VMware Tanzu - Expensive Kubernetes Platform That Broadcom Is Milking

Tanzu is VMware's expensive wrapper around Kubernetes that tries to make container orchestration feel like traditional VMware infrastructure. Think of it as Kubernetes for people who are terrified of yaml files and kubectl commands, but willing to pay enterprise prices for the privilege of avoiding them.

Since Broadcom bought VMware for $61 billion, they've been systematically jacking up prices and forcing customers into subscription bundles. What used to be "buy what you need" has become "buy everything or get fucked." AT&T's VMware costs were going to spike by 1,050% until they sued Broadcom and got a settlement.

The Technical Reality Check

Here's what Tanzu actually gives you: a bunch of Kubernetes clusters with VMware management tooling slapped on top. The Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) is basically CI/CD pipelines with extra steps and vendor lock-in. You'll spend more time configuring TAP than you would setting up Jenkins or GitHub Actions. Even VMware's own TAP troubleshooting guides acknowledge the platform's complexity issues.

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) promises "consistent cluster management," but good luck with that. The GitHub issues are full of deployment failures like "initializing the cluster stalls at 45%" and "management cluster creation stuck in bootstrap phase." One engineer spent 6 hours debugging a TKG installation that failed because of incompatible NSX-T versions. The official troubleshooting docs are basically "check the logs and pray."

The "Enterprise-Grade" Features Nobody Asked For

Tanzu's "comprehensive RBAC and policy enforcement" translates to: more configuration overhead, more points of failure, and more consultants you'll need to hire. The RBAC implementation requires deep NSX-T integration knowledge that most Kubernetes engineers don't have. The AI-powered development tools are mostly marketing fluff - they'll tell you to upgrade your dependencies and scan for vulnerabilities, stuff any decent CI pipeline already does.

The VMware ecosystem integration sounds great until you realize it means you can't easily migrate away. Your networking depends on NSX, your storage needs vSAN, and your monitoring requires vRealize Operations. It's vendor lock-in by design.

Real-World Deployment Pain Points

Installing Tanzu on vSphere isn't the seamless experience they promise. Multiple installation guides and deployment blogs document the same recurring problems. Common issues include:

• Bootstrap failures: tanzu management-cluster create hanging for hours with cryptic errors like Error: failed to create management cluster: unable to patch the webhook...dial tcp 0.0.0.0:9443: connect: connection refused
• Certificate hell: PKS-to-TKG migrations break because of expired certs that nobody documented, and Harbor registry self-signed certificates cause deployment nightmares
• Resource conflicts: Tanzu assumes you have dedicated compute clusters, which most shops don't - network configuration issues are common
• Version compatibility nightmares: TKG 2.1 doesn't work with NSX-T 3.0, TKG 2.3 requires vSphere 7.0 U2, and performance tuning becomes a full-time job
• The 3am special: One poor bastard spent 4 hours debugging Error: could not find image: harbor.corp.local/tkg/pause:3.7 because the corporate firewall was blocking harbor.corp.local but the error message made it look like a missing container image

The official docs assume you're a VMware networking expert. If you're not, prepare to hire expensive consultants or spend months learning NSX-T integration just to get Kubernetes working. Compare this to managed Kubernetes services that just work out of the box.

Since Broadcom bought VMware for $61 billion, they've been systematically milking customers for maximum revenue. What used to be predictable VMware costs has become a subscription nightmare with price increases that'll make your CFO consider early retirement. Industry reports document increases ranging from 5X to 10X, with some customers seeing 800-1,500% spikes.

The Great Subscription Swindle of 2024-2025

Broadcom killed perpetual licensing faster than you can say "vendor lock-in." Now everything is subscription-only, bundled into packages you didn't ask for. Want just vSphere? Too bad, buy the whole Cloud Foundation suite. Need basic Kubernetes? Sorry, Tanzu comes with AI features, monitoring tools, and a bunch of other shit you'll never use.

AT&T's lawsuit against Broadcom revealed the ugly truth: their VMware costs were going to spike by 1,050% under the new licensing model. That's not a typo. The companies eventually settled, but the damage to Broadcom's reputation was done. Broadcom's strategy is to focus on the "top 600 enterprise customers" - translation: milk the big fish and let the smaller customers churn out.

Real Implementation Horror Stories

Here's what actually happens when enterprises try to implement Tanzu:

Financial Services Bank: Spent 8 months evaluating Tanzu, hired two consultants at $300/hour each, and ended up with a pilot that worked but cost 3x their existing Kubernetes setup. They're now migrating to EKS.

