Why Many VMware Professionals Are Migrating in 2025

For years, VMware was the rock-solid foundation of enterprise virtualization. The gold standard. The name you slapped on a resume if you wanted to be taken seriously in IT infrastructure. But 2025? This is the year many longtime VMware pros finally stood up, looked around, and said: "We're done." This wasn't just a tech migration. It was a reckoning. ## The VVF Fallout The first domino? The death of VVF — VMware vSphere Foundation. For a lot of IT specialists, it was the sweet spot: priced just right, packed with the right features, and flexible enough for most customer environments. But Broadcom, fresh off their acquisition spree, didn't just tweak the SKU. They dropped it. Now, VMware reps are pushing VCF — VMware Cloud Foundation — as the new go-to. But the pitch isn't landing. "How do you sell VCF to someone who doesn't need NSX, Aria Automation, and all the bells and whistles?" one veteran user asked. The silence that followed was louder than any sales deck. Some folks tried to hang on, hoping transitional discounts or strategic pivots would smooth things over. But the brutal reality? Pricing went through the roof. "We were ready to pay for VVF," one admin shared, "but to drop the SKU and 4x the Enterprise+ price... I'm gone." ## Out of Comfort Zones, Into the Fire For many, 2025 became a forced evolution. Certified VMware experts, some with over a decade of hands-on experience, suddenly found themselves learning Proxmox, dusting off Hyper-V knowledge, or exploring Nutanix and KVM just to keep moving. One post nailed the collective vibe: "2025 was the year when many VMware experts left their comfort zone to explore alternatives... and found them." Some opted for soft retirement — a way to bow out gracefully instead of reinventing themselves at 59. Others leaned hard into upskilling. One engineer shared, "I spent the first half of the year deep in VCF to keep the homelab running. Then dove into Proxmox. Then Hyper-V. Then OpenShift. It hasn't stopped." And while the learning curve has been brutal for some, many are realizing: virtualization concepts are universal — it's just the syntax that changes. ## Proxmox: The Unexpected Winner? Proxmox wasn't supposed to be the hero of this story. It's open-source, relatively small in staff, and for years was considered a "homelab" solution. But it's suddenly the name on everyone's lips — not just in labs, but in production. "We did a full migration in under 3 weeks," one IT team shared. "It's been stable, performant, and costs a fraction of what VMware charged." One administrator even bragged about saturating iSCSI links with Proxmox — same as they had with VMware. Of course, it's not perfect. The lack of something like DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) is still a blocker for high-performance, bursty environments. Some engineers are cobbling together automation scripts or trying third-party load balancers. Others are just waiting, hoping the Proxmox team brings parity soon. Still, when support tickets get resolved in under an hour — and you don't need to escalate through 3 tiers of offshore reps — it's hard not to appreciate the responsiveness. "In twenty years of VMware, I never had anything like that," one former customer said. ## Hyper-V: Still in the Game (Barely) Hyper-V also got a second look this year. For some, it's a no-brainer — bundled with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, tightly integrated with existing tools, and mature enough for many workloads. But that's where the praise usually stops. The same complaints pop up like clockwork: no NFS support, patching nightmares, dependencies on Active Directory, and disjointed management tools. "It's like a cobbled-together solution that never got the polish it needed," one admin vented. Still, if the alternative is paying Broadcom-style premiums for features you don't need, some IT teams are willing to live with the quirks. ## The Homelab Revolution One of the more unexpected trends? The rise of the homelab as a proving ground for enterprise solutions. More engineers are running Proxmox, Nutanix CE, KVM, and even OpenShift at home. Not just for play — but for real testing, for real deployments. And honestly? Homelabs have become battlegrounds for upskilling and vetting next-gen architectures. "If I can get it stable in my homelab," one engineer said, "I know I can scale it up for clients." Of course, not everyone agrees. One comment captured the skepticism perfectly: "If your answer to enterprise infrastructure is 'I'll just replace it with what I have at home,' you've taken a wrong turn somewhere." Maybe. Or maybe it's just another sign that the old ways of testing and certifying solutions are evolving, too. ## Broadcom's Brand Problem Here's the thing. VMware's tech is still elite. No one's really disputing that. vSphere is battle-tested. DRS is magic. vSAN is solid. NSX, when implemented well, is powerful. But the problem now isn't the tech — it's the business. As one sysadmin put it, "Even if you want to stay with VMware, as a midsize provider, you literally can't buy the licenses you need anymore." Others complained about pricing volatility, disappearing SKUs, surprise changes, and partner models that forced uncomfortable decisions. "Their solution?" one engineer scoffed. "Sell your hardware to a partner. Or better — sell your whole company to a partner." There's a limit to how much whiplash customers will take before they jump ship — even if the waters are unfamiliar. ## Not Everyone's Leaving Let's be clear: VMware isn't dying. There are still major players doubling down. Some customers are going all-in on VCF, leaning into the full private cloud stack — NSX, Aria, VKS, Avi, the works. "Despite what people say, there are plenty of companies looking for exactly what VCF delivers," one pro said. "It does it extremely well." And for others, the ecosystem lock-in is just too strong to break free. Products like Zerto and Veeam have deep integrations with VMware that other platforms don't match — yet. Some workloads are just too mission-critical or custom-built to move. So yes, the VMware brand still carries weight. But the pendulum is swinging. And fast. ## Adapt or Step Aside For some, 2025 has been exhausting. But others see opportunity. As one commenter put it: "The Broadcom thing? Been here before. Novell. Lotus Notes. This is just another pivot." The best engineers are treating this moment not as an end, but as an upgrade path. A chance to test new platforms, rethink processes, and pick up new skills. Because whether it's Proxmox, Nutanix, Hyper-V, OpenShift Virtualization, or something else entirely — the next chapter of virtualization isn't going to be written in vSphere alone. And judging by the exodus, it already isn't.