If you are leading a VMware exit, you have likely lived this moment. The executive team agrees the direction needs to change, then asks for the one thing no one has at the start: a VMware exit business case that is specific enough to fund.
In mature project and portfolio organizations, a business case is not just a slide. It is the record of the recommended option, the rationale, and the evidence that supports the decision (https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/what-is-a-business-case/). That is exactly what leaders want when they ask for an exit plan. They are asking for evidence.
Risk is usually where business cases fall apart, not because teams ignore risk, but because risk gets presented as a scattered list of technical issues. A structured risk assessment approach is easier for leadership to evaluate and approve. NIST’s guidance on conducting risk assessments is widely referenced for exactly this reason: it focuses on producing information senior leaders can use to determine appropriate courses of action (https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/30/r1/final).
Finally, exits are change-heavy programs. Leaders want confidence that you can deliver beneficial change with minimal disruption. ServiceNow’s Change Management guidance describes a systematic approach to control the lifecycle of changes so beneficial changes can be made with minimum disruption (https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/xanadu-it-service-management/page/product/change-management/concept/c_ITILChangeManagement.html).
With that framing, here is how to translate VMware inventory into an executive story that survives scrutiny, and how the ReadyWorks VM Accelerator helps you build that story faster by turning raw inventory into defensible insights.
The story behind most failed funding conversations
Boards and steering committees do not get nervous because teams are migrating. They get nervous because teams cannot explain risk and scope in plain language.
When the story is unclear, leaders default to delay:
- “Let’s wait until next quarter when we have more information.”
- “Let’s fund discovery only, then revisit.”
- “Let’s shrink scope to a pilot and hope it proves the case.”
Those decisions are rational. They are also expensive. They extend timelines, keep licensing uncertainty alive, and force technical teams into a holding pattern.
If you want faster decisions, you need an exit story that is clear and measurable.
What executives actually ask for in a VMware exit plan
A board-ready VMware exit plan usually comes down to a small set of questions. If you can answer these clearly, the conversation shifts from “should we do this” to “how should we do this.”
- Scope: What do we have today, and where is it located
- Segmentation: What is VDI vs corporate server workloads, and why does that matter
- Readiness: What can move now, what should move later, and what needs remediation
- Risk: What are the biggest operational risks and how are we reducing them
- Timeline: How will the work be sequenced in waves, and what is the cadence
- Cost: What is the expected investment range and what assumptions drive it
- Governance: Who owns the program, how approvals work, and how we track success
Technical teams often have pieces of these answers, but not a single, consistent view.
That is why VMware inventory analysis matters. It is not a technical exercise. It is the raw material for trust.
The hidden cost of showing up with spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are not evil. They are often the fastest way to get started. The problem is that they are fragile at executive scale.
When an executive sees mismatched counts between sources, or sees the same VM represented differently across lists, confidence drops. When confidence drops, funding slows.
The downstream impact is predictable:
- More time spent reconciling data instead of migrating.
- More conservative wave plans that extend the program.
- More buffer in target sizing “just in case.”
- More last minute surprises that validate leadership’s fear.
Your business case does not need to be perfect. It needs to be coherent and defensible.
Your VMware exit business case in three moves
Here is a practical way to build a business case that is board-ready without trying to solve every technical detail upfront.
Move 1: Establish a baseline that leaders can trust
Start with a clear baseline:
- One view of the estate across data centers, clusters, hosts, and VMs
- A consistent count of what exists, including patterns like templates and duplicates
- A segmentation that makes sense at the business level, such as VDI vs corporate server workloads
This baseline becomes the foundation of every cost, timeline, and risk claim.
Move 2: Translate technical risk into business decisions
Executives do not want a list of technical issues. They want decisions. For example:
- Are there guest OS end-of-life and compatibility concerns that will block early waves?
- Which workloads are high risk and should move later?
- Which workloads are low risk and can prove momentum quickly?
When you present risk as decisions and sequencing, leaders understand it.
Move 3: Present a wave-based plan with governance and measurable outcomes
A board-ready plan is not “we will migrate everything.” It is:
- A wave plan with a realistic cadence
- Clear entry and exit criteria for each wave
- A governance model with approvals and change control
- A short list of KPIs that prove progress and control
Once leadership sees that the program is measurable and governed, the business case becomes easier to approve.
