For those who came in late, Broadcom wrote a $69 billion cheque for VMware and has starting to remodel everything and its 330,000 customers are keeping a close eye on what happens next.

Clario chief information, technology, and product officer Jay Ferro said that any CIO who does not check what they have, think of other options, and watch what else is out there is probably rubbish at their job.

All these changes, plus past comments by Broadcom that its sales strategy is to only care about the needs and wants of its top 600 customers, have made some CIOs rethink the relationship.

Price hikes and poor levels of support are among their biggest worries.

Estes Express Lines CIO Todd Florence said that since his outfit was not one of Broadcom’s top 600 customers, it had made it clear to me that it was not really interested in his business.

Florence said he's started looking for other choices.

"It certainly doesn't make you feel good like you're going to get much support from now on."

Goya Foods CIO Suvajit Basu said he is thinking about how to cut down the food company's dependence on VMware as the only old provider of virtualisation for the data centre.

 "They're going to jack up their prices or change their licensing, so the customer pays more," he said. "And I think this is starting to bite us right now...."

Forrester reckons that in 2024, 20 per cent of VMware customers will start to ditch VMware for better alternatives.