Why Are Organizations Migrating VMware to the Cloud?
Quick answer: Organizations around the globe are increasingly migrating VMware to the cloud because of increased licensing costs by Broadcom, scalability issues, and the desire to move to the cloud for better data recovery and security concerns.
VMware ran quietly in the background of most enterprise data centers for two decades. Then Broadcom bought VMware in 2023 and changed the rules. Perpetual licenses disappeared. Bundled subscriptions replaced à la carte pricing. Many IT leaders opened their renewal quote and found it two to five times higher than before.
A widely referenced 2025 Forbes analysis summarizes the current market sentiment:
“Customers are scrambling for VMware alternatives or reluctantly accepting Broadcom’s new rules.”
Source: Forbes
That price shock started the conversation. But it isn’t the only reason teams are moving. Below are the driving factors behind the shift:
Most VMware migration content jumps straight to tools. That’s a mistake. The right questions come first, and they shape every decision that follows.
1. Are your applications cloud-ready?
Some legacy apps assume local storage paths or hardware dongles. Find these before you plan a wave.
2. What are your workload dependencies?
An app rarely stands alone. Map what talks to what before you move anything.
3. What downtime can the business tolerate?
A finance system and an internal wiki have very different tolerance levels.
4. Which workload should remain on-premise?
Not everything needs to move. Some workloads are cheaper or safer where they are.
5. Do you need application modernization?
Some apps are worth refactoring during the move. Most are not, at least not yet.
6. What compliance requirements apply?
Data residency and industry regulations can rule out certain regions or services outright.
7. Have you estimated migration costs?
Include network, tooling, staff time, and parallel-running costs, not just cloud infrastructure.
Answering these honestly, before vendor conversations start, keeps the project grounded in your actual environment instead of a generic playbook.
Every workload fits one of six migration paths. Picking the wrong one is the single biggest cause of migration delays.
| Strategy | Best For | Downtime | Complexity |
| Rehost | Legacy applications | Low | Low |
| Replatform | Moderate optimization | Medium | Medium |
| Refactor | Cloud-native transformation | High | High |
| Repurchase | SaaS adoption | Medium | Medium |
| Retain | Specialized workloads | None | Low |
| Retire | Obsolete applications | None | Low |
The three major VMware-native cloud services look similar on paper. The differences show up in ecosystem fit.
Pros: It promotes deep integration with Entra ID, Microsoft 365, and existing Azure workloads. Suitable for businesses already using Microsoft tools.
Cons: Not so beneficial for organizations that are not Microsoft-centric.
Best for: Enterprises running Active Directory, M365, or Dynamics 365 alongside VMware.
Pros: Powerful data analytics and AI tooling once workloads land in Google Cloud.
Cons: Not so big VMware-specific partner ecosystem compared to Azure and AWS.
Best for: Businesses who want to choose Google’s AI stack and BigQuery.
Pros: Mature service with strong global region coverage and comprehensive AWS service integration.
Cons: Pricing is complicated, and Microsoft workload integration is ineffective than Azure’s.
Best for: Organizations already leveraging workloads on AWS.
A structured roadmap keeps a migration from turning into a series of fire drills. Each step feeds the next. Skipping discovery to save time, for example, usually shows up later as a missed dependency during cutover, which costs far more time to fix.
Assess: Discover workloads, assess infrastructure, map dependencies, and evaluate cloud readiness.
Decide: Select the migration approach, then plan networking and security requirements.
Migrate: Run a pilot, execute migration waves, and validate workloads after cutover.
Optimize: Tune performance, resolve issues, and optimize cloud costs for long-term efficiency.
Microsoft recommends structured planning through the Cloud Adoption Framework paired with Azure VMware Solution guidance. This pairing gives teams a governance model alongside the technical migration path, rather than treating governance as an afterthought.
| Tool | Best For | Live Migration | Cloud |
| VMware HCX | Enterprise VMware environments | Yes | Azure, AWS, GCP |
| Azure Migrate | Azure migrations | Limited | Azure |
| Azure VMware Solution | VMware on Azure | Yes | Azure |
| AWS Application Migration Service | AWS | Limited | AWS |
| Google Migrate to Virtual Machines | GCP | Limited | GCP |
In our migration engagements, the projects that stay on schedule are the ones that treat the pilot wave as a real test, not a formality. Teams that skip a genuine pilot tend to discover dependency gaps mid-migration, when fixing them costs far more time and trust. - Cloud experts at Beyond Key
| Challenge | Solution |
| Application dependencies | Dependency mapping |
| Downtime | Live migration or phased waves |
| Licensing | Early assessment |
| Network redesign | Cloud landing zones |
| Security | Zero Trust validation |
| Skills gap | Managed migration partner |
| Cost overruns | FinOps governance |
| Performance issues | Right-sizing and monitoring |
Moving off VMware touches infrastructure, security, cost, and application teams at once. Few internal teams have bandwidth to run a full migration alongside their regular workload. Beyond Key supports each stage of that process, from the first readiness assessment through post-migration optimization:
Beyond Key is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with 20+ years of experience. We are HIPAA compliant, SOC II Type and ISO Certified.
Industries we serve: Healthcare, Manufacturing, eCommerce, Logistics, Finance & Banking, Education, Automotive and more. Here are the certifications our professionals hold: AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate, AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Solution Architect, AZ-400 Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate and Terraform associate.
One of our real-world case studies:
Client name: SZUL, a renowned Manhattan-based online jeweler
What they wanted: An attractive, heavily featured website with a database, high-end applications (both web and mobile), high storage, and computing capacity for fast performance and 24/7 availability.
How did we help? Beyond Key helped SZUL set up AWS cloud computing services to increase website performance and handle extreme traffic during the peak season. Our cloud experts used load balancers, Amazon S3 Glacier, cloud-based Amazon S3 and a lot of features to improve the overall website’s performance. You can learn in detail how we helped SZUL perform well here.
To learn more about our projects, you can download our case studies from here.
For organizations considering VMware migration, choosing the cloud platform is only part of the decision.
A capable cloud service provider should help answer questions such as:
The strongest providers don’t simply move VMs.
They help organizations build a better infrastructure operating model.
