TLDR¶

• Core Points: Broadcom’s strategy prioritized not retaining every customer; VMware users continue to trim virtualization footprint.
• Main Content: A CloudBolt-led survey highlights ongoing efforts by organizations to reduce VMware deployments, reflecting strategic shifts in virtualization management.
• Key Insights: Fragmented cloud strategies, cost concerns, and drive toward multicloud adoption shape VMware footprint decisions.
• Considerations: Budget, staffing, and compatibility considerations influence how aggressively firms consolidate or replace VMware components.
• Recommended Actions: Assess current VMware usage, identify decoupling opportunities, plan phased migrations, and invest in cross-cloud governance and automation.

Content Overview¶

The virtualization landscape is in a period of deliberate transition. Despite VMware’s substantial foothold in enterprise data centers over many years, organizations are increasingly evaluating the total cost of ownership and strategic value of their VMware deployments. A CloudBolt survey commissioned by Broadcom—reflecting Broadcom’s broader strategy to optimize software portfolios rather than maintain a one-to-one relationship with every customer—highlights a persistent trend: researchers and practitioners describe an active effort to reduce VMware footprints where feasible and beneficial.

The article in question draws on industry observations and a survey that captures a cross-section of enterprise IT and cloud management leaders. It indicates that even as VMware remains foundational in many environments, users are pursuing more efficient, cost-aware, and flexible approaches to virtualization, with some consolidating workloads onto alternative platforms or multi-cloud ecosystems. The findings sit within Broadcom’s broader narrative about strategic alignment of acquired technology assets and the practical realities of enterprise IT spend.

This evolving scenario matters to both buyers and vendors. For VMware, the message is not a sudden decline but a measured recalibration: organizations seek to optimize existing licenses, reduce unnecessary complexity, and explore modernization paths that align with modern cloud-native practices. For Broadcom and its channel ecosystem, the results underscore the importance of offering value that extends beyond a single platform and supporting customers through transitions that preserve essential capabilities while enabling cost and operational efficiencies.

In-Depth Analysis¶

The core takeaway from the CloudBolt report is that a substantial share of VMware-using organizations remains intent on actively reducing their VMware footprint. This does not necessarily imply a centrifugal exodus from VMware; rather, it points to disciplined optimization where virtualization layers are carefully reviewed for redundancy, licensing efficiency, and strategic alignment with broader cloud initiatives.

Several drivers appear to influence this trend:

• Economic pressures and cost management: As global IT budgets face scrutiny, organizations re-evaluate licensing models, support contracts, and operational overhead associated with VMware stacks. The need to justify ongoing expenditure drives efforts to simplify environments, consolidate workloads, and consider alternative or complementary platforms that offer better total cost of ownership or flexibility.

• Multicloud and cloud-native strategies: Enterprises increasingly adopt multicloud architectures and cloud-native approaches. In such setups, VMware is sometimes used as a transitional technology—keeping core workloads on familiar platforms while gradually migrating to containerized or cloud-native services, or distributing workloads across public clouds and on-premises infrastructure. This diversification encourages selective reductions in VMware dependency rather than wholesale replacement.

• Licensing and vendor strategy: Broadcom’s stated strategy has included rationalizing the software portfolio acquired through VMware. The message that “the strategy was never to keep every customer” signals a willingness to optimize the vendor ecosystem by focusing on high-value customers and core capabilities, rather than pursuing perpetual expansion of installed base at all costs. This stance can influence customers’ decisions, nudging them to pursue more autonomous or mixed-portfolio configurations.

• Operational agility and modernization: Organizations seek to modernize architectures, moving toward modern orchestration, automation, and management tools that reduce complexity and improve deployment speed. In some cases, this means rearchitecting workloads to be more cloud-native or to leverage container orchestration platforms that work in tandem with, or independently of, VMware.

• Licensing risk and renewal dynamics: Enterprises often face complex renewal terms, escalating costs, and policy changes that complicate long-term planning. These friction points can motivate proactive reductions in VMware usage, as teams reassess what is truly needed versus what remains for legacy support.

