VMware has become one of the most urgent infrastructure conversations for many enterprise technology leaders.
For years, VMware has sat at the centre of corporate infrastructure estates. It has supported virtualisation, data centre operations, application hosting and business-critical workloads across large organisations. Now, many CIOs are being forced to review what comes next.
In Levy Global’s recent market discussion, James Duke (Key Accounts Director for Levy Global UK) described VMware as a live priority for corporate clients, comparing it to the SAP ECC to S/4HANA transition. He said CIOs are actively assessing whether to move to the new platform or turn VMware off, with decisions expected over the next 12 to 18 months.
The official VMware/Broadcom position supports why this has become a board-level infrastructure issue. VMware announced the end of availability of perpetual licensing and a shift to subscription software, with VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation positioned as the two core offers.
There is also a support deadline already in play. VMware confirmed that vSphere 7.x and vSAN 7.x reached End of Service on 2 October 2025. After that date, customers still running those versions would no longer receive product support, security patches or updates.
Why this is more than a licensing issue
It would be easy to treat VMware change as a procurement problem. For most enterprises, it is much more than that. A VMware estate often touches infrastructure architecture, cloud strategy, security, disaster recovery, application dependencies, service continuity and cost control. Decisions around renewal, migration, re-platforming or modernisation can quickly become complex.
The key question is not just “What does VMware now cost?” It is “What should this infrastructure estate become?”
Some organisations may move further into VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vSphere Foundation. Others may assess public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, containerisation or alternative virtualisation platforms. Many will need to balance technical debt, risk, cost and operational resilience. That creates a significant delivery challenge.
The talent challenge behind VMware migration
VMware migration and infrastructure remediation programmes need a specific mix of capability.
Organisations may need infrastructure architects, VMware specialists, cloud engineers, security specialists, migration programme leads, DevOps engineers, service transition experts and application dependency specialists. The difficult part is that these programmes often run across live, business-critical environments. That means the talent requirement is not just technical. Businesses need people who can assess risk, map dependencies, work with application owners, manage migration sequencing and keep services stable during change. This is where many programmes become difficult.
A VMware decision can trigger a much wider remediation exercise. Ageing infrastructure, unsupported versions, security vulnerabilities, fragmented ownership and incomplete documentation can all surface once the programme begins.
Why CIOs should act early
The organisations most exposed are often those with large estates, complex dependencies or limited visibility across legacy environments. Waiting until renewal pressure or support risk becomes urgent can compress planning time. It can also create a more expensive talent problem, as multiple organisations compete for the same infrastructure and migration specialists at the same time.
A better starting point is to map the estate early. CIOs and technology leaders should understand which workloads are running on VMware, which versions are affected, where support risks exist, which applications are dependent on the environment and what skills are needed to deliver change safely. From there, the talent plan becomes clearer.
Some businesses will need permanent infrastructure leadership. Others will need contract specialists for discovery, remediation and migration delivery. Some will need a blended project team that can work across architecture, engineering, security and service transition.
The wider infrastructure modernisation opportunity
VMware change is not only a risk. For some organisations, it is a useful moment to rethink infrastructure strategy.
Legacy platforms, fragmented tooling and inherited architecture decisions can quietly constrain technology teams for years. A forced review can create the opportunity to improve resilience, simplify management and align infrastructure with future cloud, security and application goals but that only happens when the programme is treated strategically.
A narrow licensing response may solve the short-term commercial issue. A better infrastructure strategy can reduce operational friction and give technology teams a more stable platform for future change. For UK CIOs, the message is clear: VMware decisions should not be left until the last minute. The technology decision matters. The talent strategy behind it matters just as much.
