Architecture Principle: Migration is a control-plane and execution-physics transition. Relocating the VMDK is the absolute last layer you should move.
This repository consolidates the Rack2Cloud research on VMware and Broadcom exit strategy into a structured reference for architects and platform teams.
The Broadcom acquisition of VMware in 2023 forced a re-evaluation of enterprise virtualization strategy across the industry. This repository tracks the architectural dimensions of that transition: licensing economics, platform decision frameworks, migration mechanics, operational continuity, and post-exit failure modes.
The intended audience is architects, platform engineers, and technical leadership responsible for evaluating or executing a VMware exit.
Evaluate whether, when, and how to exit VMware.
Foundation
- The Broadcom Exit Strategy — The strategic framing for post-Broadcom architecture decisions.
- Broadcom Year Two: The Stay or Go Architecture Guide — 2026 decision framework for organizations still evaluating exit timing.
- The Architecture of Migration: Why Licensing Isn't Your Biggest Risk — Risk decomposition beyond licensing.
Legal and Commercial Context
- The Broadcom Legal Playbook: Why the VMware Lawsuits Are Accelerating Enterprise Exit Timelines — Legal pressure as an architectural accelerant.
- VMware Licensing Costs: Why Most Estimates Are Wrong — Cost estimation failures and how to correct them.
- March 31 Isn't a Deadline. It's a Forced Architecture Decision. — VCSP termination as an architectural event (March 2026, now completed).
Compare alternative platforms against VMware across relevant architectural dimensions.
Decision Frameworks
- Nutanix vs VMware: The Post-Broadcom Decision Framework (2026) — Structured platform comparison for the post-Broadcom environment.
- Proxmox vs Nutanix vs VMware: The Post-Broadcom Constraints No One Explains — Three-platform constraint analysis.
- Proxmox Isn't Replacing VMware. It's Replacing Assumptions. — Why Proxmox evaluations fail when assumptions aren't surfaced first. (Added 2026-06-30)
- Azure VMware Solution vs Native Azure: Architecture Trade-offs, Costs, and Exit Risk — Cloud exit path decision framework for Azure environments.
Operating Model Considerations
- The Hypervisor Is Not the Migration Target — The Operating Model Is — Why platform selection is the wrong starting point for exit planning. (Added 2026-06-30)
- The VMware Exit Has Entered the Coexistence Era — Current state of exit timelines and coexistence patterns.
Assess readiness, dependencies, and risk before migration begins.
Assessment Framework
- VMware Migration Strategy — Strategic migration framework.
- VMware Licensing Pressure Created a Dependency Audit Problem — How licensing pressure created undiscovered dependency exposure. (Added 2026-06-30)
- The Skills Gap Is the Real VMware Exit Risk — Skills and operational readiness as exit risk factors beyond licensing and platform.
Assessment Tools
- VMware Migration Readiness Assessment — Structured pre-migration readiness audit.
- VMware Licensing Cost Model — Licensing cost modeling tool.
- VMware to HCI Migration Advisor — Migration path decision support tool.
Design and execute the migration with architectural rigor.
Migration Architecture
- Nutanix vs VMware: Availability vs Authority in the Post-Broadcom Datacenter (2026) — Availability and authority as migration design constraints.
- Performance Modeling the VMware Evacuation: Nutanix AHV vs Proxmox Ceph Storage I/O Reality — Storage I/O performance modeling for migration planning.
- The Dashboard Said the Migration Succeeded — Why migration validation fails and what to measure instead.
Execution Patterns
- vSphere to AHV Migration Strategy: A Risk-Deterministic Framework for Legacy Workloads — Risk-deterministic framework for legacy workload migration.
- From vSphere to Nutanix AHV: The Deterministic Migration Checklist to Avoid the 99% Hang — Field checklist for AHV migration execution.
- Migration Stutter: Handling High-I/O Cutovers Without Data Loss — High-I/O cutover design.
- The Nutanix Migration Stutter: Why AHV Cutovers Freeze High-IO Workloads — AHV-specific cutover failure analysis.
Understand what breaks after the migration and how to design for survivability.
The Strategic Blueprint: Broadcom Exit Strategy: The Post-Broadcom Migration Architecture
Post-Exit Failure Modes
- Your VMware Exit Was Successful. The First Incident Will Tell You If That's True. — Post-exit operational survivability under real incident conditions. (Added 2026-06-30)
- What Breaks First After You Leave VMware — Inventory of post-exit failure modes by category. (Added 2026-06-30)
Operational Architecture
- Nutanix AHV Day-2 Operations: The Architectural Reality — Day-2 operational requirements on AHV post-migration.
- Nutanix AHV Operations: What Changes After VMware Migration — Operational change inventory for teams transitioning to AHV.
- Upgrade Physics: Designing for Rolling Maintenance Without Stopping Production — Maintenance architecture for post-migration environments.
Supporting architecture content for post-Broadcom infrastructure decisions.
Virtualization Architecture
- Beyond the VMDK: Translating Execution Physics from ESXi to AHV — Execution physics translation from ESXi to AHV.
- The CVM Tax: How Mis-Sized Controller VMs Quietly Kill AHV Performance — AHV controller VM sizing as a post-migration performance constraint.
- CPU Ready vs. CPU Wait: Why Your Cluster Looks Fine but Feels Slow — Performance modeling for post-migration cluster health.
Kubernetes as Exit Path
- Kubernetes as the VMware Exit Ramp: How Platform Teams Are Reducing VMware Dependence — Kubernetes as a parallel exit path.
The Virtualization Architecture Path provides the structured learning context for this repository's content.
Relevant modules:
- VMware Migration Strategy
- Virtualization Control Plane Architecture
- Virtualization Deterministic Operations
- Virtualization Foundations
Structured assessment paths for teams in active exit planning:
- VMware Migration Readiness Assessment — Pre-migration structured assessment.
- Architecture Audit Services — Full audit service catalog.
This repository is maintained against the Rack2Cloud Canonical Architecture Specifications governance system.
If this framework clarified your transition strategy and prevented a Day 2 outage, please star the repository.
Architectural frameworks maintained by Rack2Cloud