TLDR¶

• Core Points: Most VMware customers continue to shrink their footprints; consolidation and multi-cloud strategies are accelerating.

• Main Content: A CloudBolt-conducted survey reveals broad intent to reduce VMware usage, driven by cloud-first strategies and total-cost-of-ownership considerations.

• Key Insights: Vendors’ end-user strategies favor diversification and offloading to alternative platforms; Broadcom’s approach is not aimed at retaining every customer.

• Considerations: Transition plans vary by organization size and workload type; security, governance, and skill gaps influence execution.

• Recommended Actions: Assess workload suitability for non-VMware environments, build a phased migration roadmap, and align procurement with long-term cloud strategies.

Content Overview¶

The landscape of enterprise infrastructure remains in flux as organizations rethink dependency on VMware. A recent survey conducted by CloudBolt, a provider of cloud management software, highlights a persistent trend: the vast majority of VMware users are actively reducing their VMware footprint. The findings challenge a perception that VMware is an unshakable foundation for enterprise workloads and instead point to a managed, strategic reduction in reliance on VMware technologies.

CloudBolt’s report synthesizes responses from IT leaders and practitioners across industries who are tasked with maintaining and evolving large-scale virtualization environments. The data suggests that organizations are pursuing a combination of consolidation, modernization, and multi-cloud strategies to optimize costs, improve agility, and mitigate vendor lock-in. This shift is happening even as VMware remains a staple for many legacy and mission-critical workloads, underscoring a nuanced transition rather than a wholesale abandonment.

At the heart of the discussion is Broadcom’s transformation of VMware through its acquisition of the virtualization giant and the ongoing integration of VMware into Broadcom’s broader strategic portfolio. The CloudBolt findings assert that Broadcom’s strategy was never to preserve every former VMware customer in a single, perpetual relationship. Instead, the report frames Broadcom’s approach as aligning with broader enterprise IT trends—favoring flexibility, multi-cloud capabilities, and diversified vendor ecosystems over single-vendor dependency. In practice, this means customers are evaluating alternative platforms, cloud-native services, and hybrid architectures that complement or gradually replace VMware-centric operations.

The article consolidates a landscape where customers are weighing total cost of ownership (TCO), performance, governance, and security as they decide how to manage virtualization, containerization, and cloud workloads. The emphasis on reducing VMware footprints does not imply a uniform exit; rather, it indicates a deliberate and staged approach to rebalancing workloads, modernizing applications, and leveraging best-fit technologies across public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises environments.

In short, the survey reinforces a growing maturity in enterprise IT strategy: virtualization remains relevant but is increasingly treated as one of several tools in a diversified toolkit. Organizations are charting paths that accommodate legacy stability while enabling modernization and cloud-native development, with VMware playing a meaningful but not exclusive role.

In-Depth Analysis¶

The CloudBolt survey sheds light on how organizations are navigating the balance between established virtualization platforms and emerging alternatives. While VMware has long been a backbone of data centers worldwide, the shift toward broader cloud adoption has prompted many enterprises to re-evaluate their footprint. Several factors are driving this recalibration.

First, total cost of ownership considerations are central. While VMware delivers robust virtualization capabilities, the cumulative costs associated with maintaining on-premises infrastructure, licensing, and support can be substantial. Enterprises are increasingly scrutinizing cost models and recognizing opportunities to reduce spend through cloud-native services, hyperconverged and hypervisor-agnostic approaches, or cheaper virtualization options for specific workloads. The survey indicates a growing awareness that virtualization is not inherently the most economical path for every workload, especially when modern cloud-native architectures can offer comparable or superior efficiency at scale.

Second, multi-cloud and hybrid strategies are gaining traction. Organizations are not abandoning VMware outright; rather, they are embracing a more flexible mix of platforms that aligns with workload characteristics and business needs. Containerization, Kubernetes orchestration, and serverless paradigms enable more portable and scalable deployments that can cross cloud boundaries. In many environments, VMware remains a critical platform for certain legacy apps or performance-sensitive workloads, while other services migrate to public clouds or containers for greater elasticity and faster time-to-value.

