The VMware 'panic phase' is over, but that isn't stopping the exodus – 86% of companies are actively reducing their dependency and choosing alternatives

The exodus from VMware after its acquisition by Broadcom may not have been the stampede that was predicted, but customers are working to reduce their footprint regardless.

Customers voiced serious concerns about changes to its operating model in the wake of the acquisition, including rises in licensing costs and the removal of a series of popular licenses and products altogether.

Indeed, research from Civo at the time found more than half (51.9%) of VMware customers said they were considering ditching services while 48.7% said they were actively exploring alternative providers.

Fresh research from CloudBolt now shows that while the shift away from VMware wasn't immediate, organizations are actively unwinding dependence in a measured, workload-by-workload process.

"Two years ago, the market was dominated by knee-jerk speculation and worst-case projections,” said CloudBolt CMO Mark Zembal.

“This latest study separates noise and speculation from reality. The fear has cooled, but the pressure hasn’t — and most teams are now making practical moves to build leverage and optionality — even if for some that includes the realization that a portion of their estate never moves off VMware.”

Some are sticking with VMware because things haven't turned out as badly as feared.

In 2024, 73% of customers expected VMware costs to more than double, CloudBolt found, yet only 5% of respondents to this most recent study have seen that happen.

The majority (88%) are still concerned about future price increases, however, and these worries are shaping decisions now as the real squeeze begins. Around 86% reported they are actively reducing their VMware footprint, but progress is slow as this is a time-consuming and laborious process.

“The process of unwinding a decade of process dependencies is taking 18 to 24 months," commented one survey respondent. "This sideways abstraction is far more complex than a standard cloud lift-and-shift, leading to a significant loss of confidence in our ability to exit quickly enough to avoid the next renewal cliff.”

VMware strategies are all over the place

Notably, more than half (56%) of respondents said they’ve changed their VMware strategy more than once since the takeover. Just over half (54%) are staying with VMware while actively reducing dependence in a phased approach.

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of migrated workloads are heading to public cloud IaaS, with Hyper-V/Azure Stack (38%) and SaaS replacements (34%) also popular components of the mix.

“Enterprises aren’t just asking what they want to do — they’re confronting what they can execute safely,” said Rod Squires, CEO of CloudBolt.

“The panic phase is over. Now it’s execution: reducing dependency, managing dual realities during transition, and building optionality before the next renewal decision tightens the window – and slams the budget.”

A number of big tech vendors have capitalized on the disruption over the last two years by offering VMware alternatives or services aimed at assessing their dependency, such as Pure Storage.

Outright alternatives touted by competitors include Proxmox VE, Microsoft Hyper-V, XCP-ng & Citrix Hypervisor, and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

Earlier this week, Cisco threw its name into the mix with a teaser for NFVIS-for-UC, a hypervisor for running its own applications.

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