VMware has defended its decision to end public downloads of its Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK). VDDK is an SDK that a Broadcom technical document describes as “a set of libraries and utilities that enable software developers to create applications that can access and manipulate virtual disks used” and also “provides APIs for backup and recovery, cloning, and other operations on virtual disks.” Those qualities mean VDDK is also useful when moving VMs from VMware to another virtualization environment. VMware’s rivals spotted that and made VDDK part of their migration tools. Nutanix’s Move, for example, requires a VDDK library to do the job. Red Hat also recommends using VDDK for migrations. ShapeBlue, an integrator that specializes in Apache CloudStack, an alternative to VMware, rates VDDK as an important part of migration tools. “The virt-v2v engine that sits underneath most VMware-to-KVM conversion work supports VDDK as an input transport,” the company wrote in late August. ShapeBlue’s post appeared a day or two after VMware, without fanfare or an explanation, took down the web pages that offered VDDK downloads. “A vendor is entitled to change how it distributes an SDK,” ShapeBlue wrote. “Doing it without a word, while the Apache CloudStack administration guide and other projects’ install instructions still tell people to click a link that no longer resolves, is something else.” “The cost lands unevenly too,” the company added. “A large backup vendor with a partner relationship has someone to call. A three-person migration consultancy, an open-source project, or a customer converting their own workloads has a forum post and a 404.” In an email to The Register, VMware defended its actions. To understand its response, know that VMware calls third party developers who work with its products technology alliance partners – aka “TAPs”. “Access to the VDDK is still available through select TAP for its licensed use case, which has always been backup and recovery,” VMware told The Register. “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,” a company spokesperson added. VMware’s argument is therefore that users should not expect they can use VDDK, and that migrations is an unlicensed use case for the tool – which remains available as part of products from TAP members. VMware’s rivals have pointed out that ending public VDDK downloads could disrupt some migration projects that have already commenced, making the withdrawal of downloads jarring given the virtualization giant hasn’t previously policed use of the SDK. Services organizations that perform VMware migrations have found workarounds that make it possible to migrate VMs without needing VDDK. VMware’s decision to stop public VDDK downloads comes at a time when its changed licensing policies have seen some users either consider reducing their use of its products – as was the case at VMware channel partner Rackspace – or shifting to a rival platform. VDDK has been downloadable for years and VMware cannot have been ignorant of how its rivals used the SDK to facilitate migrations. It’s therefore not hard to conclude that this is a defensive move by VMware, given it allowed downloads for years. Moving VMs is, however, among the easier parts of a virtualization migration project. Rebuilding or replacing the entirety of a virtualized environment, across networks, security, and storage, is the hard part and VMware knows it - which is why it offers a site recovery tool that doubles as a migration utility. Removing easy access to VDDK therefore doesn’t change much for those planning a move away from VMware. ®

The price of eggs and butter might have soared in the last couple of years, but if you want a real sticker shock horror story, ask a VMware customer. After Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023, some of them complained about hypervisor licenses rising by up to 600 percent. Add to that the difficulty in refreshing hardware thanks to supply-chain delays, and the enterprise AI plan your board is asking for begins to look like a distant dream. Migrating comes with costs too. It isn’t just a compute-level move; networking, storage, management tools, and security all come along for the ride. Gartner found projects taking 18 to 48 months, at $300 to $3,000 per VM. On October 7 at The Brewery in London, Nutanix will help you tackle the migration problem and set up a solid AI strategy at the same time. .NEXT on Tour London is a free, day-long event for infrastructure leaders, cloud architects, platform engineers and datacenter managers. It’s a chance to share coffee with your peers and lament the pain of being a tech leader during one of the craziest moments in the industry, while exploring the way forward. Ideally, you’ll walk away with a migration blueprint at the end of the day. The details of everyone’s blueprint will vary, but one thing will likely be the same: a software-first approach. With new tin currently costing two limbs and your first-born, Nutanix will counsel you to sweat your assets or harness the cloud. Deploying software that ties together and manages your existing infrastructure will be a key theme, with sessions on external storage integrations and hardware reuse. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it on-premises or in the cloud, or both; the executive keynote from Nutanix chief technology officer Manosiz Bhattacharyya focuses on choice. Making migration hurt less is only one goal for the day. The other is working out an AI strategy that you can pursue with the money you’ll save. Everyone’s talking about this but it’s a challenge; only 37% of AI initiatives over the past 12 months were classified as live and delivering value, per S&P Global. You can learn how to control token costs and tackle the scourge of shadow AI with Nutanix Agentic Gateway. If migrating your infrastructure and readying it for AI seems daunting, take a breath and listen to the guest speaker Bonita Norris, the youngest person to reach both the North Pole and the summit of Everest. That’ll give you some perspective. Attendance is free. Secure your place here. Sponsored by Nutanix.

