Showing their true colors
Partners will tell you the moment the ground shifted. Renewal calls felt different. Bundles changed. Margins tightened while support tickets climbed. If you are living this, you are not imagining it. Broadcom’s model puts partners and customers in a corner, and the cost of staying there climbs every quarter. Many call it Broadcom greed, but the deeper problem is structural: vendor lock in that removes choice and slows your ability to act.
This guide is about getting out. We define vendor lock in in plain terms, show how it starves choice and predictability, then give you a three-move exit plan you can start this week. The plan keeps operations steady, makes risk visible early, and arms finance with a one-page case that gets approved.
The headline story: Broadcom's greed
Lock-in is not just a pricing tactic. It is a system design that raises switching costs and narrows the ecosystem so competitors struggle to land. In the VMware universe, the ripple effect is clear to anyone who works a renewal or supports a migration. Channel terms shift. Packaging changes. The customer still needs stable platforms and a forward path, but partners are asked to deliver more with less control. When choice shrinks, risk rises. That is the story behind the headlines.
Why partners and customers feel squeezed
A regional SI told us their fiscal year started with three VMware-related programs paused in the same week. Not because the work was unimportant, but because the math stopped making sense and no one could tell the CIO what would change next. When programs lack shared incentives and clear roadmaps, partners take the heat and customers eat the delay. The downstream effects are familiar: innovation slows, budgeting turns into guesswork, and people spend late nights firefighting entitlements instead of making progress.
Under lock in, the default strategy becomes wait and hope. That is not a strategy. It is a delay that compounds cost.
The cost of staying put
Picture a Tuesday two weeks before a scheduled cutover. The platform team is juggling last-minute license clarifications, the desktop team is chasing gold image drift, and the PMO is still missing a clean map of app dependencies for the first two waves. None of this is malicious. It is the natural result of fragmented data and program steps spread across tools. Without unified visibility, risk only becomes visible at the worst moment.
Staying put means more days like that. Technical debt grows while the roadmap stalls. Teams burn time on fire drills instead of transformation. Morale dips. Finance loses confidence because every estimate changes after another licensing update. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to justify the move.
Your exit plan in three moves
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Move 1: Orchestrate the program, not just the tools.
Integration connects systems, but orchestration runs the work. You need one place where governance, approvals, dependency checks, and value tracking live together. When a bundle is ready, it should be obvious. When a change fails a policy, it should stop at the gate, not on the bridge call. Orchestration keeps scope, risk, and cost in balance while you evaluate VMware alternatives and push waves through a steady cadence.
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Move 2: Make risk visible early.
Dashboards are not decoration. They are how leaders act before risk turns into rollback. Surface the signals that matter: OS end of life posture, dependency closure, test pass rates, expected cutover windows, and user experience metrics for VDI. When obstacles show up in week two, they cost hours. When they show up in week ten, they cost the quarter.
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Move 3: Build a one-page business case with cuffs and collars.
Finance needs clarity, not a glossary. Show costs, benefits, and outcomes across conservative, target, and aggressive ranges. Tie each to specific waves and unit economics so the numbers survive scrutiny. Keep it one page. Include who approves what, when value is recognized, and how rollback removes tail risk. The result is a decision that moves.
The VM Accelerator in practice
This is where evidence beats promises. Teams that start with VM Accelerator do not begin with a blank page. In week one they ingest multiple vCenters, RVTools, or Nutanix Collector exports into a normalized inventory. They validate coverage, then define bundles that mirror how they deploy in real life: an application and its supporting services, a VDI pool with shared maintenance windows, or a business unit with a clear owner.
By week two, the first waves are taking shape. The estate rollup clarifies scope by site and cluster. OS end of life and compatibility insights flag what to fix before it derails the schedule. Approvals are linked to bundles, not to email threads. Rollback criteria live next to the plan, so no one argues about thresholds mid-cutover. Leaders get a real-time view of progress and exceptions rather than stitched spreadsheets that age out in a day.
