TLDR¶

• Core Points: Broadcom’s strategy emphasizes reducing dependency on individual customers; VMware users largely intend to shrink their VMware footprint rather to modernize and diversify.
• Main Content: A CloudBolt-sponsored survey indicates the majority of VMware users are actively cutting back usage and exploring alternatives as part of broader modernization efforts.
• Key Insights: The trend reflects a shift toward multi-cloud strategies, containerization, and improved cost management, with concerns about vendor leverage and long-term support.
• Considerations: Organizations must balance operational efficiency gains with potential risks in migration, licensing, and interoperability across platforms.
• Recommended Actions: Conduct a formal cloud modernization plan, assess total cost of ownership across environments, and pilot phased migrations to reduce VMware dependency.

Content Overview¶

The virtualization landscape remains in flux as organizations navigate cost pressures, talent availability, and evolving infrastructure paradigms. A recent report commissioned by CloudBolt, a workflow automation and cloud management platform, highlights a notable trend among VMware users: many organizations are actively seeking to reduce their VMware footprint. This movement occurs within the broader context of multi-cloud adoption, containerization, and modernization efforts aimed at improving agility, resilience, and total cost of ownership. The findings come against the backdrop of Broadcom’s strategic direction for VMware, a major pivot that some observers interpret as a move away from deep, lock-in intensity with individual customers. Broadcom’s stance, as interpreted by the report, suggests the vendor’s long-term strategy does not hinge on retaining every customer at the same scale or in the same manner, underscoring a shift toward broader platform ecosystems and flexible consumption.

The survey’s results provide a snapshot of customer sentiment and intent across the VMware ecosystem, including IT decision-makers, operators, and developers who rely on VMware-based infrastructure for virtualization, cloud integration, and application deployment. Participants report ongoing efforts to consolidate workloads, optimize licensing, and pursue modernization trajectories that involve alternative virtualization technologies, cloud-native stacks, and hybrid cloud architectures. These dynamics occur amid continued VMware product evolution, licensing changes, and the ongoing influence of Broadcom’s ownership on product roadmaps and support models.

The article draws on the CloudBolt report’s synthesis of responses, combining the perspectives of organizations of varying sizes, sectors, and geographic regions. While VMware remains a cornerstone for many mission-critical environments, the push toward reducing the footprint aligns with broader industry trends toward containerization (with Kubernetes-led orchestration), serverless models, and the fragmentation of workloads across multiple cloud providers. The implications of these trends touch governance, security, cost attribution, and vendor relationships, shaping how IT leaders plan and execute modernization programs.

In-Depth Analysis¶

The core finding of the CloudBolt-sponsored survey is that a substantial majority of VMware users are actively working to reduce their VMware footprint. This intention is not solely about decommissioning virtual machines or consolidating clusters; it reflects a strategic move to modernize IT estates, adopt cloud-native approaches, and optimize total costs associated with virtualization, licensing, and operations. Several drivers underpin this trend:

• Cost and licensing considerations: VMware licensing costs have long been a focal point for IT budgets. In a market where public cloud services, container orchestration, and bare-metal options present compelling value, organizations are re-evaluating the economic calculus of continuing extensive VMware deployments. The survey highlights cost optimization and licensing rationalization as top objectives driving reduction efforts. Organizations are seeking to right-size usage, negotiate more favorable terms, or transition away from incumbent stacks where total cost of ownership becomes difficult to justify amidst competing priorities.

• Cloud and multi-cloud strategies: The move to reduce VMware footprints aligns with broader multi-cloud strategies. As enterprises adopt multiple cloud providers or mix on-premises with public clouds, the value proposition of consolidating workloads within VMware’s ecosystem can diminish. Kubernetes-based deployments and cloud-native runtimes offer portability and scalability that can reduce reliance on a single virtualization platform. The survey indicates that decision-makers view diversification as a hedge against vendor lock-in and as a path to greater flexibility in workload placement.

• Modernization and efficiency: Modernization programs aim to accelerate application delivery, improve automation, and increase operational efficiency. Containerization, microservices architectures, and automation tooling enable more dynamic resource allocation and faster iteration cycles. In this context, some workloads are recast from traditional VM-centric deployments to increasingly cloud-native or container-based models, reducing the necessity for extensive VMware infrastructure.

• Governance, risk, and compliance: As organizations expand their cloud footprints, governance and compliance considerations become more complex. Centralizing control over disparate environments, ensuring consistent security policies, and maintaining visibility across the entire stack can drive decisions to streamline and standardize infrastructure. Reducing VMware dependency can be part of an overarching governance strategy that favors standardized tooling and policy enforcement across multiple platforms.

• Broadcom’s strategic stance: The report references Broadcom’s strategy toward VMware, characterizing it as not aimed at preserving every customer relationship with the same intensity or through the same model. This interpretation suggests a move toward broader ecosystem collaboration, licensing flexibility, and a focus on scalable, diversified offerings over bespoke, long-tail engagements with a single platform. While not explicitly adverse to VMware, the strategy signals a shift that can influence customer decisions and investment timing in VMware-centric initiatives.

