The recent changes at VMware under Broadcom’s leadership have left many organizations questioning their long-term IT strategy. Industry analyst Gartner has issued a clear warning: migrating from VMware is a complex, expensive, and multi-year process. Before making a move, CIOs and infrastructure leaders must understand the full scope and risks involved.
What Gartner's research reveals
In its detailed assessment, Gartner modelled a migration scenario for an enterprise with more than 2,000 virtual machines and at least 100 hosts. The findings were sobering:
- Projects will take between 18 and 48 months to complete
- Migration costs range between $300 and $3,000 per VM
- Initial scoping requires 7–10 full-time staff for a month
- Technical evaluations require another 6 FTEs over 6 to 9 months
- Planning and testing depend heavily on the complexity of applications and dependencies
In short, migrating off VMware is not a quick fix. It’s a massive undertaking with significant impact on operations, budgets, and resources.
It’s more than just a hypervisor
According to Gartner VP Analyst Michael Warrilow, many organizations mistakenly view VMware as primarily a virtualization provider. But VMware’s footprint is deeper and wider — often including storage (vSAN), networking and security (NSX), and cloud management tools (Aria Suite). Migrating from VMware means disentangling an entire stack of integrated components, not just swapping hypervisors.
The paralysis of waiting
Warrilow notes that many organizations are stuck in a holding pattern. "Everybody is waiting to see what everybody else is doing," he said. This indecision can become costly: organizations may be forced to renew VMware subscriptions under less favorable terms. Meanwhile, alternatives may not yet be fully validated or mature.
A smarter path: modernize with VMware Cloud Foundation
Rather than initiate a risky and resource-intensive migration, many organizations will find more value in modernizing their existing VMware environment. VMware Cloud Foundation 9 delivers:
- A unified private cloud platform (compute, storage, network, automation)
- Unified management and policy-based operations
- Support for hybrid cloud extensions and modern workloads
- A consistent platform that aligns with current skills and investments
Migration should never be a knee-jerk reaction to vendor changes. Before committing to a multi-year project with millions in potential costs, organizations should assess whether their goals can be met by evolving their current platform. With VMware Cloud Foundation, modernization doesn’t require migration.
Want to talk about your VMware roadmap? Start with a smarter strategy. Learn more about VCF.
