VMware After Broadcom: How to Migrate to Google Cloud VMware Engine Without Replatforming

The VMware contract renewal has arrived, and with it a bill that wasn’t in the plan. At many companies, data and AI projects were pushed to the next cycle because the infrastructure budget was already committed to keeping what exists running.

For CIOs and CTOs, the question is no longer whether it’s worth rethinking the VMware environment. It’s how to do it without stopping operations, without rewriting applications, and without losing the knowledge the team has built up over years of vSphere.

Migrating VMware to Google Cloud with Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) answers that question. The environment moves to Google’s cloud as it is and starts living, on the same network, alongside BigQuery, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI), and Gemini.

In this article, we explain what changed in licensing, how migration to GCVE works, what you gain, and how Maplink Cloud structures the path, from the TCO assessment to Google funding.

What changed in VMware licensing and why budgets got stuck

Since Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in late 2023, the commercial model has changed on four fronts:

1. The end of perpetual licenses. VMware is now sold by subscription only. Customers with perpetual licenses can keep running them, but support and updates only come with an active subscription.
2. A portfolio consolidated into bundles. More than 160 SKUs were folded into a handful of bundles, chiefly VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and vSphere Foundation (VVF). Features once bought separately now come in the bundle whether you use them or not.
3. Per-physical-core pricing. The metric moved from socket to core, with a minimum of 16 cores per CPU.
4. Minimum order sizes. In April 2025, Broadcom began requiring a minimum of cores per purchase, which weighs more heavily on smaller environments.

The practical effect goes beyond price. What used to be an investment with annual support became a recurring expense, negotiated in short windows with little room to reduce scope. Denser processors raise the core count, and the on-premises environment still carries the data center, power, hardware contracts, and refresh cycles.

The result is what many IT leaders describe as a budget trapped in renewals: money that should fund data, AI, and modernization goes to keeping the infrastructure standing. And renegotiating rarely changes that equation. What changes it is where and how the environment runs.

GCVE: the same vSphere, with no re-architecture

Google Cloud VMware Engine runs the complete VMware stack (vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX, and HCX) natively on dedicated Google infrastructure. Google handles the hardware, firmware, and platform updates. Your team keeps managing VMs with the same tools it uses today.

Migration uses VMware HCX itself, which comes already configured in the target environment. In practice, that means:

• No re-platforming. Applications aren’t rewritten or converted. The VM running in your data center today is the same one that will run on GCVE.
• No IP address changes. Network extension lets you migrate in waves, keeping IPs and dependencies between systems intact.
• Live or bulk migration. vMotion moves critical workloads with minimal interruption; bulk migration speeds through the rest.
• The same processes. Runbooks, security policies, and backup and monitoring tools stay valid.

For companies in Latin America, there’s an extra point: GCVE is available in the São Paulo and Santiago regions, which helps with latency and data residency requirements.

An important note on licensing

Since November 1, 2025, Broadcom has allowed VCF in public clouds only under a “bring your own license” (BYOL) model. Google was the first hyperscaler to offer this model, in 2024, and since October 15, 2025, it no longer sells new GCVE nodes with the VCF license included.

In practice, your VCF subscription goes with you to the cloud: you buy it directly from Broadcom and pay Google for the GCVE infrastructure nodes. What gets left behind is the rest of the bill: the data center, power, server refresh, and idle capacity, since on GCVE capacity is sized in nodes that you can add or remove as demand changes. That’s why any cost comparison has to account for both bills, Broadcom’s and Google’s.

In October 2026, Google also announced a self-managed VMware option that sits alongside managed GCVE. It runs VCF 9 on dedicated bare-metal infrastructure inside your own VPC, with full administrative access and a BYOL license. With managed GCVE, Google handles patching and updates; with the self-managed option, platform lifecycle management stays with your team or a partner. Availability is rolling out by region starting in the fourth quarter, so it’s worth confirming coverage in Latin America.

What you gain: BigQuery and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform next to your VMs

The biggest gain from migrating VMware to Google Cloud doesn’t show up on the infrastructure bill. It shows up in what the company can do with the data it already has.

On GCVE, VMs connect over a private, low-latency network to Google Cloud’s native services. Legacy systems that used to sit isolated in the data center start talking directly to Google’s data and AI platform:

• BigQuery for analytics. Data from your ERP, CRM, or operational systems can feed BigQuery without changing the source application. Reports that took hours run in seconds.
• Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) and Gemini on real data. AI models and agents can consume information from applications that stay on VMware. It’s the shortest path to getting AI projects out of the pilot stage.
• Modernization at your own pace. With the environment already on Google Cloud, each application can move to Compute Engine, GKE, or managed services when it makes sense for the business, not because of a deadline.

For companies with location-driven operations, such as logistics, insurance, retail, and utilities, there’s another layer. Operational data in BigQuery can be combined with Google Maps Platform to analyze routes, coverage, and demand by region. It’s a combination Maplink Cloud knows well, after more than 25 years working with geospatial data in Latin America.

In other words, migration stops being just a response to cost and becomes the foundation of your data and AI strategy.

From assessment to production: how Maplink Cloud leads the migration

Infrastructure decisions of this size need numbers from your environment, not market averages. That’s why Maplink Cloud organizes the journey in three stages, each with a concrete deliverable:

1. GCVE TCO assessment, in 30 minutes. With a basic inventory (number of VMs, hosts, cores, and contract renewal date), we compare the total cost of your current environment with the GCVE scenario: licensing, infrastructure, operations, and idle capacity. You leave the conversation with a clear view of where the cost sits and what changes with migration.
2. A 10-VM proof of concept in 2 weeks. We migrate real, low-criticality workloads using HCX. Your team validates performance, connectivity, and the rollback process before any larger commitment.
3. Wave-based migration and ongoing operations. Once the POC is approved, the rest of the environment migrates in planned waves. Afterward, Maplink Cloud Managed Services take over monitoring, capacity management, and 24/7 support in Portuguese and Spanish, backed by an SLA.

Google funding for migration

The cost of the migration itself doesn’t have to come entirely out of your budget. Through the Rapid Migration and Modernization Program (RaMP), which Google renewed in January 2026, Google funds partners to assess your environment, build the business case, and carry out the migration.

The program also provides Google Cloud credits as usage grows and additional incentives for complex workloads, including VMware. Eligibility and amounts are determined case by case. As a Premier Partner for Google Cloud, Maplink Cloud structures the proposal and manages the approval process with Google.

Why migrate with Maplink Cloud

Maplink Cloud has spent more than 25 years bringing together geolocation, cloud, and data intelligence for companies across Latin America, with operations in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. As a Premier Partner for Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform, with a Cloud & AI First approach, we handle the full journey: assessment, landing zone, migration, data with BigQuery, and AI with Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and Gemini.

The difference shows up the day after migration. Your team gains a partner that knows the environment, responds in your language, and operates under an SLA, so engineers can go back to building product instead of maintaining infrastructure.

Conclusion

Broadcom’s changes turned the VMware renewal into a strategic decision. Standing still is also a choice, and it’s usually the most expensive one. With Google Cloud VMware Engine, you can leave the data center without rewriting applications, keep the tools your team has mastered, and put your company’s data within reach of BigQuery and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. With Google funding, part of the path comes already financed.

The first step takes half an hour.

Get a GCVE TCO assessment with Maplink Cloud ➜

Find out, with numbers from your own environment, how much of the budget trapped in renewals could go back to data and AI.