• Migration challenges and risk considerations: While the desire to reduce VMware footprints is evident, it does not occur without trade-offs. Migrating or refactoring workloads to alternative stacks introduces risks—data gravity, application dependencies, performance parity, toolchain compatibility, and staff retraining. The survey’s insights imply that organizations are weighing these risks against potential gains in agility, cost savings, and vendor diversification. The decision to downsize VMware usage is often accompanied by a phased migration plan, pilot programs, and a continued support arrangement for remaining VMware workloads.

• Market dynamics and vendor responses: VMware’s ongoing evolution under Broadcom’s ownership includes product changes, licensing models, and support structures that influence customer decisions. Customers are closely watching product roadmaps and the return on investment of staying within a VMware-centric environment versus migrating to alternatives. Vendors and cloud providers are increasingly offering compatible, integrated solutions that reduce the friction of moving away from VMware, further encouraging diversification.

The findings thus reflect a complex calculus in which organizations are not simply seeking to abandon VMware but to optimize and rebalance their infrastructure portfolios. In many cases, the goal is to retain core, mission-critical workloads within trusted, reliable environments while migrating others to more modern, scalable, cloud-native architectures. This approach allows operators to maintain operational continuity and data integrity while pursuing efficiencies and strategic flexibility.

Another dimension of the analysis is how organizations measure success in reducing the VMware footprint. Common metrics include reduction in total number of VMware hosts and clusters, decreased license spend, lower maintenance and support costs, and improved time-to-market for new applications due to automation and Kubernetes-based deployment pipelines. The survey also emphasizes the importance of governance and stewardship—ensuring visibility into where workloads reside, how they are managed, and the cost implications of cross-environment operations.

Notably, the survey’s interpretation of Broadcom’s strategy can be seen as a broader commentary on vendor relationships and the risks of over-dependence on a single supplier for critical infrastructure. In a market where technology choices are increasingly modular and interoperable, customers seek flexibility. The trend toward reducing VMware footprint reflects this appetite for choice and adaptability, rather than an outright rejection of VMware technology or capability.

The survey also captures nuances across industries and regions. Some sectors with stringent compliance requirements or legacy workloads may maintain heavier VMware usage longer, while others with aggressive cloud modernization agendas may push more aggressively to reduce VMware footprints. Regional differences in cloud maturity, talent availability, and cost profiles contribute to a heterogeneous landscape where the pace and scale of footprint reduction vary.

From a strategic perspective, many organizations view VMware as an essential stepping stone toward broader modernization rather than a permanent destination. VMware’s suite—encompassing virtualization, cloud management, and hybrid cloud capabilities—provides a familiar foundation for migrations, but as teams mature, they seek to eliminate friction associated with virtualization when moving toward cloud-native architectures. The CloudBolt survey’s findings thus underscore a transitional phase in which enterprises balance continuity and modernization, leveraging VMware where it remains the most efficient option while exploring alternatives for other workloads.

Future implications of this trend include potential changes in licensing models, service-level agreements, and product roadmaps as vendors respond to shifting demand. For VMware and Broadcom, the challenge is to provide compelling incentives to retain critical workloads while accommodating customers’ modernization journeys. For customers, the challenge is to design and execute a modernization strategy that minimizes disruption, preserves security and compliance, and delivers measurable business value.

Perspectives and Impact¶

The trend toward reducing VMware footprint carries several important implications for organizations, vendors, and the broader IT ecosystem. First, it highlights the ongoing transition from traditional virtualization-centric architectures to hybrid and multi-cloud environments that mix on-premises resources with cloud-native services. This transition is not instantaneous; it unfolds through careful planning, experimentations, and incremental changes that preserve reliability while unlocking new capabilities.

For organizations, the primary impact is often financial and operational. Cost savings can result from consolidating licenses, renegotiating terms with vendors, and eliminating underutilized infrastructure. Operational efficiency can be realized through automation, standardized deployment pipelines, and the use of container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. However, migration initiatives require substantial planning, budget, and dedicated talent. The shift also changes the way IT teams think about capacity planning, performance monitoring, and security since the operational model evolves from VM-centric management to cloud-native governance and policy-driven controls.

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Another key impact area is vendor competition and market dynamics. As customers diversify their infrastructure, the demand for VMware-specific features may hinge more on how well the platform interoperates with other ecosystems. Broadcom’s management of VMware influences how customers perceive the trade-offs between staying with VMware versus moving to alternatives. Vendors that offer strong interoperability, robust migration tooling, and compelling value propositions for modernization will be better positioned to retain customers and win new business.

Security considerations are central to any footprint-reduction strategy. Migrating workloads to cloud-native environments or other virtualization platforms requires careful attention to data protection, identity and access management, network segmentation, and compliance with industry regulations. Maintaining security posture during a transition is essential; this includes ensuring that security controls are consistently applied across environments, that data remains protected during transfers, and that monitoring and incident response capabilities scale with the evolving architecture.

