86% VMware Users Fleeing Broadcom Changes

• Licensing Architecture Changes: Broadcom transitioned from perpetual licensing with flexible core counts to mandatory subscription models with 72-core minimum requirements, forcing organizations with smaller deployments to license significantly more capacity than needed • Product Consolidation: Broadcom eliminated 160+ VMware products and consolidated partner programs, reducing the diversity of authorized service providers and limiting organizations' ability to negotiate renewals or plan migrations with regional or specialized partners • Workload Migration Patterns: Organizations are executing phased transitions, keeping critical workloads on VMware while migrating non-critical systems to public cloud platforms (IaaS) and Microsoft Hyper-V/Azure environments • Operational Complexity: Multi-platform management creates 52% of challenges for migrating organizations, requiring IT teams to maintain expertise across VMware, public cloud, and Hyper-V/Azure ecosystems simultaneously • Skill Gap Impact: 33% of organizations face skills shortage challenges, indicating that the technical expertise required for managing alternative platforms is not readily available in the current IT workforce

The virtualization market is undergoing structural realignment. While Broadcom's strategy appears focused on maximizing revenue from retained customers rather than maintaining market share, the widespread migration to public cloud and Microsoft platforms signals a long-term shift in enterprise infrastructure architecture. Organizations are building multi-platform optionality before contract renewals, which will likely accelerate adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud strategies through 2026 and beyond. The consolidation of VMware's partner ecosystem and the elimination of perpetual licensing have reduced switching costs psychologically, making alternatives more attractive despite operational complexity. For mid-market and smaller organizations, the 72-core minimum licensing requirement creates a compelling business case for cloud migration, potentially fragmenting the market into premium VMware customers (large enterprises with high core counts) and cloud-native organizations. The skill gap challenge presents both risk and opportunity: organizations investing in cloud and Hyper-V expertise now will gain competitive advantage, while those remaining VMware-dependent may face talent retention and recruitment challenges.