How you can migrate off VMware without VDDK
Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023 and since then they have inflicted hit after hit on their customers. The latest, on August 25, 2026, saw Broadcom officially restrict public access to the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK), cutting off the standard public URLs with no warning.
This added insult to injury. Not only are they restricting your path off the platform, essentially making your data center their decision, they’re also hitting their install base with renewal after renewal, each carrying increases of 300% to 1,500%. This comes on the heels of rising memory costs, longer storage lead times, and an AI boom that’s taxing infrastructure everywhere. For many technology leaders, budgeting has become an impossible game of Tetris.
We’ll get off the soap box for now, but let’s dive into what this new reality means for customers.
What this means for VMware customers
Nearly all migration tools on the market have relied on the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) as their primary mechanism for VM migration.
“To ensure the highest standard of security, reliability, and product features, the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) is no longer available for use or download. Broadcom continues to actively maintain a variety of APIs and SDKs to enable authorized technology alliance partners to build backup and recovery software solutions…”
-Broadcom’s official response provided by Broadcom Customer Care to their affected users
By publicly restricting access, without warning, Broadcom disrupted many migrations that were already in-flight. The signal to the market was clear – they intend to lock customers in further.
You have options: take back control
If you’re using or assessing vJailbreak, there’s good news: you have more than one path forward. Today, Platform9 customers have three exit paths off VMware with vJailbreak.
- VDDK + NBD: Requires manual VDDK setup and Broadcom access, which is now at risk with VDDK downloads pulled. However, this still works if you have a cached copy.
- Storage Assisted: Fastest, safest, cold migration path. In this mode, vJailbreak offloads the data copy to the underlying storage array. Fully compatible with iSCSI and FC based storage array, no VDDK dependency. A known limitation currently is NFS environments.
- Accelerated Copy:Use of VDDK + NBD has many restrictions including bandwidth. vJailbreak has another mode of operation where vJailbreak uses a proxy VM in VMware to connect directly to VM storage, no NBD or VDDK needed. Works across all storage arrays and is faster with higher throughput as compared to VDDK + NBD
A history of disrupting customers
This isn’t the first time Broadcom has mistreated VMware customers.
- Nov 2023: Broadcom closes its $61B acquisition of VMware.
- Dec 2023: Perpetual licenses end; VMware moves to subscription-only.
- Jan 2024: Original partner program terminated; replaced by invite-only Advantage Partner Program.
- Feb 2024: Free ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor) discontinued.
- Mar–Apr 2024: VCPP winds down; subscription licensing takes effect, shifting pricing from metered RAM to per-CPU-core.
- 2024–2025: Product catalog collapses into bundled suites; entry-level editions cut; 16-core minimums and steep renewal penalties drive reported price increases of 300-1,500%.
- Jun 2025: Partner tiers consolidated to three: Pinnacle, Premier, Select.
- Sep–Oct 2025: VCSP program restructured to invite-only; non-invited partners get non-renewal notices and a transition deadline of Oct 31; White Label model sunsets.
- Jan 2026: VCSP invite-only takes full effect; 400+ US partners lose ability to sell new licenses or onboard customers.
- Feb–Mar 2026: Displaced VCSPs told to close pipeline by Mar 31 and hand off customers to retained partners.
- Aug 2026: VDDK download pages pulled with no announcement or replacement, cutting off a dependency the whole migration-tooling ecosystem relied on.
- Oct 2027 (ahead): General support for vSphere 8 (last perpetual version) ends.
History says this won’t be the last change. Time to say enough is enough.
Platform9 takes on the risk of a VMware exit
Migrations are risky, and no one wants to be the one who signs off on a migration that fails.
The VMware migration that most people have never done, we do every day. The question we get asked all the time is “how long does it take?” The standard answer is “it depends,” and while that’s true, we can confidently say we migrate 100s of VMs every day.
We removed the risk. Platform9 is offering a 60-Day Production Ready Guarantee. You define the 60-day milestone, we build an SOW around it. If we don’t hit it, you walk.
The latest development from Broadcom is sure to compound the frustration many customers are already feeling – but let it also be a reminder that more flexible options do exist.
This way out.
Author
