In a twist few saw coming back in 2017, Amazon Web Services is walking away from its once-cozy alliance with VMware—and it’s not doing so quietly. Nearly a decade after the two tech giants co-launched VMware Cloud on AWS, Amazon is now pushing customers to abandon VMware entirely, offering a new AI-fueled tool designed to make that transition brutally fast.
The fallout follows Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and a string of licensing shake-ups that left AWS unable to resell the very service it helped build. VMware Cloud on AWS lost its elasticity, and with it, much of the original vision. In response, AWS began openly courting customers still running VMware by suggesting a direct move to its native infrastructure.
Now, that suggestion is becoming automation. AWS has unveiled its rebranded “Transform” tool—a successor to its earlier Java migration assistant. The latest version promises to convert VMware workloads into Amazon-native environments in minutes, rather than weeks. According to AWS, the tool can process 500 virtual machines in just 15 minutes, drastically reducing time and friction in one of IT’s most difficult migration tasks.
Broadcom’s subscription-only licensing model has left many VMware users feeling boxed in, with reports of cost increases in the 300% range. Some are signing up for three-year terms just to buy time for a clean break. But migrations can take years—especially with support for current VMware versions ending in 2027.
AWS’s tool, if effective, offers not just a technical shortcut but a strategic out. It turns what was once a deeply integrated partnership into a showdown between legacy lock-in and cloud-native agility. In the process, Amazon isn’t just selling infrastructure—it’s selling an exit strategy. And perhaps, a little revenge.
