TLDR¶

• Core Points: Broadcom’s strategy emphasized not retaining every customer; users largely reducing VMware footprint despite continued dependency.
• Main Content: A CloudBolt survey reveals persistent VMware footprint reduction as users pursue modernization and multi-cloud strategies.
• Key Insights: Fragmented adoption of alternatives, ongoing workloads, and cost/efficiency pressures shape ongoing footprint reduction.
• Considerations: Transition risk, licensing costs, and vendor strategy influence speed and scope of reductions.
• Recommended Actions: Map workloads, chart phased migration plans, and explore vendor-agnostic tooling to manage multi-cloud estates.

Content Overview¶

The tech industry continues to observe a gradual shift away from large, monolithic virtualization footprints as enterprises pursue modernization, cloud-native architectures, and hybrid multi-cloud strategies. A notable industry read comes from CloudBolt, a company that provides cloud management and automation software, which published findings reflecting that many VMware users remain actively engaged in reducing their VMware footprint. The context is shaped by Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and its broader corporate strategy, which has been described as not aiming to preserve every single customer indefinitely. This backdrop informs how organizations balance the value they receive from VMware with the incentives to diversify, consolidate, or migrate workloads to other platforms or cloud environments.

The central message from the survey is not a sudden exodus, but rather a methodical and continuous effort by organizations to reallocate, optimize, or rearchitect workloads. In practice, this involves reexamining virtualization estates, evaluating modern cloud-native alternatives, and pursuing cost and efficiency gains that come with reduced dependency on a single virtualization stack. The findings underscore a broader industry trend: enterprises want flexibility, faster time-to-market, and scalable cloud services, even if that means maintaining some VMware workloads for the foreseeable future.

The article also highlights how vendor narratives and strategic priorities—such as Broadcom’s stance on customer relationships and product roadmaps—can influence organizational decisions. In such an environment, CIOs and IT leaders must navigate competing pressures: the comfort and compatibility of VMware for existing workloads, the governance and automation capabilities of third-party cloud management tools, and the long-term total cost of ownership associated with maintaining hybrid or multi-cloud footprints.

This landscape matters for stakeholders across IT leadership, cloud architects, and procurement teams. The survey’s implications extend beyond immediate cost considerations, touching on security, compliance, governance, and the organizational readiness required for large-scale migration or transformation programs. While VMware remains a foundational technology for many, the ongoing shift toward footprint reduction reflects a broader strategic recalibration: how to optimize, modernize, and future-proof infrastructure in a rapidly evolving cloud-centric era.

In-Depth Analysis¶

The VMware ecosystem has long been a cornerstone for data centers and hybrid cloud environments. It offered a familiar management plane, strong virtualization capabilities, and an ecosystem of partner tools. Yet, the industry’s momentum toward cloud-native approaches, containerization, and microservices has introduced new dynamics. Enterprises increasingly seek greater agility, simplified operations, and the ability to run workloads across multiple clouds with consistent governance. In this context, reducing VMware footprint is not simply about cutting licenses but about rethinking architecture and deployment models.

A core driver behind footprint reduction is total cost of ownership and the desire to avoid lock-in. VMware’s licensing and support costs can be substantial, particularly for large-scale deployments with complex configurations. As organizations grow, there is greater appetite to diversify: moving certain workloads to public clouds (such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) or to alternative virtualization or container platforms, depending on workload characteristics and performance requirements. The CloudBolt survey suggests that this diversification is not merely a cost-driven decision; it is also about improving agility and aligning IT with business priorities, including faster application delivery and more responsive operations.

Another factor at play is the maturation of cloud-native tooling and the ecosystem of automation, orchestration, and policy-driven management across clouds. Kubernetes has become a de facto standard for many modern workloads, enabling portability and consistent operations across heterogeneous environments. However, not all workloads benefit equally from containerization or re-architecting. For some, VMware remains the most efficient and reliable option, particularly for legacy or stateful workloads, or for teams seeking continuity during a transition period. The survey’s takeaway is that organizations typically pursue a blended approach: maintain a core VMware footprint for mission-critical or stable workloads, while migrating or replatforming other workloads to cloud-native or cloud-based solutions where appropriate.