Workforce implications should not be overlooked. Modernizing infrastructure often necessitates retraining staff and potentially reconfiguring teams around DevOps, site reliability engineering (SRE), and cloud engineering roles. Organizations that invest in upskilling and knowledge transfer are more likely to realize the benefits of modernization and avoid skill bottlenecks that could slow progress.

From a strategic planning perspective, the trend encourages enterprises to adopt a more formalized approach to technology roadmapping. This includes setting clear modernization goals, defining acceptance criteria for workloads to migrate, identifying which workloads are best suited for containerization versus continued virtualization, and establishing governance mechanisms to control sprawl across environments. It also involves a thorough assessment of total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) for each workload, considering not only licensing but also operational expenses, data transfer costs, and potential downtime during migrations.

Looking ahead, several scenarios could unfold. Some organizations will maintain a hybrid mix of VMware and non-VMware workloads, gradually migrating select workloads over time as part of a longer-term modernization strategy. Others may adopt more aggressive migration patterns, moving a larger share of workloads to cloud-native platforms, serverless architectures, or other virtualization ecosystems. The pace will be influenced by business priorities, regulatory requirements, and the availability of tools and expertise to support seamless transitions. In any scenario, governance, risk, and cost management will remain central to decision-making.

Importantly, customer sentiment identified in the survey may prompt VMware and Broadcom to respond with enhanced incentives, improved licensing terms, and new capabilities designed to ease migration and interoperability. Vendors have an opportunity to deliver solutions that address specific pain points—such as performance parity, data migration complexity, and unified management across heterogeneous environments. The industry could benefit from more transparent pricing, flexible consumption models, and stronger integration with popular cloud platforms and open-source ecosystems.

Finally, the findings offer a useful benchmark for benchmarking progress in IT modernization initiatives. By comparing pre- and post-migration metrics—such as licensing spend, workload density, deployment speed, and incident rates—organizations can quantify the value of reducing VMware footprints and justify ongoing modernization investments. Stakeholders should consider establishing a governance framework that mandates periodic reviews of workload placement, ensuring decisions remain aligned with strategic objectives and market conditions.

Key Takeaways¶

Main Points:
– A majority of VMware users are actively seeking to reduce their VMware footprint as part of modernization efforts.
– Drivers include cost optimization, multi-cloud strategy adoption, and a push toward cloud-native architectures.
– Broadcom’s VMware strategy is interpreted as not aiming to retain every customer at any cost, signaling broader ecosystem considerations.

Areas of Concern:
– Migration risks, including data compatibility, performance parity, and interoperability challenges.
– Potential gaps in skills and the need for workforce retraining to support new architectures.
– Dependency risk during transition periods if migration timelines extend or are incomplete.

Summary and Recommendations¶

The CloudBolt-sponsored findings underscore a significant shift in how organizations approach virtualization and modernization. VMware remains a foundational technology for many operations, yet a growing proportion of users are actively reducing their footprint and embracing broader modernization strategies that leverage multi-cloud, containers, and cloud-native services. This trend reflects not only evolving technology preferences but also strategic considerations about vendor relationships, cost efficiency, and organizational resilience.

For enterprises charting a modernization path, several practical recommendations emerge:

• Develop a formal cloud modernization plan: Define clear objectives, workload classification (VMware-friendly vs. cloud-native-friendly), and timelines for migration to minimize disruption and manage risk.

• Conduct a comprehensive TCO analysis: Compare ongoing VMware licensing and maintenance costs with projected costs of alternatives, including cloud infrastructure, container platforms, and migration tooling. Consider not only upfront investments but ongoing operational expenses.

• Pilot phased migrations: Start with non-critical or well-contained workloads to validate migration approaches, performance benchmarks, and security controls before extending to larger, mission-critical applications.

• Invest in automation and standardization: Leverage automation tools to streamline deployment, configuration, and monitoring across heterogeneous environments. Standardized processes reduce risk and accelerate migration velocity.

• Strengthen governance and security: Establish cross-environment security policies, data protection strategies, and compliance controls that are consistently applied, regardless of where workloads reside.

• Build internal capabilities: Invest in training for DevOps, cloud engineering, and SRE disciplines to support modernized architectures and ensure staff can manage hybrid and multi-cloud environments effectively.

• Monitor vendor strategies and roadmap alignments: Stay informed about VMware’s product roadmap and Broadcom’s licensing terms to anticipate changes that may affect migration plans and total cost of ownership.

In essence, organizations are not simply shedding VMware for the sake of it; they are recalibrating their infrastructure to align with modern IT practices, optimize costs, and diversify their technology stack. This transitional phase will likely continue as tools, platforms, and best practices mature, offering clearer paths for migrating workloads with minimized risk and maximum business value.

References¶

• Original: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
• Additional references:
• CloudBolt Insight on Cloud Spend, Modernization, and VMware Footprint Trends
• Broadcom’s VMware Product Roadmap and Licensing Updates
• Industry analyses on multi-cloud adoption and cloud-native transitions
• Practical guides for migrating from VMware to Kubernetes-based environments

*圖片來源：Unsplash*