Healthcare System: Tanzu's "compliance features" required so much customization to meet HIPAA requirements that they essentially rebuilt half the platform. The project went 18 months over schedule and 400% over budget. Similar stories are emerging across regulated industries.

Manufacturing Company: TKG installation failed repeatedly due to NSX-T version conflicts. After 6 months of troubleshooting, they discovered their vSphere licenses weren't the right edition for Tanzu. Total cost of delays: $2.1 million in lost productivity. Migration consultants are now reporting this as a common scenario.

The Technical Tax You Didn't Know You Signed Up For

Tanzu doesn't just cost money upfront - it costs engineering time forever:

• Complexity overhead: Every simple Kubernetes operation now requires understanding VMware concepts, NSX-T networking, and vSAN storage
• Upgrade hell: Tanzu upgrades require coordinating vSphere, NSX-T, vSAN, and TKG versions - one incompatibility breaks everything
• Skills tax: You need engineers who understand both Kubernetes and VMware infrastructure, which are expensive and rare
• Debugging nightmare: When something breaks, is it Kubernetes, vSphere, NSX-T, or Tanzu? Good luck figuring that out at 3am

The Great VMware Exodus

Forrester research indicates that up to 20% of VMware enterprise customers plan to escape its virtualization stack. Industry analysis shows smart companies are already hedging their bets:

• Migrate to cloud: AWS, Azure, and GCP are actively courting angry VMware customers
• Alternative platforms: Nutanix, OpenShift, and Rancher are seeing massive inbound interest
• Hybrid strategies: Keep critical workloads on VMware, migrate everything else to alternatives

The writing is on the wall: Broadcom is optimizing for short-term revenue extraction, not long-term customer relationships. If you're locked into VMware infrastructure, start planning your exit strategy now. The migration ecosystem is rapidly maturing to help customers escape.

Broadcom didn't buy VMware to innovate - they bought it to extract maximum revenue from existing customers. The "future outlook" isn't about exciting new features, it's about how much money they can squeeze out of your infrastructure budget before you finally migrate away.

The AI Marketing Bullshit

Those "AI Starter Kits" are just repackaged open-source AI tools with VMware branding and enterprise pricing. Want to run ML workloads? You can do the same thing on any Kubernetes platform for a fraction of the cost. Tanzu's "intelligent operations management" is basic monitoring and alerting that every cloud provider includes for free.

The real AI story is how Broadcom is using artificial intelligence to optimize their pricing models - algorithms designed to extract the maximum amount of money from each customer before they hit their breaking point and migrate away.

Market Reality Check

Tanzu's market position is simple: expensive legacy platform for companies trapped in VMware ecosystems. While Broadcom talks about "competitive advantages," the reality is:

• AWS EKS: Cheaper, simpler, actually works reliably
• Google GKE: Better performance, honest pricing, superior monitoring
• Red Hat OpenShift: More expensive than Tanzu but worth every penny
• Rancher: Free alternative that doesn't hold your infrastructure hostage

Gartner estimates that 50% of VMware customers are actively evaluating alternatives. That's not market competition - that's customer exodus.

Broadcom's Roadmap: More Lock-in Bullshit

Broadcom's roadmap focuses on one thing: making it harder to migrate away. Every new "feature" is designed to increase vendor lock-in:

• Deeper NSX-T integration means your networking is tied to VMware
• Enhanced vSAN dependencies lock in your storage
• "Improved" automation tools that only work with VMware infrastructure

They're not building features customers want - they're building walls to keep customers trapped.

Your Strategic Options (Ranked by Sanity)

Option 1: Get the hell out (recommended)

• Begin migrating non-critical workloads to alternatives
• Train your team on cloud-native platforms
• Negotiate short-term renewals to buy time

Option 2: Slow escape plan

• Keep critical legacy apps on VMware
• Move everything else to cloud or open-source alternatives
• Gradually reduce VMware footprint over 2-3 years

Option 3: Stockholm Syndrome (not recommended)

• Pay whatever Broadcom demands
• Pretend this is sustainable long-term
• Hope your competitors don't figure out cheaper alternatives

The Real ROI Calculation

Forget Broadcom's ROI marketing. Here's the actual math:

Tanzu Total Cost = Licensing + Consultants + Training + Failed Deployments + Opportunity Cost + Renewal Surprises

Alternative Costs = Migration effort + New platform learning curve + Freedom from vendor hostage situation

Smart companies are calculating that 12-18 months of migration effort is cheaper than 5 years of Broadcom price increases. The math gets more compelling every quarter.

The future of Tanzu is predictable: higher prices, fewer customers, and a slow death spiral as enterprises escape to better alternatives. Plan accordingly.