New Report from CloudBolt Software and Wakefield Research Unpacks Real Reactions and Key Concerns from VMware Users in the Aftermath of Broadcom’s Acquisition

VMware customers most often indicate staying with Broadcom – either partially or in full – as top option under consideration despite anticipated 100%+ price hikes and onerous terms

ROCKVILLE, MD – June 6, 2024 – CloudBolt Software, The Cloud ROI Company™ and a recognized leader in cloud financial management, today released its latest research report, CII Reality Report: VMware Acquisition Aftermath. 

CloudBolt Industry Insights (CII) reports offer an objective and thorough examination of prevalent market trends and opportunities. The latest research, commissioned by CloudBolt and conducted by Wakefield Research, surveyed 300 enterprise IT decision-makers across various industries from companies of all sizes that use VMware. The report explores concerns, disruptions, and plans, offering industry-first insights into real-world customer impact. 

“There has been so much speculation in the market in recent months in the wake of Broadcom’s acquisition regarding how VMware customers are reacting and what they are planning on doing in response – and how soon,” said Mark Zembal, Chief Marketing Officer at CloudBolt. “We wanted to separate truth from fiction, so we commissioned the study and created this CII Reality Report to do exactly that. With statistical validity, our latest research offers actual and timely insights that can help decision-makers gauge how others are weighing their options so that they can more confidently navigate their path forward.”

Concerned, Disrupted, and Expecting Price Increases

VMware users are currently experiencing widespread apprehension due to Broadcom’s acquisition of the company. Nearly all respondents (99%) express concern, reflecting a broad sentiment of unease across various industries, business sizes, and executive levels. Despite this overwhelming worry, only a small fraction (5%) have made decisions regarding what they will do in response to the acquisition. 

The vast majority (95%) of respondents perceive Broadcom’s acquisition as disruptive to their IT strategy, with 46% considering it extremely or very disruptive. Adding to these anxieties is the lack of clarity on pricing and packaging—all respondents expect VMware prices to rise under Broadcom’s ownership, with nearly 3 out of 4 anticipating a hike of greater than 100%.

Decisions Being Made in One Year or Less

According to CII research, 69% of VMware customers indicate that they have contracts expiring within the next 12 months. Given that, 87% of respondents plan to make their go-forward decision within the next year; almost 60% say they will make a decision in six months or less.

With Broadcom, There Is No Mystery

With other high-profile acquisitions such as CA Technologies and Symantec as a backdrop, respondents cite top reasons for considering moving away from Broadcom/VMware in part or in whole to be:

• Uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans (36%)
• Concerns about support quality (36%)
• Partner relationship changes (36%)
• Required shift to subscription licensing (34%)
• Anticipated price increases (33%)
• Personal negative experiences with Broadcom (33%)
• Broadcom’s reputation from past acquisition (32%)
• Forced packaging/bundling of products (30%)
• Worries about reduced innovation (29%)

The Reality: Most Companies Indicate Sticking With VMware (in One Form or Another) Tops Options Under Consideration

Despite the concerns, disruptions, price hikes, and predatory practices observed across other Broadcom acquisitions, most companies, when asked to select likely go-forward scenarios, most often chose staying with Broadcom/VMware either fully (40%) or partially (43%) as compared to moving more workloads to the public cloud (38%), migrating to an alternative hypervisor (34%), or migrating entirely to the public cloud (33%).

Nevertheless, given the breadth of options selected, it is clear that many companies are exploring pursuing multiple, non-mutually exclusive strategies as they adapt to the post-acquisition reality and seek to hedge their bets. 

“Everyone has been expecting a mass exodus from Broadcom,” said Kyle Campos, Chief Technology and Product Officer at CloudBolt. “The reality is that many companies already migrated to the public cloud what was easy to migrate. For others, this has reinvigorated public cloud migrations for cloud-ready workloads. What remains in the data center is a mixture of workloads requiring significant modernization or compliance bound to the data center. You’re often talking about pieces of infrastructure that have been in place for decades that are sunset and will see out its remaining life span in the data center. Many are mission critical and have an untold number of bespoke processes and complex dependencies. The reality of moving these things to the public cloud or migrating to a new hypervisor is daunting with unclear ROI, and when faced with the reality, it appears many companies are going to plug their noses and resign with Broadcom – at least for the near-term to buy more time to prepare for alternatives.”

For more information, detailed data, or to download a copy of the full report, please click here. 

About CloudBolt Software
CloudBolt is The Cloud ROI Company™. We are singularly focused on solving the most pressing problem with cloud today: increasing return on investment (ROI). With the introduction of our Augmented FinOps capabilities, CloudBolt is leveraging AI/ML-informed insights and applying intelligent automation and orchestration proactively and retrospectively to make complete cloud lifecycle optimization a reality. CloudBolt enables organizations to realize the full potential of any cloud fabric by closing the “insight to action” gap. By streamlining, clarifying, and optimizing spend and control, we help organizations place value at the center of every cloud decision. For more information, visit www.cloudbolt.io.

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Caroline Statile
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CloudBolt@scratchmm.com