# Topgolf ditches VMware, saves $11.3 million > After Broadcom's takeover threatened a 400 percent cost increase, the golf entertainment company migrated 12,000 virtual machines to VergeIO and slashed infrastructure spending. - Title: Topgolf ditches VMware, saves $11.3 million · Ars Technica - Summary: After Broadcom's takeover threatened a 400 percent cost increase, the golf entertainment company migrated 12,000 virtual machines to VergeIO and slashed… - Keywords: topgolf, vmware, broadcom, vergeio, virtualization, cloud migration, infrastructure costs, technology, science, ditches, saves, million - Source: Ars Technica — https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware - Published: 2026-10-13T21:33:43+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: topgolf, vmware, broadcom, vergeio, virtualization, cloud migration, infrastructure costs, technology, science ## Broadcom's pricing threat Broadcom's takeover of VMware meant Topgolf faced a four hundred percent cost increase. The sports entertainment company decided to migrate its twelve thousand virtual machines elsewhere to avoid the spike. ## Topgolf's deep VMware roots Topgolf ran VMware vSphere and ESXi for decades and added VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure in two thousand seventeen. Scott Forehand, Topgolf's global infrastructure manager, said the connection ran very deep. ## Why Topgolf left VMware Broadcom stopped selling VMware perpetual licenses and bundled products into fewer, larger, more expensive SKUs. Strategic changes complicated Topgolf's future planning, so it decided to migrate on-premises workloads. ## The savings add up Topgolf reduced or eliminated over eleven point three million dollars in combined infrastructure costs. Twenty venues still run VxRail, but Forehand expects Topgolf to be completely off VMware by the second week of December. > Overall, we reduced or eliminated over $11.3 [million] in combined infrastructure costs prior to the adjustments in hardware cost in the market. ## VergeIO's appeal to VMware users VergeIO gets about seventy new customers a quarter, most coming off VMware. George Crump, VergeIO's chief marketing officer, said customers typically see meaningful reductions in software licensing, proprietary appliances, and separate tools. > Most customers who move from VMware see meaningful reductions in all three. ## Why Topgolf chose VergeIO Topgolf selected VergeIO for its tenancy capabilities. The Virtual Data Center offering lets each tenant act like an independent data center, solving VMware's inability to segregate clusters into tenants at scale. > VMware lacks the ability to segregate clusters into tenants, which has made it a nightmare to manage at scale. ## Hardware and software savings Topgolf replaced six hundred fifty VxRail hosts with about four hundred Dell PowerEdge servers in six months. Hardware spend dropped eighty seven percent and software costs fell seventy seven percent. > Moving to Dell PowerEdge reduced comparative hardware spend by 87 percent. ## Solving Topgolf's unique needs Topgolf's Toptracer system pushes about forty terabytes of network data from cameras in a typical one hundred two bay venue per day. ## The biggest migration challenge Topgolf had to replace all game panels, rewire columns, replace the server stack, and swap to a new Kubernetes gaming architecture. The company piled other projects into the migration to eliminate technical debt. ## Integration gaps remain Topgolf encountered challenges integrating VergeIO with third party software like Rubrik and LogicMonitor. For data protection, Topgolf moved to VergeIO snapshotting and pivoted to Veeam for ransomware protection. > The real challenge has been a hearts-and-minds campaign to educate leadership on the gaps that do exist. ## VergeIO's path forward VergeIO addresses integration challenges by building third party capabilities into VergeOS and partnering on tools that matter most. George Crump said integration is the most common friction point after migration. > Integration is the most common friction point, and it shows up after the migration. ## Key takeaway Topgolf migrated 12,000 virtual machines from VMware to VergeIO after Broadcom's pricing changes threatened a 400 percent cost increase, saving over eleven point three million dollars.