Broadcom may keep many VMware customers for years without keeping their confidence. VMware is deeply embedded in enterprise data centers, staff expertise, backup systems, compliance processes, and mission-critical applications. That makes an immediate mass departure expensive and risky—even when customers dislike higher costs, subscription licensing, reduced channel choice, or uncertainty about support.
The more realistic outcome is a slow exodus: partial migrations, frozen VMware deployments, public-cloud evaluations, and competing virtualization platforms introduced at renewal time. In other words, staying is not necessarily approval. It may be a way to buy time.
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The survey that exposed the contradiction
A June 2024 Wakefield Research survey of 300 director-level IT decision-makers at North American VMware customer organizations found widespread concern about Broadcom’s ownership:
- 99% were concerned about Broadcom owning VMware.
- 95% considered the acquisition disruptive to their IT strategy.
- 73% expected VMware costs to more than double.
- 40% expected to remain fully with VMware.
- 43% expected to remain partially with VMware.
- 69% had at least one VMware contract expiring within the following 12 months.
Those figures are not contradictory once switching costs are considered. They describe customers who may be unhappy but still cannot safely replace VMware before a contract expires.
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The research also needs a qualification: it was commissioned by CloudBolt Software, with AWS reported as helping underwrite it. It measured sentiment and intentions, not audited cancellations across VMware’s entire customer base. The reasons respondents considered leaving were also overlapping rather than mutually exclusive: uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans, support concerns, channel changes, subscription licensing, expected price increases, negative Broadcom experiences, and Broadcom’s history with acquisitions such as CA Technologies and Symantec.
What changed after the acquisition?
Broadcom completed its VMware acquisition in November 2023. The company then pursued a much narrower commercial model:
- In December 2023, VMware announced the end of availability for new perpetual licenses and several standalone products.
- The portfolio was centered on VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation.
- Existing perpetual products and support arrangements were wound down as contracts expired.
- The broad reseller and partner ecosystem was replaced with a more selective partner model.
- VMware’s end-user computing business became Omnissa, separate from Broadcom’s VMware infrastructure business.
Broadcom describes this as simplification: fewer products, subscription licensing, standardized metrics, and license portability. Its explanation is set out in its portfolio and licensing announcement. Customers and competitors have often interpreted the same changes as forced bundling, reduced choice, higher financial commitments, and less familiar support access.
These descriptions are not mutually exclusive. Broadcom can simplify the product catalog while making the commercial decision more expensive or disruptive for a particular customer.
Why customers renew despite the backlash
Replacing VMware is not the same as replacing a single software license. A typical environment may connect vSphere and vCenter with vSAN, NSX, backup and disaster-recovery platforms, monitoring, security tools, automation scripts, hardware certifications, and application-support agreements.
A migration may require:
- Inventorying every virtual machine and its dependencies.
- Redesigning storage and networking.
- Testing operating systems, databases, applications, and backup restores.
- Retraining administrators and security teams.
- Negotiating new support and hardware contracts.
- Running two platforms during a transition.
- Planning cutovers, rollback procedures, and disaster-recovery changes.
Compliance rules, latency requirements, legacy systems, and unclear return on investment can make some workloads particularly difficult to move. Public cloud may also be unsuitable for steady, heavily utilized workloads or environments with strict data-location requirements.
That is why a customer may accept an unfavorable renewal for another term while designing a strategy that reduces VMware’s role. The renewal protects operations today; the migration plan limits exposure tomorrow.
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Retention has several meanings
“The customer stayed” is too imprecise to show whether VMware remains healthy. Retention can mean:
- Full retention: VMware remains the primary platform and the organization renews and expands it.
- Partial retention: VMware remains for difficult or mission-critical workloads while easier workloads move elsewhere.
- A capacity freeze: Existing environments are renewed but new deployments avoid VMware.
- Exit at renewal: Workloads move when support or subscription terms end.
- Hybrid coexistence: VMware operates alongside Hyper-V, Proxmox, Nutanix, OpenShift Virtualization, or public cloud.
- Cloud relocation: VMware workloads leave the company’s data center but continue running on VMware.
The most important commercial damage may therefore be lost future growth rather than immediate cancellations. A customer can remain in VMware’s installed base while making VMware less important each year.
Did VMware prices actually double?
The 2024 survey measured expectations, not invoices. It found that 73% expected costs to more than double, but that does not prove every customer received a twofold, fivefold, or tenfold increase.
Actual pricing depends on the product and bundle, licensed cores, minimums, contract term, discounts, support, geography, and whether the buyer selects VCF, VVF, or another offering. Reports of extreme increases should be attributed to the specific customer, reseller, court filing, or industry survey involved.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The financially useful comparison is not simply “VMware license versus competitor license.” It is a five-year total-cost calculation:
- Broadcom’s renewal quote and payment schedule.