The survey also reveals nuanced outcomes across industries and regions. Some sectors with heavy compliance and on-prem requirements may retain more VMware utilization as a stabilizing factor, while others with aggressive digital transformation agendas prioritize modernization trajectories that de-emphasize VMware in favor of more flexible platforms. The degree of reduction varies by organization size, existing modernization maturity, and the availability of viable migration paths that minimize disruption to critical workloads.

A crucial dimension is the role of automation and management tooling. Robust automation can ease the transition away from VMware by offering consistent deployment, monitoring, and governance across diverse environments. Conversely, organizations without mature automation capabilities may slow-walk reductions due to perceived operational risk or the cognitive load of maintaining parallel toolchains.

From a vendor perspective, the findings underscore the importance of providing interoperable, cross-platform solutions that help customers manage heterogeneous environments. This includes offering tools that can monitor, optimize, and govern across VMware, public cloud services, and other virtualization or orchestration layers. It also highlights the potential value in supporting customers during phased migrations, ensuring that essential workloads retain performance and reliability while gradually shifting to alternative platforms.

The report’s emphasis on “actively reducing their VMware footprint” suggests a practical and ongoing process rather than a one-off decision. Enterprises tend to adopt staged approaches, starting with noncritical workloads, backup and disaster recovery functions, or development and test environments, before tackling mission-critical production systems. The pace and extent of reductions are inevitably shaped by risk tolerance, available migration tools, and the alignment of changes with business priorities.

One interpretive takeaway is that Broadcom’s broader strategy—emphasizing strategic fit, portfolio alignment, and customer-centric value—aligns with market signals that customers want more flexibility and clarity in vendor relationships. Rather than forcing customers to expand reliance on a single stack, the market rewards solutions that integrate with diverse ecosystems and lower total cost of ownership through optimization rather than replacement.

The CloudBolt survey thus provides a snapshot of current sentiment and intent among VMware users. It captures a moment in the ongoing evolution of enterprise IT, where virtualization remains essential but is increasingly complemented or reshaped by modern cloud-native approaches and multicloud governance. The data makes clear that the VMware footprint will likely continue to shrink in certain contexts while remaining strategically important in others, depending on how organizations balance legacy commitments with modernization ambitions.

Perspectives and Impact¶

Looking ahead, several scenarios could shape how VMware usage evolves in the coming years:

• Polarization by workload type: Noncritical or legacy workloads may continue to be hosted on VMware, while new development, analytics, or scalable microservices move to container-based or cloud-native platforms. This could lead to a bifurcated environment where VMware persists for stability and compatibility, but with a growing perimeter of non-VMware workloads.

• Evolution of licensing models: VMware licensing strategies, alongside Broadcom’s portfolio decisions, could influence customer behavior. If pricing models become more favorable for broader migrations or if consolidated support arrangements simplify vendor relationships, organizations may accelerate footprint reductions.

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• Convergence with modernization programs: Enterprises implementing modernization roadmaps—ranging from Kubernetes adoption to serverless or edge computing—may view VMware as a transitional stage. The success and speed of these modernization programs will determine the pace at which VMware is de-emphasized.

• Skills and organizational readiness: The ability of IT teams to adopt and manage new platforms is a critical factor. Companies with mature DevOps practices, strong automation, and cross-cloud governance are more likely to push VMware out of the equation more quickly, while teams with limited automation resources may proceed more cautiously.

• Security and compliance considerations: For regulated industries, the need to prove auditability and consistent controls across environments can influence the extent of a footprint reduction. Solutions that enable unified policy enforcement across VMware and non-VMware platforms could be pivotal in decision-making.

Impact on vendors and service providers is also notable. Those offering flexible, integrated product suites that support coexistence and migration across multiple platforms stand to gain. Managed service providers and system integrators can play a central role in guiding customers through staged reductions, offering assessment, migration planning, tooling, and ongoing governance.

From an ecosystem perspective, the ongoing rebalancing could stimulate innovation in cloud-native tooling, migration accelerators, and portability layers. Projects that simplify workload portability, improve inspection visibility across environments, and reduce migration risk will likely be in higher demand. The market may also see continued emphasis on cost visibility, with enhanced financial management tools that help organizations quantify the impact of reductions and provide clearer ROI signals.

