VMware Cloud Foundation migration FAQ

Q: Why is October 11, 2027, important for VMware customers?

A: The date is critical for customers still operating on VMware vSphere that haven’t migrated to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

VMware vSphere 8 reaches end of general support on October 11, 2027. This date signals a major milestone for organizations still running traditional VMware environments. VCF 9 is Broadcom’s stated strategic platform moving forward and represents the long-term path for customers that want to remain on the company’s fully supported platform.

While 2027 may seem far in the future, IT decisions take time. Infrastructure planning, hardware refreshes, licensing decisions, and migration projects can take months or years to complete. Organizations that begin evaluating their options now are less likely to be pressured into infrastructure decisions. They have more flexibility, better budgeting visibility, and less operational risk than those waiting until renewal time. It will also ease the pain of the migration process and protect the value of resources already purchased.

While vSphere sunsets in 2027, organizations that begin evaluating their options now are less likely to be pressured into infrastructure decisions.

Q: Does the October 2027 deadline mean that our organization must migrate to VCF immediately?

A: Not necessarily.

The first step is understanding your current environment, workloads, licensing position, and business objectives. Every organization has its own starting point. Some customers are ready to migrate directly to VCF, while others need a phased strategy that aligns with existing investments, budget, hardware lifecycles, and modernization goals.

SHI is a strategic partner that helps establish a roadmap that balances technical requirements, budget constraints, operational readiness, and future business needs. SHI’s VMware Strategic Assessment can help clarify the best path forward before an organization makes significant investments.

Q: Our organization is concerned about rising VMware costs. What should we do?

A: Most organizations should evaluate ways to optimize their existing environment before making major platform decisions that follow. This is a critical reason to evaluate your environment before the October 2027 deadline.

Many VMware environments have accumulated years of overprovisioned virtual machines (VMs), unused resources, redundant workloads, or infrastructure sized for past business requirements. These inefficiencies often inflate licensing and infrastructure costs.

SHI helps customers navigate complex challenges to optimize their VMware investment. It helps customers with the following critical tasks:

• Assess current VMware utilization; outline future VMware needs
• Identify unused or underutilized resources
• Right-size workloads
• Consolidate infrastructure where appropriate
• Align licensing with business requirements
• Improve operational efficiency before migration
• Develop a FinOps approach (a practice to optimize IT spending) to VMware deployments

By optimizing first, organizations often gain better visibility into what they truly need from VMware and where future investments will generate the greatest value.

By optimizing first, organizations often gain better visibility into what they truly need from VMware now and in the future.

 Q: Can cost optimization benefit organizations already running VCF?

A: Yes. VCF adoption is not the finish line in your journey to modernize your infrastructure. Organizations already running VCF can still benefit from ongoing optimization efforts to ensure they are consuming what they paid for.

SHI helps customers evaluate myriad factors:

• Resource utilization
• Capacity planning
• Automation opportunities
• Storage and networking efficiencies
• Operational processes
• Day-two management practices (monitoring, backup, validation, knowledge transfer)

The goal is to ensure customers realize the value of the platform rather than simply adopt it.

Q: Is VCF just a licensing change from vSphere?

A: No.

While licensing often initiates the conversation, VCF is fundamentally a private cloud platform that integrates compute, storage, networking, automation, management, and security into a unified operational model.

Organizations that approach VCF as only a licensing exercise miss opportunities to improve agility, simplify operations, reevaluate resource use, and modernize infrastructure architectures. SHI encourages customers to evaluate VCF as a broader platform decision rather than just a renewal event.

Q: How does VMware fit into long-term AI strategies?

A: For many organizations, VMware is becoming the foundation and “on ramp” for private AI initiatives.

As enterprises look to deploy AI while maintaining control over data, security, governance, and compliance, private cloud infrastructure is increasingly important. VCF offers a platform to support traditional workloads alongside AI-ready infrastructure and private AI capabilities.

Rather than treating AI as a separate project, many organizations now use vSphere and VCF modernization efforts as the avenue to build a foundation for future AI initiatives.

Q: What if we’re not ready for a private cloud for AI today?

A: You’re not alone. While 56 percent of enterprises now run or plan to run AI inference on private clouds given increasing costs, data privacy, and geopolitical and regulatory factors. But that indicates a good portion of enterprises aren’t ready to build or use private cloud infrastructure as a runway for AI initiatives. And according to Deloitte, 85 percent are planning on-premises clouds to deploy AI.

Most organizations are still determining how AI will fit into their business, operational, and technology strategies. The important question is whether infrastructure decisions made today will enable future AI adoption or make it more difficult.

SHI helps customers evaluate how current VMware investments can support future private AI requirements, ensuring infrastructure decisions align with both present needs and long-term innovation goals.

According to Deloitte research, 85 percent of organizations are planning on-premises clouds to deploy AI.

Q: Why work with SHI as your organization navigates this transition?

A: The VMware landscape has changed significantly. Licensing models, platform architectures, hardware requirements, operational practices, and partner ecosystems have evolved.

Going forward, organizations need a partner that understands the nuances of VMware platform models and licensing, understands your IT environment, and can map your business requirements to IT infrastructure decisions. As Broadcom continues to reshape its authorized partner roster, organizations may find themselves affected by the reduction of partners available to help navigate their VMware estate.

SHI remains a top-tier, authorized VMware by Broadcom partner with more than 30 years of experience.

Your organization needs a partner that grasps the nuances of VMware platform models, that understands your IT environment, and that can map business requirements to IT infrastructure. Further, VMware has reduced its authorized partner roster. If your organization finds itself affected by the slimmed list of partners, SHI may be able to step into the gap and help.

SHI provides guidance throughout the entire VMware lifecycle, including strategic assessment, licensing and migration planning, and AI readiness planning.

Rather than force-fitting a one-size-fits-all recommendation, SHI helps organizations understand their options, including adopting phased changes, and build a roadmap based on their IT environment and business goals.

Q: How does SHI meet VMware customers where they are?

A: Every VMware customer is at a different point in its journey.

Some are still evaluating the implications of the 2027 planning milestone. Others need to reduce costs. Some are planning their VCF migration. Others have already deployed VCF and are exploring private AI opportunities.

SHI’s approach begins with understanding the customer’s current IT environment, VMware state, and desired outcomes. From there, SHI helps create a practical roadmap that may include assessment, optimization, modernization, deployment, or AI enablement services based on the organization’s priorities.

Q: What should our organization do first: Rationalize licensing? Migrate to VCF? Build an AI-ready private cloud strategy?

A: Start with an assessment.

Before making major licensing, infrastructure, or AI investments, organizations should understand these issues:

• Current VMware utilization
• Cost and licensing exposure
• Hardware readiness
• Operational capabilities
• Migration complexity
• AI readiness
• Long-term private cloud objectives

A strategic assessment helps organizations make informed decisions and develop a roadmap that reduces risk while maximizing the value of VMware investments. SHI’s VMware Strategic Assessment provides scenario-based inputs that leaders can use to plan renewals, budgets, and platform decisions with confidence.

 

Get the SHI VMware Strategic Assessment.