Take Five With Tom Fenton

The Enduring Consequences of the VMware Acquisition

• By Tom Fenton
• 10/24/2025

The technology industry is awash with stories about Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, with most of the focus landing on price increases and sweeping changes to product bundling. But the sticker shock is only the surface of a much deeper story. The real impact isn't just on budgets; it's on the people, the processes, and the trust that an entire generation of IT infrastructure was built upon.

What really hit me hard were the reactions I received on a LinkedIn post for a podcast I was promoting about an article I wrote on Virtualization & Cloud Review about ESXi being free again, which went viral for some reason. People had thoughts about ESXi being free, but more importantly, about VMware. This, when coupled with a session called "Hypervisor Party," at EUC World in Minneapolis, where people discussed their thoughts on the hypervisor landscape, and then some of the comments I heard on my article, "The Five Stages of Grief: Coping with Broadcom's Acquisition of VMware," gave me some insights to what people are thinking about VMware now.

To provide you with a better understanding of this, I have included the thoughts of some of the IT professionals who have built their careers on VMware. I distilled these down to reveal four hard truths that I took away about the acquisition's actual impact. The short story is that many felt the real damage wasn't to budgets, but to the foundational trust, talent, and ecosystem that made VMware a pillar in the industry.

I need to note that these do not necessarily reflect my thoughts, but for this article, I needed to put on a journalist's hat and report on what others are saying.

1. It's Not the Technology They Hate--It's the Breakdown of Trust
The community is drawing a sharp, unambiguous line: the frustration isn't with the core VMware technology, which remains a solid, enterprise-grade product, in fact many, if not most claim that VMware is the undisputed leader in this field, their deep-seated dissatisfaction is aimed squarely at Broadcom's new business practices. As one discussion participant clarified, the key is to differentiate unhappiness with "the product itself versus the business and aspect of how Broadcom" operates.

This shift has transformed a decades-long, reliable partnership into what now feels like a significant business risk. The move to an all-or-nothing subscription bundle turns predictable capital expenditures into a potentially volatile operational cost, adding a layer of financial uncertainty to the broken trust. This erosion has fundamentally re-categorized VMware in the minds of its users--from a technology partner to a source of liability. The sentiment was captured in one stark comment that has become a rallying cry for the disgruntled community: Broadcom no longer has customers; it has hostages.

2. The 'Exit Strategy' is a Multi-Year Marathon, not a Sprint
While talk of an "exit strategy" is common, the reality of moving an enterprise off the VMware platform is a monumental undertaking. For any large organization, this is not a project measured in months, but in years. VMware virtualization is not an isolated component; it is deeply woven into the fabric of modern IT operations.

Migrating away requires separating interconnected systems, such as snapshot-based backup systems, automated provisioning workflows, and integrations with service management tools like ServiceNow, as well as existing network security models.

The scale of this challenge is perfectly illustrated by an anecdote from one industry professional, who migrated his "fairly complex" home lab. The process took three weeks to plan and another week to execute. Months later, his automation is still not fully rebuilt. As he noted with a human touch, "my kids haven't had a new Minecraft server." This small-scale example from a seasoned expert underscores the immense complexity and resource drain that a full business migration entails.

3. Broadcom Didn't Just Anger Customers--It Broke Its Own Talent Pipeline
One significant long-term consequence of Broadcom's initial moves was the discontinuation of free licenses for home labbers and students, as well as their free ESXi hypervisor. These weren't just a tool for hobbyists; they were the primary entry point into the entire VMware ecosystem. For over a decade, it served as the industry's "training ground" and what one expert called "the longest-running PoC" and another remarked that these programs allowed stealth entry of VMware technology into corporations.

A generation of students and IT professionals learned virtualization on free ESXi. They used it to run home firewalls, media streamers, or even Minecraft servers, but more importantly, to teach the principles of virtualized IT. These are the same people who became technology's most prominent advocates, encouraging employers to purchase the commercial versions because they were familiar with the product inside and out. As one commenter observed:

Almost to a man, every single up-and-coming CS kid I know is busy getting to know Proxmox instead of ESXi. That ecosystem is expanding at a ferocious pace.

In essence, Broadcom didn't just discontinue its free products; it dismantled a highly effective, community-driven sales funnel that took decades to build.

4. The Return of "Free" ESXi Was Met with a Shrug
Recently, Broadcom reversed course and once again made a free version of ESXi available. The move, however, was met not with relief but with overwhelming cynicism. The most frequently repeated sentiment can be summarized in four words: "Too little, too late."

The community has interpreted this gesture not as a genuine peace offering, but as a belated and tactical move to stanch the bleeding of users to alternatives like Proxmox. The trust has been broken, and users are now wary, expressing reluctance to be once again "beholden to the whims of Broadcom." Adding to the skepticism is a practical warning that has surfaced from those who have tried the new offering: it may be a "literal different operating system" that cannot be upgraded with a paid license, potentially forcing a complete reinstallation for anyone who experiments with it and wants to move to production.

Conclusion: A Lesson in Goodwill
The fallout from the Broadcom acquisition is a case study in how quickly goodwill, built over decades, can evaporate. The damage extends far beyond financial concerns, touching on a fundamental loss of trust, a fracturing of the partner and user ecosystem, and a self-inflicted break in the talent pipeline that once fed its growth.

It leaves the entire industry with a critical and forward-looking question: In an industry built on partnerships and trust, can a company ever fully recover after a collapse of goodwill of this magnitude?