The profiling of customers by Broadcom’s strategy adds a strategic dimension to the conversation. Broadcom’s approach to VMware emphasizes a broader portfolio strategy, including a varied set of products and services across infrastructure, software, and cloud operations. The assertion that Broadcom’s strategy was never to keep every customer aligns with a broader objective to optimize portfolio performance and focus on high-value use cases while allowing customers to navigate their own modernization trajectories. For IT leaders, this strategic stance translates into practical considerations: how to engage with a vendor ecosystem that supports multi-cloud goals, governance, and cost management without being bound to a single stack or vendor.

An important nuance is the difference between reducing footprint and decommissioning. Footprint reduction can occur through multiple pathways: consolidating multiple VMware instances onto a smaller footprint; migrating certain workloads to other platforms; adopting virtualization alternatives that offer different pricing or performance characteristics; or moving toward cloud-native architectures that reduce the dependence on static virtualization environments. Each pathway comes with its own set of technical and organizational challenges, including data migration risks, compatibility concerns, and the need for upskilling staff.

Security and compliance implications are also central to the decision-making process. Transitioning away from a long-standing virtualization platform can introduce new attack surfaces or require revised security policies, access controls, and configuration baselines. Conversely, modernization initiatives can enhance security postures through standardized, automated controls and cloud-native security services. Organizations must weigh these factors as they consider a phased approach to footprint reduction, ensuring that governance and risk management remain robust throughout the transformation.

From a market perspective, the ongoing footprint reduction trend signals demand for tools and services that help manage multi-cloud estates effectively. Cloud management platforms, cost-optimization tooling, and policy-driven automation play critical roles in enabling organizations to observe, optimize, and govern hybrid environments. Vendors that provide vendor-agnostic capabilities and integration with diverse cloud platforms are well-positioned to support customers seeking to reduce reliance on a single technology stack while preserving reliability and performance.

The trajectory of VMware usage also intersects with broader economic and industry cycles. In environments facing tight budgets or rapid digital transformation timelines, the impetus to streamline infrastructure can become more pronounced. Yet, the pace of change is influenced by the complexity of workloads, organizational readiness, and the availability of skilled personnel to implement modernization initiatives. The survey’s implications are thus multifaceted: they reflect not only a shift in technology choices but also evolving organizational capabilities and risk tolerances.

Looking ahead, the future of VMware adoption within enterprises is likely to be characterized by selective retention, optimization, and strategic migration. The most successful organizations will articulate a clear migration path that aligns with business outcomes, such as faster deployment of new services, improved resilience, and cost efficiency. They will also maintain flexibility to pivot as cloud services evolve, ensuring that their technology choices remain compatible with evolving security and governance standards.

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Perspectives and Impact¶

The survey’s insights highlight a nuanced landscape rather than a uniform migration story. Enterprises differ in size, sector, regulatory requirements, and digital ambition. Some industries with strict data locality or regulatory obligations may sustain VMware footprints longer due to compliance considerations, data gravity, or performance guarantees that are hard to replicate with alternative stacks. Others, particularly those prioritizing rapid experimentation and innovation, may accelerate cloud-native migrations, leaning on automation and platform engineering to minimize risk.

A critical dimension is the organizational change management required to implement footprint reductions. Technical migration is only part of the equation; it is equally important to align stakeholders, adjust procurement policies, retrain IT staff, and redefine operational processes. Effective governance frameworks, including centralized cost visibility, policy enforcement, and cross-team collaboration, enable organizations to maximize the benefits of multi-cloud ecosystems while containing complexity and risk.

Looking to the market, vendors across virtualization, cloud management, and cloud platform spaces are responding to demand for flexibility and portability. Solutions that offer seamless interoperability, consistent management across clouds, and robust automation are increasingly attractive. In this context, Broadcom’s VMware strategy—coupled with its broader software portfolio—could influence customer decisions, encouraging them to evaluate adjacent offerings and third-party management tools. For customers, this means a more dynamic and competitive landscape, where success hinges on choosing the right mix of technologies and tools to meet specific workloads and business outcomes.

