Broadcom has burned all the bridges with VMware customers and channel partners, according to critics. While migrating to the new vSphere Standard release may be easier from vSphere 8, trust has been shattered. A Reddit user named bakonpie wrote, "Too little, too late. We've moved on."

Broadcom's interest in smaller sales comes as rivals court disgruntled VMware users. Sumit Bhatia, co-author of Navigating VMware Turmoil in the Broadcom Era, told Ars Technica, "An updated vSphere Standard signals Broadcom heard the market, but three years of neglect, quote refusals, and VCF-only sales tactics have already pushed many SMBs toward Nutanix, Proxmox, and Microsoft Hyper-V. Trust, not features, is the real deficit."

Bhatia outlined requirements for a vSphere Standard update: predictable pricing, a genuine capped-term or perpetual license option, core features like vMotion and High Availability without upsell gates, and simplified per-socket licensing. He added, "VMware's biggest challenge is convincing a burned market that Broadcom won't repeat the bait-and-switch once switching costs make customers captive again."

Broadcom's software business has thrived since the VMware takeover, making $8.75 billion in revenue (a 29 percent year-over-year increase) in fiscal Q3 2026. If Broadcom makes vSphere Standard more appealing, some SMBs may stick with VMware instead of migrating.