EXCLUSIVE What's old is new again as VMware will soon release an updated version of vSphere Standard, the low-end server virtualization bundle that it hasn’t significantly changed for years and has scarcely promoted since its 2023 acquisition by Broadcom. VMware’s hero product for the last three years has been the Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud bundle. vSphere Standard and another low-end suite called vSphere Enterprise Plus remained on VMware’s list of products, but the website mentioning the products devotes a handful of words to each. The Register has often heard VMware, and its partners, would not issue subscription renewal quotes for the low-end products or only offer quotes that suggested adopting VCF instead. VCF is more powerful than standalone vSphere but more complex and costly – and also overkill for basic server virtualization. We’ve also heard that Broadcom sold another smaller bundle – vSphere Foundation – almost exclusively to customers that also acquired VCF but needed something smaller than VCF for some sites. Speaking to The Register at the VMware Explore conference on Wednesday, Paul Turner, chief product officer for VMware’s Cloud Foundation Division, said that the Broadcom business unit has changed the incentives that saw salespeople steer customers toward VCF. “We corrected this,” Turner said, adding that VMware has sometimes had “too big a focus on VCF.” VMware’s last major release of vSphere Standard came in 2022 with version 8. In 2025, VMware delivered version 9 of vSphere along with VCF 9 – but didn’t release a new cut of vSphere Standard. Turner said that decision was taken because VMware chose to focus on improving the security of VCF. Ram Velaga, president of Broadcom’s Infrastructure Software Group, told The Register VMware decided to focus on VCF because it wanted to shift the prevailing narrative that public clouds are the natural home for workloads, and instead argue that private clouds are more cost effective and easier to operate. Bringing a new low-end server virtualization offering to market at that time may have confused customers, he told The Register. “People could get distracted,” he said, suggesting that VMware could have prompted questions about the extent of its commitment to private clouds. Velaga said vSphere Standard is suited to users who operate around 128 cores. Turner mentioned memory tiering as a possible feature of the product. As it happened, Turner and Velaga’s remarks came on the same day that Proxmox, the provider of an open-source virtualization and containerization platform, announced it had opened a North American office and started to offer 24x7 support for the first time. The Austria-based company previously only supported its wares during local business hours. The Register often hears vSphere users mention Proxmox as an ideal replacement for low-end server virtualization. Turner said the new vSphere Standard will be a better and more resilient offering than Proxmox and pointed to the introduction of 24x7 support as a sign of Proxmox’s maturity being well behind that of VMware and its partners. He also said that more details about the new vSphere Standard will likely emerge as VMware takes its Explore conference to Germany, in mid-October. Among the facts he said will emerge soon are how VMware will bring vSphere Standard to market, an item of interest as the Broadcom business unit dropped the majority of its channel partners. Earlier this week, The Register predicted VMware would not make a pitch to its many low-end users at the Explore conference. The imminent release of a vSphere Standard upgrade was not made on stage at the event, but during one-to-one interviews – so perhaps we were technically correct! Turner thinks another of our assertions, that VMware was not interested in lower-end users, was incorrect. We leave it to readers to make their own judgment about the level of interest in small customers VMware displayed by spending three years focusing on VCF. Low-end VMware users will likely be relieved and intrigued by news of a vSphere Standard revival. Few VMware users wanted to quit the product, which has a deserved reputation for working brilliantly. Yet many felt the need to acquire VCF, and the cost of that package, meant it was necessary to consider VMware alternatives. VMware’s competitors saw that thinking as an opportunity: HPE, for example, even made its low-end virtualization bundle free for a year. Such offers will soon be less potent, because an upgrade is always easier than a migration. ®