VOOZH about

URL: https://thenewstack.io/want-to-escape-vmware-exit-with-platform-engineering/

⇱ How Platform Engineering Can Help Solve Vendor Lock-In - The New Stack


TNS
SUBSCRIBE
Join our community of software engineering leaders and aspirational developers. Always stay in-the-know by getting the most important news and exclusive content delivered fresh to your inbox to learn more about at-scale software development.
REQUIRED
It seems that you've previously unsubscribed from our newsletter in the past. Click the button below to open the re-subscribe form in a new tab. When you're done, simply close that tab and continue with this form to complete your subscription.
The New Stack does not sell your information or share it with unaffiliated third parties. By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Welcome and thank you for joining The New Stack community!
Please answer a few simple questions to help us deliver the news and resources you are interested in.
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Great to meet you!
Tell us a bit about your job so we can cover the topics you find most relevant.
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
REQUIRED
Welcome!

We’re so glad you’re here. You can expect all the best TNS content to arrive Monday through Friday to keep you on top of the news and at the top of your game.

What’s next?

Check your inbox for a confirmation email where you can adjust your preferences and even join additional groups.

Follow TNS on your favorite social media networks.

Become a TNS follower on LinkedIn.

Check out the latest featured and trending stories while you wait for your first TNS newsletter.

PREV
1 of 2
NEXT
VOXPOP
As a JavaScript developer, what non-React tools do you use most often?
Angular
0%
Astro
0%
Svelte
0%
Vue.js
0%
Other
0%
I only use React
0%
I don't use JavaScript
0%
Thanks for your opinion! Subscribe below to get the final results, published exclusively in our TNS Update newsletter:
NEW! Try Stackie AI
From clobbered drafts to real-time sync
Apr 14th 2026 10:00am, by David Moore
TypeScript 6.0 RC arrives as a bridge to a faster future
Mar 14th 2026 9:00am, by Darryl K. Taft
Mastra empowers web devs to build AI agents in TypeScript
Jan 28th 2026 11:00am, by Loraine Lawson
2024-02-06 09:27:23
How Platform Engineering Can Help Solve Vendor Lock-In
sponsor-humanitec,sponsored-post-contributed,
Kubernetes / Platform Engineering / Software Development

How Platform Engineering Can Help Solve Vendor Lock-In

It’s important to understand that the changes at VMware are inevitable, and time is short to begin an effective transition.
Feb 6th, 2024 9:27am by Luca Galante
👁 Featued image for: How Platform Engineering Can Help Solve Vendor Lock-In
Image from Prasan Maksaen on Shutterstock.
Humanitec sponsored this post.

Last year, Forrester predicted that 20% of VMware customers would ditch the ecosystem. With Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware, it looks like that is coming true — fast. Thousands of VMware customers have suddenly been hit by a wave of changes. Dozens of products are being dropped, permanent licences being abandoned and expected costs are seeing massive increases.

This is unsurprising, as with a new owner comes a new business focus. According to the Wall Street Journal, Broadcom has made it clear that its goal is to “focus completely on the needs and priorities of its top 600 customers.” This leaves more than 300,000 customers, many with heavy lock-in to VMware products, facing a very uncertain future.

In response, three platform engineering companies — Humanitec, Thoughtworks and Bechtle Competence Center AVS — have joined forces to help VMware customers build a simple and tested exit ramp using platform engineering and a modular internal developer platform.

The Possible Impact of These Changes

The degree to which these changes affect you depends on which VMware technologies you are using and your integration strategy. There are three different use cases:

  • Case 1: You are using Tanzu as the K8s dial tone. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) might run on VMware or any cloud provider.
  • Case 2: You are using Tanzu Application Service (TAS), the former Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF ). You are running on VMware or any cloud provider.
  • Case 3: You are using Tanzu Application Platform (TAP), and you are deeply integrated with all the special capabilities that VMware has built into it like Mission Control or Wavefront.

👁 Image

Those in the third case will face the highest lock-in and the first the lowest. Depending on your negotiating ability and the degree to which you’re locked in to VMware products, you are extremely likely to see large price increases and a drop in product development and support across all product lines.

If you are not absolutely certain that you are one of these 600 core customers that VMware will prioritize, it’s crucial that you begin your journey to exit the VMware ecosystem.

A Plan to Escape Vendor Lock-In

Case 1 is the simplest to leave. It has a fast and minimal-effort migration path that involves the transformation into a modular internal developer platform. This can be done in a short period of time.

Case 2 is more complex, however, still easily doable. You will replace the build packs of TAS with cloud native build packs and then orchestrate them with a platform orchestrator.

Case 3 is the most challenging, but also the most crucial for identifying an escape path from VMware, as this is where it will squeeze the most. There will be additional complexity due to the integration of your processes with fleet management, operations tooling and observability.

We discuss all of these cases, your risk and your migration and mitigation options in a detailed whitepaper. If you are one of VMware’s more than 300,000 customers — not yet affected by these changes — it’s important to understand that they are inevitable, and time is short to begin an effective transition.

The $61 billion that Broadcom paid for VMware is an incredible amount of money, and Broadcom intends to get it back.

Download the white paper now and start planning your escape.

Humanitec empowers platform engineers to build the perfect Internal Developer Platform for the enterprise. Our products enable platform teams to reduce cognitive load, drive standardization and slash time to market.
Learn More
The latest from Humanitec
TRENDING STORIES
Luca Galante is a product manager at Humanitec. He routinely speaks to tens of engineering teams every month. He summarizes his learnings and takeaways from looking at hundreds of DevOps setups into crisp, insightful reads for everyone in the industry,...
Read more from Luca Galante
Humanitec sponsored this post.
SHARE THIS STORY
TRENDING STORIES
Tanzu by Broadcom is a sponsor of The New Stack.
SHARE THIS STORY
TRENDING STORIES
TNS DAILY NEWSLETTER Receive a free roundup of the most recent TNS articles in your inbox each day.
The New Stack does not sell your information or share it with unaffiliated third parties. By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.