One in five VMware customers plan to leave VMware in the coming year. After price increases and packages perceived as customer-unfriendly, the impending takeover by Broadcom would be the last straw for many.

Twenty percent of VMware customers would forego the virtualization specialist’s solutions in the coming year. That’s what Forrester analysts predict. Broadcom expects to complete its acquisition of VMware in the near future despite issues with Chinese regulators. The rest of the world has already agreed to the takeover. According to Forrester, this acquisition will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many and customers will look elsewhere.

More and more trouble

According to Forrester, the unpopular takeover is not the only reason. VMware made its offering significantly more expensive last year and increased licenses for vSphere, vCloud, vSAN, NSX and other services by ten percent. Additionally, new solutions such as VMware Aria and vSphere+ and vSAN+ are not universally welcomed. Some experience these services as mandatory subscriptions to software packages. The quality of care would also decrease over the years.

Nobody sees Broadcom as the party that will ensure order. On the contrary, in the past Broadcom has focused on the large customers with the highest margins after acquisitions, at the expense of other customers and the speed and quality of product development. There is therefore no sign that customers’ problems are actually going away. Customers would therefore look for alternatives to virtualization, cloud management and HCI.

Forrester notes that the exodus of one in five customers will begin next year. That doesn’t mean that these customers left immediately: VMware is virtually synonymous with the IT environment of many companies and a migration is not completed in a day.