The outcome is simple. Dates get more realistic, not less. Risk moves from hidden to handled. The team spends more time preparing waves and less time reconciling exports.
VirtualReady for the desktop future
Exiting VMware is also a desktop story. Whether you are modernizing VDI or moving parts of the fleet to DaaS, quality lives and dies on image management, profiles, and user experience. VirtualReady connects those pieces. Identity and policy integrate through low-code connectors. Profile services stay in sync. Experience metrics like login times and session stability stay in view. The program office approves changes in a centralized console with audit logs and clear ownership. When the pilot expands, the platform scales without rebuilding pipelines.
The benefit is not a shiny dashboard. It is fewer escalations, faster remediation, and a user experience that survives the transition.
Failure patterns and how to avoid them
Most programs that stall share the same patterns. The inventory is incomplete or stale. Dependency maps exist in a one-off diagram rather than reality. KPIs are invisible until the first rollback. Teams depend on point-to-point integrations and call it a plan.
You avoid this by elevating orchestration above integration. Use integration to move data and trigger checks. Use orchestration to run decisions, approvals, and value tracking. Stand up dashboards on day one. Treat rollback as a design feature, not a confession. The difference shows up in the first pilot.
Proof of concept plan
A good proof of concept produces a working, minimal migration and a decision you can defend. Eight to twelve weeks is enough if you keep scope tight.
Weeks 1–2: Install VM Accelerator, connect vCenters, upload RVTools or Nutanix Collector exports. Validate that you have coverage for your candidate sites. Write bundle definitions that mirror how you would actually schedule work. Publish the first risk view: OS posture, obvious incompatibilities, and dependency gaps.
Weeks 3–5: Build the orchestration layer. Set approvals at the bundle level. Capture rollback criteria. Stand up dashboards for scope readiness, remediation burn down, and test pass rates. Start closing the top five blockers. Involve app owners and security now, not at the change board.
Weeks 6–8: Execute a pilot cutover on two low-risk bundles. Measure user experience for desktops and service health for applications. Log completion windows and defects. Use the data to tune cutover runbooks and rollback thresholds.
Weeks 9–12: Either expand pilots or hold at MVP. Finalize a one-page business case with cuffs and collars. Show target savings, risk buffers, and the decision gates where value is recognized. Prepare the executive readout. Decide to scale or pause with eyes open.
Success criteria should be blunt. Did bundles reach the ready state on schedule. Did cutovers complete within the window. Did user experience stay within agreed thresholds. Did rollback remain a safety net, not a routine event. Did the business case survive finance review.
Templates and next steps
You do not need to invent the process. Use an exit strategy checklist to structure discovery, a cost model to ground the business case, a one-page template to secure approvals, a governance scorecard to keep cadence, and a KPI dashboard guide to make risk obvious. If you are rebuilding desktop delivery, pair those with VirtualReady’s image and profile guardrails so quality does not slip.
When you are ready to move, run a short assessment. It should confirm scope, surface early risks, and validate timelines before you commit.
One next step
Ready to design a plan you can defend and deliver? Learn how VirtualReady and VM Accelerator help you prove the path, reduce risk, and move on your timeline.
FAQ
What is vendor lock in and why is it risky?
Vendor lock in happens when switching costs and licensing choices make it hard to leave. It is risky because it limits options, slows innovation, and turns budgets into moving targets.
What changed for VMware partners and customers?
Channel terms and packaging have shifted in ways that reduce predictability. Partners carry more delivery risk with less leverage. Customers see price pressure and unclear roadmaps.
How do I get off VMware without breaking operations?
Lead with orchestration and visibility. Normalize inventory, define bundles, surface risk early, and run a tight pilot with clear rollback criteria. Expand wave by wave as your data proves readiness.
Do I need an integration or migration orchestration platform?
You need both. Integration moves data and triggers checks. Orchestration runs governance, approvals, cadence, and value tracking while centralized monitoring reduces errors.
What KPIs should I track?
Scope readiness, remediation burn down, dependency closure, test pass rates, cutover success, rollback counts, and user experience metrics for desktops.