- Minimum licensed cores and unused-capacity charges.
- Required bundles and features the organization will actually use.
- Migration labor, consulting, and staff training.
- New hardware, storage, networking, and support.
- Backup, disaster recovery, monitoring, and security replacements.
- Application recertification and possible downtime.
- Temporary dual-platform costs.
- Cloud compute, storage, managed services, and network-egress costs.
- The cost of reversing the decision if the alternative fails.
Is the long-term backlash real?
Partially. Later industry reporting indicates that the backlash continued beyond the initial acquisition shock. A 2026 ITPro report described 86% of surveyed companies as actively reducing VMware dependency. A separate TechRadar report said 85% of surveyed respondents remained concerned about future price increases.
Those are industry-survey findings, not a census of all VMware customers. They support the conclusion that organizations are actively reducing exposure, but not the claim that most customers have fully exited.
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Broadcom’s 2025 annual report acknowledged that portfolio, pricing, and partner changes led many customers to explore alternatives. It also characterized evaluation and migration as a longer sales and interoperability cycle. That is consistent with a slower, renewal-driven transition rather than an overnight collapse.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallNor does customer anger prove that Broadcom’s strategy has failed financially. Broadcom may improve VMware’s profitability with a smaller, more concentrated customer base, higher prices, and lower operating complexity—even as it loses goodwill, expansion opportunities, and negotiating flexibility.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What are the realistic alternatives?
| Option | Best for | Main trade-off | VMware dependence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure VMware Solution | Azure-standardized organizations seeking a lower-disruption move | Cloud operating costs and continued VMware licensing | High |
| Other VMware cloud services | Organizations relocating infrastructure while retaining VMware operations | Less data-center ownership, but not a true VMware exit | High |
| Microsoft Hyper-V | Microsoft-heavy enterprises with Windows and Azure skills | Conversion, testing, retraining, and Microsoft licensing costs | Low |
| Proxmox VE | Cost-conscious teams comfortable with Linux and KVM | Different tooling, support model, integrations, and operating practices | Low |
| Nutanix AHV | Organizations seeking commercial hyperconverged infrastructure | Broader platform and hardware commitment; not automatically cheaper | Low |
| OpenShift Virtualization | Organizations combining virtual machines and containers | Requires Kubernetes and OpenShift expertise | Low |
| HPE Morpheus VM Essentials | Enterprises wanting a commercial migration path | Availability, hardware, support, and promotional terms require verification | Low |
Azure VMware Solution and similar services can reduce data-center ownership but preserve VMware subscription dependence. Microsoft says new AVS arrangements require customers to obtain VCF subscriptions directly from Broadcom, with separate transition rules for existing deployments.
Hyper-V can be attractive where Microsoft skills and agreements already exist. Proxmox VE offers a downloadable open-source platform plus paid support subscriptions, but “free software” does not mean free staffing, hardware, backup, or operations. Nutanix AHV and OpenShift Virtualization are broader platform decisions, not drop-in hypervisor swaps. HPE Morpheus VM Essentials may suit buyers seeking commercial migration support, but promotional offers and eligibility must be checked directly.
A safer renewal and migration plan
- Start before the renewal deadline. A rushed renewal can create a new multiyear commitment before alternatives are understood.
- Obtain the full quote. Record cores, bundles, term, discounts, support, portability rights, and payment timing.
- Map dependencies. Include vCenter APIs, NSX, vSAN, backup formats, Site Recovery Manager workflows, application certifications, and hosted-service contracts.
- Classify workloads. Separate easy-to-move, cloud-suitable, regulated, latency-sensitive, and mission-critical systems.
- Test a representative workload. Measure performance, backup restoration, monitoring, security, live migration, high availability, and recovery objectives.
- Price coexistence. Assume VMware and the replacement platform will run together during migration.
- Define rollback. Document how applications return to the original platform if performance, support, or reliability disappoints.
- Measure more than license savings. Track downtime, incidents, administrative labor, utilization, security posture, support quality, and reversibility.
Perpetual ownership also needs careful separation from support. A perpetual license may permit continued use under its terms, but it does not automatically provide patches, upgrades, technical support, or compatibility with new hardware. Buyers should separately assess license ownership, support, upgrade entitlement, audit exposure, and release compatibility.
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Broadcom did not need every unhappy VMware customer to leave immediately. VMware’s technical and operational entrenchment can preserve revenue through several renewal cycles. But that same customer base can quietly become less valuable: organizations may renew only essential capacity, move commodity workloads elsewhere, stop expanding VMware, and use each contract expiration as a new exit opportunity.
The strongest evidence therefore points to durable pressure rather than instant abandonment. Broadcom may retain substantial VMware revenue while facing years of procurement resistance, reduced trust, and a gradual campaign by customers to make the platform optional.
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