Broadcom confirms change in VMware migration tool access
Broadcom reps confirmed a recent change in the availability of the VDDK library that had other ecosystem players crying foul last week.
By
Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer
Published: 09 Sep 2026
Broadcom recently revoked public access to a VMware software library widely used by other vendors to facilitate migrations to alternative server virtualization platforms, the vendor confirmed to TechTarget this week.
In an email Tuesday afternoon, a company spokesperson said the library, VDDK, is meant only for backup and recovery of VMware virtual machines by licensed VMware customers, and the recent removal of the utility from public download pages reflects that.
"The ability for individual organizations to download VDDK recently changed," the spokesperson wrote. "The approved use case for VDDK per the SDK [Software Development Kit] license has always been for backup and recovery solutions from our TAP [Technology Alliance Program] partners, and this change merely re-enforces those terms."
The library, which was previously freely available for download on a Broadcom developer page that now returns an error message, underpins VMware migration toolkits from several IT infrastructure vendors, including Microsoft Azure Migrate, Red Hat's Migration Toolkit, and Nutanix Move. All of these vendors' websites showed updates after August 25, reflecting that VDDK files were no longer publicly available.
Red Hat's support website said it didn't yet have a direct replacement for VDDKs as a workaround because the software is proprietary, licensed and can't be directly copied as an open source tool.
There are alternative methods for migrating VMware environments to other platforms using external storage systems. Many customers unhappy with new Broadcom licensing terms introduced after its $61 billion VMware acquisition in 2023 had already downloaded VDDK files, as well.
But other customers now approaching the renewal of their initial three-year contracts with Broadcom, signed just after the acquisition, could be challenged by the VDDK change, said Mike Leone, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
Mike Leone
"A whole lot of customers signed three-year deals right after the price increases hit, and those are coming up for renewal now," said Mike Leone, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "When they see the new number, that is usually when they stop talking about leaving and actually start planning to leave, and leaving is getting easier, because three years ago you had to piece a migration together yourself. Now vendors sell tools that do it.
"For buyers, whether your migration tool can still get that library is now more of a contract question, so I'd be asking your vendor how they are getting it," Leone said.
Ecosystem players cry foul over radio silence
Some VMware migration tool vendors, such as ShapeBlue and Platform9, protested the change in blog posts last week. ShapeBlue offers VMware migration services to Apache CloudStack; Platform9 markets migration to its Private Cloud Director.
"There has been no announcement from Broadcom," said an Aug. 25 post by ShapeBlue technical marketing manager Marco Sinhorelli. "No deprecation notice, no retention policy, no archive, and no stated route for a customer or a small vendor to obtain the library."
Platform9 VP of marketing Nicole Silva accused Broadcom of attempting to lock in VMware customers by changing access to VDDK.
"By publicly restricting access, without warning, Broadcom disrupted many migrations that were already in-flight," Silva wrote on Sept 1. "The signal to the market was clear – they intend to lock customers in further."
Broadcom reps did not directly respond to these comments, but issued this statement to TechTarget:
"Access to the VDDK is still available through select TAP partners for its licensed use case, which has always been backup and recovery. Customers needing backup and recovery capabilities can choose from the many approved solutions already available from these partners. The VDDK is not a customer entitlement. It is a software development kit covered by its own developer license and was never included with a Broadcom software purchase."
Industry analysts diverged on Broadcom's claim that VDDK was only ever meant for backup and recovery.
"Broadcom was closing a loose end, since it has spent the last few years shutting down anything it supported for free," Leone said. "Where I'd push back is the idea that it was only ever for licensed backup users, since anyone with a free developer account could download it for years."
Other companies interpreted the situation that way, but that doesn't mean it matched Broadcom's intentions, said Matthew Flug, an analyst at IDC.
Even though it was never intended to help migrations away from VMware, eliminating VDDK certainly increases the potential of vendor lock-in.
Matthew Flug, Analyst, IDC
"That use case was definitely not Broadcom's original intention," Flug said. "Removing this capability is consistent with focusing on [the new VMware Cloud Foundation suite's] core capabilities and relying on partners for other capabilities."
Either way, Flug echoed Leone in saying that IT buyers exploring a VMware migration must question vendors offering tools to assist that process about their dependence on VDDK.
"Even though it was never intended to help migrations away from VMware, eliminating VDDK certainly increases the potential of vendor lock-in," Flug said.
'Moat' protection or low-end strategy shift?
The customers most likely to be affected by this change will be smaller organizations leaning on a vendor for help to migrate in a way that avoids using a more expensive storage-based approach, said Keith Townsend.
"If I don't have money to pay for VMware extended licensing, then I'm likely to be price-conscious about the migration, so I'm going to ask Nutanix and Red Hat how I can avoid purchasing other tooling," Townsend said. "They are going to point me to VDDK -- This isn't something I would have likely found on my own… Larger shops use supported migration tools. Not developer kits."
Since the Broadcom deal closed, the company's CEO, Hock Tan, has focused on reporting adoption of VCF among VMware's top 10,000 customers, leaving the future for smaller customers an open question.
For now, it's unclear whether the VDDK change will coincide with a shift in Broadcom's strategy at the low end of its customer base, following a published report last week that the low-end vSphere Standard license will soon receive an update.
"Not sure this is a change in strategy for Broadcom, but more a continuation of what they are doing to create and keep a moat," said Rob Strechay, lead analyst at VB Intelligence. "Although customers have many paths to larger production features, with or without VMware, they will make their path to VCF the easiest and make it hard to switch to any other platform."
Broadcom officials would neither confirm nor deny the report of vSphere Standard update plans this week.
"Broadcom remains committed to supporting organizations of all sizes with solutions spanning our VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere portfolio," a company spokesperson wrote in an email to TechTarget. "This includes VMware vSphere Standard, which is currently available and supported in select markets. We continuously evaluate our [product] mix based on customer and partner feedback to ensure we offer the best solutions for their requirements."
Beth Pariseau, senior news writer for Informa TechTarget, is an award-winning veteran of IT journalism. Have a tip? Email her or connect on LinkedIn.
Mike Leone
