Most VMware Users Still 'Actively Reducing Their VMware Footprint,' Survey Finds (arstechnica.com)
(Tuesday February 17, 2026 @05:40PM (BeauHD)
from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)
- Reference: 0180818262
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/17/2143231/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
> More than two years after Broadcom took over VMware, the virtualization company's customers are still grappling with higher prices, uncertainty, and the challenges of reducing vendor lock-in. Today, CloudBolt Software released a report, " [1]The Mass Exodus That Never Was: The Squeeze Is Just Beginning ," that provides insight into those struggles. CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform provider that aims to identify VMware customers' pain points so it can [2]sell them relevant solutions. In the report, CloudBolt said it surveyed 302 IT decision-makers (director-level or higher) at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees in January. The survey is far from comprehensive, but it offers a look at the obstacles these users face.
>
> Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November 2023, and last month, 88 percent of survey respondents [3]still described the change as "disruptive ." Per the survey, the most cited drivers of disruption were [4]price increases (named by 89 percent of respondents), followed by uncertainty about Broadcom's plans (85 percent), support quality concerns (78 percent), Broadcom shifting VMware from perpetual licenses to subscriptions (72 percent), changes to VMware's partner program (68 percent), and the forced bundling of products (65 percent).
>
> When Broadcom bought VMware, some customers shared horror stories about receiving quotes that showed prices increasing by as much as 1,000 percent. CloudBolt's survey paints a more modest picture. Fourteen percent of respondents said their VMware costs have at least doubled, while 12 percent reported increases of 50-99 percent, 33 percent reported increases of 24-49 percent, and 31 percent reported increases of less than 25 percent. Despite survey participants suggesting smaller price hikes than originally anticipated under Broadcom, companies are still struggling with the pricing changes. Eighty-five percent are concerned that VMware will become even more expensive, according to CloudBolt's survey. [...]
>
> CloudBolt's survey also examined how respondents are migrating workloads off of VMware. Currently, 36 percent of participants said they migrated 1-24 percent of their environment off of VMware. Another 32 percent said that they have migrated 25-49 percent; 10 percent said that they've migrated 50-74 percent of workloads; and 2 percent have migrated 75 percent or more of workloads. Five percent of respondents said that they have not migrated from VMware at all. Among migrated workloads, 72 percent moved to public cloud infrastructure as a service, followed by Microsoft's Hyper-V/Azure stack (43 percent of respondents). Overall, 86 percent of respondents "are actively reducing their VMware footprint," CloudBolt's report said.
[1] https://www.cloudbolt.io/cii-report-the-mass-exodus-that-never-was/
[2] https://www.cloudbolt.io/cloud-provider/vmware/
[3] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
[4] https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/22/1818256/vmware-price-hikes-between-800-and-1500-since-acquisition-by-broadcom-claim-euro-customers
> More than two years after Broadcom took over VMware, the virtualization company's customers are still grappling with higher prices, uncertainty, and the challenges of reducing vendor lock-in. Today, CloudBolt Software released a report, " [1]The Mass Exodus That Never Was: The Squeeze Is Just Beginning ," that provides insight into those struggles. CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform provider that aims to identify VMware customers' pain points so it can [2]sell them relevant solutions. In the report, CloudBolt said it surveyed 302 IT decision-makers (director-level or higher) at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees in January. The survey is far from comprehensive, but it offers a look at the obstacles these users face.
>
> Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November 2023, and last month, 88 percent of survey respondents [3]still described the change as "disruptive ." Per the survey, the most cited drivers of disruption were [4]price increases (named by 89 percent of respondents), followed by uncertainty about Broadcom's plans (85 percent), support quality concerns (78 percent), Broadcom shifting VMware from perpetual licenses to subscriptions (72 percent), changes to VMware's partner program (68 percent), and the forced bundling of products (65 percent).
>
> When Broadcom bought VMware, some customers shared horror stories about receiving quotes that showed prices increasing by as much as 1,000 percent. CloudBolt's survey paints a more modest picture. Fourteen percent of respondents said their VMware costs have at least doubled, while 12 percent reported increases of 50-99 percent, 33 percent reported increases of 24-49 percent, and 31 percent reported increases of less than 25 percent. Despite survey participants suggesting smaller price hikes than originally anticipated under Broadcom, companies are still struggling with the pricing changes. Eighty-five percent are concerned that VMware will become even more expensive, according to CloudBolt's survey. [...]
>
> CloudBolt's survey also examined how respondents are migrating workloads off of VMware. Currently, 36 percent of participants said they migrated 1-24 percent of their environment off of VMware. Another 32 percent said that they have migrated 25-49 percent; 10 percent said that they've migrated 50-74 percent of workloads; and 2 percent have migrated 75 percent or more of workloads. Five percent of respondents said that they have not migrated from VMware at all. Among migrated workloads, 72 percent moved to public cloud infrastructure as a service, followed by Microsoft's Hyper-V/Azure stack (43 percent of respondents). Overall, 86 percent of respondents "are actively reducing their VMware footprint," CloudBolt's report said.
[1] https://www.cloudbolt.io/cii-report-the-mass-exodus-that-never-was/
[2] https://www.cloudbolt.io/cloud-provider/vmware/
[3] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
[4] https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/22/1818256/vmware-price-hikes-between-800-and-1500-since-acquisition-by-broadcom-claim-euro-customers
Sayonara (Score:2)
by Ritz_Just_Ritz ( 883997 )
A lot of companies are certainly kicking them to the curb. There are other options. The mobility and remote access pieces wound up with KKR as Omnissa. I'm continuing to consume those as KKR understands they'll never get their return on investment if they chase away their customers.
Rug pull (Score:2)
by abulafia ( 7826 )
Broadcom found a great niche to run their game - virtualization is one of the harder foundational tools to move out from under. It is like they found a way to tax data center floor space.
But that only lasts until people can move. Long enough to earn Tan a really nice chunk of change, and probably also long enough to make VMWare a tiny niche player.
yup (Score:4, Insightful)
No company wants to pay 3x the amount they were before broadcom took them over.
Its clear broadcom wants the IP, not to maintain the software. they are an IP holding company, not innovative at all.
Personally Nutanix is a great option, it has one big hangup, not all OVAs work on it. if the OVA requires an answer file to work, then it will not work.
It uses QCOW2 file format, which is converted by Nutanix Move application, and as long as you have root access to the VM, for the drivers to be installed, then you will be fine.
I have asked Nutanix to reach out to vendors to provide them a platform to create these things. I hope they do so, as this is the only hang up with them.
Their API is pretty great, and their UI is going through changes, but is progressing. Abilities wise, its about VMWare 6.0, but they are working hard on it.
Not just companies, individuals too (Score:1)
> No company wants to ...
Individuals too. I've been using VMWare on Mac for over 15 years. Windows VMs, Linux VMs, even macOS VMs with over versions of macOS. One machine to develop for and test all three platforms.
However I recently switched to Parallels. A Windows VM, a Linux VM, and a macOS VM with the older version of the OS.
As a special bonus, since the new Mac is ARM, I get to run ARM Windows and ARM Linux. Both run really well.
I'm happy with the switch to Parallels. My currently licensed VMWare can sit on the old Inte
Re: (Score:2)
For home labs and smaller businesses, Proxmox seems to be just fine.