The broader implications for the ecosystem include the continued emphasis on open standards and vendor-agnostic architectures. As cloud providers expand their native service catalogs and as automation platforms mature, enterprises gain more opportunities to abstract away from specific virtualization layers. This shift supports resilience, reduces dependency on a single vendor, and fosters more versatile IT environments. However, it also introduces challenges, such as ensuring compatibility of legacy applications, maintaining consistent security controls, and preventing fragmentation of toolchains.

From a strategic standpoint, CIOs and IT leaders must articulate a clear long-term plan that integrates cost management, performance objectives, and risk mitigation. The objective is not just to reduce a footprint for its own sake but to optimize for business value: faster time-to-market, better resource utilization, and improved resilience against disruptions. The survey reinforces that many organizations view footprint reduction as a progressive journey rather than a single milestone, requiring ongoing assessment, experimentation, and governance.

An emerging consideration is how this trend interacts with talent development and hiring. As teams adopt multi-cloud and cloud-native approaches, there is a growing emphasis on software-defined infrastructure, automation, and incident response in modern environments. Organizations may prioritize training and recruitment in areas such as cloud architecture, platform engineering, DevOps practices, and security operations to support sustained modernization. This talent evolution is integral to achieving the intended outcomes of footprint reductions.

In sum, the survey captures a snapshot of a broader movement: enterprises balancing legacy stability with the aspiration for agile, scalable, cloud-oriented architectures. The persistence of VMware usage alongside deliberate reductions suggests that the path forward is defined by pragmatic decisions about where VMware remains valuable and where modern alternatives offer greater benefits. The industry can anticipate continued optimization efforts, further investments in automation and multi-cloud governance, and ongoing strategic dialogues between customers and vendors about roadmap alignment, support, and interoperability.

Key Takeaways¶

Main Points:
– Enterprises are actively reducing their VMware footprint, while not abandoning VMware entirely.
– Broadcom’s strategy emphasizes optimizing the customer base rather than preserving every relationship.
– The shift reflects a broader move toward cloud-native architectures, multi-cloud governance, and cost efficiency.

Areas of Concern:
– Transition risk and potential downtime during migrations.
– Licensing costs and the complexity of managing hybrid environments.
– Vendor strategy and its impact on long-term customer relationships.

Summary and Recommendations¶

The ongoing reduction of VMware footprints among enterprise users reflects a measured approach to modernization rather than a wholesale rejection of virtualization. Enterprises seek to balance the reliability and familiarity of VMware with the agility, scalability, and cost advantages of cloud-native and multi-cloud architectures. Broadcom’s stated strategy—prioritizing select, high-value engagements over universal retention—adds a layer of strategic consideration for organizations evaluating their long-term technology stacks. This context suggests that successful IT modernization will be driven by deliberate, phased migration plans, the adoption of vendor-agnostic management and automation tools, and the development of robust governance models to navigate cost, compliance, and security across diverse environments.

For organizations planning footprint reductions, the following recommendations are prudent:
– Conduct a comprehensive workload inventory to identify candidates for migration, modernization, or consolidation.
– Develop a phased migration plan with clear milestones, risk assessments, and rollback options.
– Invest in multi-cloud management and automation tools that enable consistent policy enforcement, cost visibility, and governance across environments.
– Build organizational capabilities through training and hiring in cloud architecture, platform engineering, and security operations.
– Maintain a close watch on licensing implications and vendor roadmap alignments to minimize disruption and maximize value.

As the market evolves, VMware customers can expect continued dialogue between vendors and customers about roadmaps, interoperability, and support. The trend toward footprint reduction does not imply a one-size-fits-all path; rather, it points to a strategic, outcomes-oriented approach to IT infrastructure that balances stability with innovation. The result should be increased efficiency, better alignment with business goals, and a flexible foundation capable of adapting to future technological advances.

References¶

• Original: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
• Additional context: (Add 2-3 relevant references related to VMware footprint reduction, cloud-native modernization, and multi-cloud governance)
• Optional: Industry analyses on Broadcom’s VMware strategy and its impact on customers

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