Broadcom-VMware Impact Study
Introduction: Disruption and Redirection in Enterprise IT
This Forrester Impact Study provides a data-driven and strategic analysis of how Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has affected enterprise technology strategy, vendor management, and infrastructure planning. Drawing on interviews with CIOs, IT architects, and sourcing leaders, the report highlights a mix of anxiety, opportunity, and rapid reassessment across the global IT ecosystem.
Forrester underscores that the acquisition represents not just a change in ownership, but a fundamental inflection point in the enterprise IT landscape, forcing IT leaders to accelerate roadmaps for diversification, cloud adoption, and financial accountability.
1. Enterprise Reactions and Sentiment
The report reveals varied but predominantly critical sentiment from enterprise buyers:
- 68% of respondents reported increased concern about lock-in and licensing predictability.
- 59% have paused VMware renewals pending broader platform strategy reviews.
- 31% have initiated formal RFPs exploring alternative virtualisation and infrastructure platforms.
Common qualitative feedback includes:
“Our three-year VMware agreement was already expensive. With Broadcom, the financial transparency just vanished.” — CTO, Global Healthcare Provider
“We’re under board-level scrutiny to ensure infrastructure agility and cost efficiency. That no longer aligns with Broadcom’s posture.” — Head of IT Strategy, EMEA Telco
2. Strategic Impact Areas
Forrester categorises the impact across four major strategic areas:
2A. Sourcing and Procurement
Organisations report reduced pricing flexibility, abrupt shifts in contract terms, and difficulty obtaining product roadmap clarity. Many are now actively evaluating secondary suppliers and multi-cloud brokers.
2B. Platform Architecture
The acquisition has accelerated demand for hypervisor neutrality, open-source alternatives (e.g., KVM, Harvester), and integration with Kubernetes-based control planes. Infrastructure leaders seek platforms that decouple compute from proprietary management.
2C. Security and Compliance
Concern is growing over audit readiness, SLA enforcement, and data locality risks. Public sector respondents cite compliance challenges with ambiguous roadmap futures.
2D. Skills and Operating Models
IT operations teams are preparing for dual-skill models—maintaining existing VMware environments while ramping up capabilities in KVM, cloud-native platforms, and HCI.
3. Market Realignment and Emerging Players
Forrester highlights increased attention toward:
- Red Hat / OpenShift Virtualisation
- Nutanix AHV
- SUSE Harvester
- Proxmox VE
- Public cloud native virtualisation (e.g. AWS Nitro, Azure Virtual Machines)
These platforms are benefiting from renewed interest in cost-predictable, open, and API-driven solutions. Channel partners and systems integrators are repositioning to support this vendor diversification.
4. Recommendations for IT Leaders
Forrester advises that CIOs and enterprise architects should:
- Reassess Platform Dependencies – Map technical and commercial lock-ins.
- Develop an Exit-Ready Architecture – Avoid premature commitment; build for optionality.
- Align Roadmaps with Cloud-Native Strategy – Focus on platforms that integrate with DevOps pipelines and observability tools.
- Engage Procurement Early – Set expectations around renewal risks and budgeting impact.
- Invest in Dual-Skilling – Enable teams to support both VMware and emerging alternatives during transition.
Key Takeaway
Forrester’s study signals a pivotal moment in enterprise IT planning—one that demands not just reactive mitigation, but proactive transformation.
The Broadcom-VMware acquisition has surfaced deep-rooted concerns around vendor concentration, pricing opacity, and roadmap control. Yet it has also catalysed a broader strategic awakening: enterprise IT must evolve to be more open, modular, and financially accountable.
The next wave of infrastructure strategy will not be defined by a single dominant platform, but by adaptability across stacks, ecosystems, and delivery models. This means designing infrastructure with the assumption that change is constant—vendor relationships shift, licensing models evolve, and technology lifecycles compress.
Enterprises that embrace this change can realise real benefits:
- Accelerated time-to-value from open virtualisation platforms.
- Resilience through multi-cloud and hybrid-native designs.
- Cost control enabled by modular procurement and consumption models.
- Greater alignment between infrastructure operations and business priorities.
In a world where control, transparency, and agility are paramount, Forrester makes clear: the most successful organisations will not be those that weather this disruption, but those that use it as a springboard for competitive reinvention.