How the ReadyWorks VM Accelerator supports the business case
The ReadyWorks VM Accelerator is built to help infrastructure and cloud teams see their VMware estate, plan faster, and reduce risk.
It is a lightweight assessment that turns raw VMware and Nutanix inventory into clear migration insight. It connects to the ReadyWorks observability and automation platform for hybrid infrastructure, so you can move from visibility to orchestration when you are ready.
For business case building, the ReadyWorks VM Accelerator helps you generate the building blocks leaders care about:
- A defensible baseline: A clear picture from data centers to individual VMs
- Clear segmentation: Separation of VDI and corporate workloads to focus planning
- Risk signals: Visibility into guest OS end-of-life and compatibility so you are not surprised later
- Bundles and wave inputs: Groupings you can use to model waves and communicate sequencing
- Shareable outputs: Data you can export and use in an executive brief
The core value is speed and clarity. You get to a defensible baseline faster, with fewer manual reconciliation loops.
A board-ready VMware exit plan template
If you need a structure you can copy into a one-page brief or the first slide of your deck, use this:
1. Executive summary
-
Why we are exiting VMware now
- What success looks like (timeline, risk posture, outcomes)
2. Current state and scope
- Estate summary: regions, vCenter instances, high-level VM count
- Segmentation: VDI vs corporate server workloads
- Notable patterns: legacy OS concentration, high-change vs low-change environments
3. Target direction
- Target platform summary (example: Nutanix)
- Assumptions and constraints (change windows, critical business dates, security requirements)
4. Wave plan and cadence
- Proposed waves (pilot, early production, steady state)
- Entry criteria: ownership confirmed, dependencies validated, approvals in place
- Exit criteria: verification steps, performance validation, handoff to operations
5. Risk and mitigation
- Top risks (dependency complexity, legacy OS posture, compatibility blockers)
- Mitigation plan (remediation backlog, sequencing, rollback design)
6. Cost range and assumptions
- Conservative, target, aggressive ranges
- What drives cost (labor, tooling, target capacity, remediation effort)
- What reduces cost (automation, standardized waves, reduced rework)
7. Governance and KPIs
- Program owner and decision body
- Change management and approvals model
- KPIs: wave readiness, dependency closure, cutover success rate, rollback frequency, post-cutover incident volume
8. Next steps
- Confirm baseline inventory and segmentation
- Approve pilot wave scope
- Fund detailed planning and orchestration
The goal is not to hide, but rather to organize complexity into a story the board can act on.
How to present the plan without overpromising
A strong business case is honest about uncertainty. The trick is to bound uncertainty.
Instead of presenting one number, present ranges. Instead of promising a flawless cutover, show how you designed rollback and validation. Instead of claiming every application will be easy, show how you will sequence risk.
Boards are comfortable funding programs that are controlled. They are uncomfortable funding programs that rely on optimism.
When you bring leaders a plan grounded in real inventory, clear segmentation, and realistic waves, you earn the right to move faster.
One next step
Download the ReadyWorks VM Accelerator free to build a defensible baseline and the first draft of your board-ready VMware exit plan: https://www.readyworks.com/vm-accelerator
FAQ
What is a VMware exit business case?
A VMware exit business case is a board-ready explanation of scope, risk, timeline, and cost for moving workloads off VMware, with a governed plan for how the program will be executed and measured.
What should be included in a board-ready VMware exit plan?
A baseline scope, segmentation (such as VDI vs corporate), a wave plan with cadence, key risks with mitigations, cost ranges with assumptions, and a governance model with KPIs.
How does the ReadyWorks VM Accelerator support the business case?
The ReadyWorks VM Accelerator provides a normalized, dashboard-driven view of your VMware estate, clear segmentation, risk signals like guest OS end-of-life and compatibility, and bundling outputs that translate into wave planning and executive-ready summaries.
Do we need to solve every dependency before presenting the plan?
No. You need to show how dependencies will be validated and closed as part of wave entry criteria and governance, and how sequencing reduces risk.
