Broadcom quietly killed public downloads for VMware's migration kit

Leaving VMware just got harder—and much more frustrating.

Broadcom has removed public download pages for VMware’s Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK). ShapeBlue first reported the broken links in late August 2026 after VDDK 8 and 9 downloads began throwing errors. Broadcom published no deprecation notice, but support representatives reportedly told admins that the kit is no longer available for general download. Microsoft has already updated its Azure Migrate guidance to warn users about restricted access.

Why it matters: VDDK is the engine under the hood for most migration platforms, including Nutanix Move, Red Hat’s Migration Toolkit, Azure Migrate, and virt-v2v. By shutting off public downloads, Broadcom threw a major roadblock in front of IT teams trying to shift workloads off vSphere.

Know this: If your team plans to migrate off VMware, hold onto any VDDK installers you currently have. Broadcom's support is currently pointing users toward authorized technology alliance partners instead.

Broadcom didn't build a better hypervisor; it just hid the exit door.