Third, strategic vendor positioning by Broadcom influences customer behavior. The CloudBolt report frames Broadcom’s strategy as intentionally selective rather than universal in scope. Rather than pursuing a “one-size-fits-all” retainment of every customer within the VMware ecosystem, Broadcom appears to support customers’ broader modernization agendas, which may involve transitioning to adjacent platforms and services. This stance can create a more dynamic and competitive landscape, in which customers evaluate the long-term viability and total value of remaining within VMware versus diversifying across ecosystems.

Fourth, security, governance, and compliance considerations continue to guide decision-making. As organizations distribute workloads across multiple environments, they face greater complexity in policy enforcement, access control, and data residency. The migration away from a monolithic VMware footprint necessitates robust governance frameworks that can span on-premises virtualization, cloud infrastructure, and container-based deployments. The survey’s insights suggest that firms are not simply reducing VMware usage for cost reasons but are actively seeking architectures that improve security posture and governance visibility across heterogeneous environments.

Fifth, organizational readiness and talent implications shape the pace of change. Teams must adapt to new tooling, orchestration platforms, and deployment models. A successful reduction in VMware dependency often requires reskilling, hiring, and process changes to manage a diversified infrastructure effectively. The survey underscores that readiness varies across organizations, with some reporting smoother transitions due to existing cloud experience, while others encounter friction from legacy skill gaps or vendor-specific commitments.

Beyond these drivers, the report highlights the practical realities faced by IT departments. For many enterprises, the VMware footprint remains intertwined with mission-critical workloads where migration risk and performance considerations drive caution. Applications with heavy memory and CPU demands, specialized licensing, or intricate integration with other VMware-based services may experience slower transitions. Conversely, newer or more modular workloads may be prime candidates for re-architecture with cloud-native patterns, containerization, or alternative virtualization solutions.

The broader implication of these trends is a shift in how organizations define their technology strategy. The “VMware-first” mindset gives way to a more nuanced, workload-aware approach that prioritizes business outcomes, agility, and resilience. This evolution aligns with IT leaders’ emphasis on speed-to-market and the ability to respond to changing market conditions with scalable, cost-aware infrastructure.

In sum, the CloudBolt findings provide a snapshot of a significant, ongoing transition in enterprise IT. VMware remains a foundational technology for many organizations, but its dominance is waning as cloud-first and multi-cloud strategies gain traction. Broadcom’s strategic posture, rather than dictating customer behavior, appears to encourage a broader exploration of platforms that best fit each workload. As organizations continue to experiment with and implement hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, the trend toward reducing the VMware footprint is likely to persist, albeit at varying paces and intensities depending on organizational context, workload characteristics, and risk tolerance.

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Perspectives and Impact¶

The implications of a shrinking VMware footprint extend across technology strategy, vendor relationships, and workforce development. Understanding these perspectives helps frame how enterprises might adapt in the coming years.

• For CIOs and IT leaders, the core takeaway is strategic balance. The goal is not to abandon VMware for its own sake, but to align infrastructure choices with business objectives, application requirements, and cost targets. This means identifying workloads that can migrate to cloud-native environments or be consolidated to improve utilization while preserving critical functions that rely on VMware’s virtualization capabilities.

• For procurement and licensing teams, the landscape is shifting toward more dynamic budgeting. Traditional per-core or per-processor licensing models may be complemented or replaced by usage-based pricing, multi-cloud licenses, and value-based procurement tied to performance and resilience outcomes. The evolving vendor ecosystem requires clearer governance and a more disciplined approach to evaluating total cost of ownership across multiple platforms.

• For platform engineering and DevOps teams, the diversification of environments introduces new tooling requirements. Kubernetes, container runtimes, and cloud management platforms become increasingly central to operations. Teams must harmonize workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and security practices across heterogeneous environments, ensuring consistent policies and telemetry regardless of where workloads run.

• For security and compliance professionals, cross-environment visibility becomes paramount. With workloads spanning on-premises virtualization, private clouds, and public clouds, security controls must be consistent, auditable, and enforceable at scale. This necessitates centralized identity and access management, data protection controls, and robust vulnerability management across environments.

• For VMware and Broadcom, these trends signal a need to evolve product strategies. While VMware’s virtualization suite remains relevant, there is a clear incentive to expand partnerships, integrate with cloud-native platforms, and offer flexible licensing options that appeal to a broader set of customers pursuing multi-cloud architectures. This could involve deeper integration with public cloud providers, enhanced cloud management capabilities, and more transparent migration tooling.

