonymous food manufacturer with about 300 virtual machines was exploring migration after its enterprise agreement expired. The company’s situation shows why contract timing can prompt a review; it does not establish how typical that experience is.
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In the January 2026 CloudBolt survey, public-cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was the most reported destination for migrated workloads, at 72%. Microsoft Hyper-V/Azure Stack was also reported, at 43%. The destination figures should not be read as exclusive market shares or as percentages of all VMware customers: the reported options can overlap, and the results concern workloads respondents said had migrated.
These findings identify routes organizations are using, not a universal replacement. A workload might move to public cloud, another hypervisor or a mixed environment. The right fit depends on its technical needs and how the organization operates it.
Why reducing VMware use can take time
Virtualization platforms sit beneath applications, operating procedures and compliance controls. Moving a workload can require compatibility checks, testing, staff training, planned downtime and changes to monitoring or support. Large organizations may also have contracts, hardware refresh schedules and existing investments that make an immediate switch impractical.
The 2026 CloudBolt survey reflects some of that friction: 52% of its respondents identified multi-platform complexity as a migration challenge, and 33% identified skills gaps. Those percentages describe that survey sample. They help explain how a company can pursue alternatives while continuing to run VMware systems.
Cost comparisons also need to cover more than license prices. A lower subscription quote can be offset by migration work, cloud consumption, new infrastructure, training, support or the cost of operating more than one platform. Savings therefore depend on the workloads, contract period and operating model—not just the advertised price of an alternative.
How to assess alternatives before moving
There is no single winner established by these surveys. An organization weighing a move can compare options against the same set of practical requirements:
- Workload and application fit: Check dependencies, supported configurations, performance needs, migration tools and acceptable downtime.
- Total cost over the decision period: Include licensing or cloud consumption, implementation, staff time, training, support and ongoing operations.
- Security and compliance: Confirm that the destination meets the organization’s security controls, data-location rules and audit obligations.
- Support and service model: Establish who provides support, what response levels are available and whether the platform meets operational requirements.
- Skills and operating complexity: Account for the team’s experience and the burden of running multiple platforms during a phased transition.
- Timing and current commitments: Map contract dates, renewal terms, hardware refreshes and any licensing rights before choosing a migration schedule.
A staged approach can let a company test a destination on suitable workloads before committing the whole estate. It also makes it possible to keep applications with specific dependencies on VMware while moving others, if the operational and cost trade-offs make that worthwhile.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Could VMware license portability avoid a full migration?
Broadcom’s June 4, 2024 VCF blog describes a portability entitlement for qualifying VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) subscriptions. Under the terms stated in that post, it applies to new end-customer licenses for VCF version 5.1 or later purchased after December 13, 2023, directly from Broadcom or an authorized reseller. The post excludes licenses obtained through some provider and OEM channels.
Portability is not automatic for every deployment or provider. Broadcom says customers must check compatible endpoints, certified hardware and whether a provider supports the integrated offering. Because license terms and product offers can change, organizations should confirm their current eligibility and contract terms with Broadcom or their authorized reseller before relying on portability as an alternative to moving workloads.
What the evidence does—and does not—show
Survey respondents report concern, intentions and progress within specific samples. Those measures are different: considering a move is not the same as reducing a footprint, and reducing a footprint is not the same as fully migrating. The January 2026 CloudBolt survey is recent, but it covers senior IT decision-makers at large North American companies and is associated with CloudBolt; it is not a census of VMware customers worldwide.
The evidence supports a practical conclusion: pressure to reduce VMware dependence is real in the surveyed organizations, but a broad, completed departure is not established. Companies are weighing cost and uncertainty against migration risk, existing commitments and the work of operating a new platform.
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