Another dimension is customer sentiment and trust. Broadcom’s explicit statement about not aiming to retain every customer, while potentially controversial, signals a strategic position focused on value rather than volume. For customers, understanding the implications of such a stance is important. It raises questions about long-term support, roadmap alignment, and the availability of migration pathways that preserve critical capabilities without locking them into a diminishing VMware-centric ecosystem.

The survey results also highlight that cross-functional collaboration—between IT, finance, security, and line-of-business stakeholders—is increasingly essential when deciding how to manage and reduce VMware footprints. Cost containment must be balanced with service levels, regulatory considerations, and business agility. In practice, this means more rigorous project governance, clearer migration timelines, and better alignment with business priorities.

The wider industry context matters too. As cloud services mature and edge computing expands, the demand for flexible infrastructure management grows. Organizations may favor platforms that deliver consistent management and policy application across diverse environments, rather than relying on a single stack. In this sense, reducing VMware footprints could be part of a broader movement toward platform-agnostic IT operations that emphasize portability, automation, and resilience.

Finally, the landscape remains dynamic. VMware’s own product roadmap—Smart tooling for vSphere, Tanzu, and other virtualization offerings—will influence customer decisions. If VMware continues to evolve in ways that tightly integrate with modern cloud-native approaches, it may persuade some customers to maintain or even expand its footprint in a redesigned form. Conversely, if competition strengthens and migration tools become more attractive and affordable, more organizations may accelerate reductions.

Key Takeaways¶

Main Points:
– The majority of VMware users are actively reducing their VMware footprint, though not necessarily exiting VMware entirely.
– Broadcom’s strategy emphasizes portfolio optimization and value delivery over expanding installed base with every customer.
– Multicloud and modernization trends are central to decisions about VMware usage, rather than a simple replacement cycle.

Areas of Concern:
– Risk management during phased reductions and migrations.
– Ensuring ongoing support, compatibility, and performance for remaining workloads.
– Managing skill gaps and automation needs to enable safe transitions.

Summary and Recommendations¶

The findings from the CloudBolt survey shed light on a meaningful trend within enterprise IT: organizations are increasingly evaluating the broader landscape of their virtualization and cloud strategies, with an active effort to reduce VMware reliance where feasible. This trend reflects a combination of cost considerations, modernization goals, and the growing importance of cross-platform governance in multicloud environments. Broadcom’s commentary on its strategy—favoring selective engagement and portfolio optimization—aligns with market expectations that customers seek value, flexibility, and support that accommodate transitions rather than mere expansion of a single ecosystem.

For organizations navigating this landscape, a structured, strategic approach is advisable:

• Start with a comprehensive assessment: Map all VMware workloads, licensing costs, and dependencies. Identify noncritical or easily portable workloads that can be migrated with minimal risk.

• Prioritize modernization opportunities: Use a phased plan to move workloads toward cloud-native or container-based architectures when appropriate, while maintaining critical systems on stable platforms during transition.

• Invest in automation and governance: Strengthen automation, observability, and policy enforcement to simplify management across multiple environments. A unified governance model reduces risk and accelerates migration.

• Develop a clear migration roadmap: Establish timelines, milestones, and rollback plans. Align IT transformation with business priorities and budget cycles to secure executive sponsorship.

• Engage with vendors strategically: Seek solutions and services that offer interoperability across VMware and other platforms, robust migration tooling, and strong support for phased transitions.

• Monitor outcomes and adjust: Track cost, performance, and user impact during reductions. Be prepared to recalibrate plans if migration risks or business needs shift.

In sum, the VMware landscape is evolving rather than shrinking uniformly. The “actively reducing” trend underscores a broader shift toward flexible, cost-conscious, and modernization-aligned IT practices. Organizations that approach reductions with clarity, governance, and a well-planned modernization path stand to gain in efficiency and agility, while preserving the ability to meet critical business requirements.

References¶

• Original: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/02/most-vmware-users-still-actively-reducing-their-vmware-footprint-survey-finds/
• Additional references:
• CloudBolt blog detailing survey methodology and findings
• Broadcom’s public statements on VMware portfolio strategy and customer engagement
• Industry analysis on multicloud trends and modernization roadmaps
• Reports on automation, governance, and migration tooling in heterogeneous environments

*圖片來源：Unsplash*