From a market perspective, the shift signals continued demand for transitional technologies that bridge on-premises virtualization with cloud-native constructs. Solutions that facilitate workload portability, hybrid cloud governance, and cost optimization will likely see sustained interest. Providers may respond with offerings that ease migration, reduce risk, and quantify benefits of diversification, such as TCO calculators, migration assessment services, and performance optimization features across environments.

The human element cannot be overlooked. As enterprises reduce reliance on VMware, IT staff face opportunities to broaden their skill sets beyond traditional virtualization. Upskilling in cloud architecture, containerization, security, and data governance can help organizations maximize the value of their diversified infrastructure and accelerate modernization efforts. This entails investing in training, certification programs, and cross-functional collaboration that align with evolving technology stacks.

Looking ahead, the trajectory suggests a durable but not abrupt transition. VMware’s footprint is shrinking in some sectors and expanding in others depending on workload fit and risk appetite. For many organizations, the path forward will be a curated mix of VMware-based virtualization for particular workloads and complementary platforms for others. The emphasis will be on orchestration, governance, and performance optimization across a multi-environment portfolio.

The broader industry impact centers on how enterprise technology strategies evolve in response to vendor procurement decisions and market dynamics. Vendors are incentivized to offer more interoperable, portable, and cost-effective solutions that appeal to organizations pursuing multi-cloud architectures. This includes improving data mobility across clouds, simplifying migration, and providing clearer value propositions for maintaining or reducing VMware usage. As such, the market may witness greater emphasis on open standards, cross-platform tooling, and services designed to reduce transition risk.

In sum, the survey underscores a pragmatic shift toward reducing VMware dependence through a combination of consolidation, modernization, and diversified cloud strategies. The implications touch leadership strategy, operational models, and workforce development, signaling a future where virtualization remains a tool within a broader, more flexible enterprise IT architecture.

Key Takeaways¶

Main Points:
– Most VMware users are actively reducing their VMware footprint.
– Cloud-first and multi-cloud strategies are driving consolidation and diversification.
– Broadcom’s approach is not aimed at retaining every customer; instead, it supports broader modernization efforts.

Areas of Concern:
– Transition complexity and potential risk for mission-critical workloads.
– Security and governance across heterogeneous environments.
– Skill gaps and resource implications for re-skilling IT staff.

Summary and Recommendations¶

The CloudBolt survey reveals a clear, ongoing shift in enterprise infrastructure strategy: VMware remains relevant, but its dominance is diminishing as organizations pursue cloud-first, multi-cloud architectures. This evolution is driven by a mix of cost considerations, strategic flexibility, and the desire to reduce vendor lock-in. Broadcom’s strategy appears to emphasize enabling customers to pursue modernization across platforms rather than enforcing a VMware-dominant trajectory. As a result, many enterprises are taking a measured, workload-by-workload approach to migration and modernization.

For organizations evaluating their future state, a deliberate, phased roadmap is advisable. Start with a thorough assessment of workloads to categorize them by suitability for continued VMware use, migration, or modernization to cloud-native patterns. Develop a governance framework that spans on-premises and cloud environments, ensuring consistent security, compliance, and cost controls. Invest in automation and orchestration tools that facilitate portability and reduce migration risk. Finally, prioritize workforce development to close skill gaps and enable teams to manage a diversified infrastructure effectively.

In practical terms, this means:
– Conducting a comprehensive workload inventory to identify candidates for migration or consolidation.
– Building a multi-cloud strategy that aligns with business objectives and risk tolerance.
– Implementing standardized deployment and security policies across environments.
– Planning phased migrations with measurable milestones and cost targets.
– Providing training and career development opportunities to IT staff to support a broader skill set.

As enterprises continue to explore these paths, VMware will likely maintain a foothold for specific workloads while organizations leverage broader platforms and services to achieve agility and cost efficiency. The trend toward reducing the VMware footprint is likely to persist, but with a pragmatic, workload-centric approach that emphasizes modernization, portability, and governance across a diversified IT landscape.

References¶

• Original: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
• Additional context on multi-cloud, VMware strategy, and modernization trends can be found in industry analyses and vendor presentations focusing on cloud-native architectures, hybrid and multi-cloud governance, and total cost of ownership considerations.

Note: The above summaries reflect the article’s key themes and do not reveal sensitive or proprietary information.

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