Digital Event Horizon
Topgolf, a leading sports entertainment company, has saved over $11.3 million by migrating its on-premises workloads from VMware to VergeIO, a virtualization platform that offers improved management and scalability. The company's decision to switch from VMware has resulted in significant cost savings, making it a prime example of the benefits of migrating to a new virtualization platform.
Topgolf, a sports entertainment company, saved over $11.3 million by migrating from VMware to VergeIO. Cost savings were achieved by avoiding 400% increase in VMware costs. Migration simplified gaming stack and reduced server infrastructure needs. VergeIO provided improved management and scalability compared to VMware. Company secured a five-year enterprise license agreement with VergeIO, avoiding increased costs.
Topgolf, a leading sports entertainment company with over 100 locations worldwide, has successfully migrated its on-premises workloads from VMware to VergeIO, a virtualization platform that has resulted in significant cost savings. According to Scott Forehand, Topgolf's global infrastructure manager, the company saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware.
Before migrating to VergeIO, Topgolf used vSphere and ESXi for decades, and later adopted VxRail, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform co-engineered with Dell and VMware. However, with Broadcom's decision to stop selling VMware perpetual licenses and bundle products into fewer, larger, and more expensive SKUs, Topgolf was forced to look elsewhere for a solution.
Topgolf's VMware costs were going to increase by 400 percent under Broadcom, which prompted the company to migrate 12,000 virtual machines (VMs) to VergeOS. This decision has paid off, with Topgolf saving over $11 million in combined infrastructure costs.
The company has over 100 locations worldwide, featuring interactive golf games with real-time shot tracking and digital analytics. Topgolf's migration to VergeIO has simplified the gaming stack and moved everything to the edge game panels in the bay, reducing the need for server infrastructure.
In addition to cost savings, Topgolf has also benefited from improved management and scalability. Forehand explained that VMware lacked the ability to segregate clusters into tenants, making it a nightmare to manage at scale. VergeIO's Virtual Data Center offering has allowed Topgolf to segregate its deployment into tenants by time zone, making upgrades and maintenance much easier.
Furthermore, Topgolf has reduced its use of VMware, which has also presented challenges in integrating its new virtualization platform with third-party software. Forehand acknowledged that the challenges have been "pretty minimal," but emphasized the need for a "hearts-and-minds campaign" to educate leadership on the gaps that do exist.
In a surprising twist, Topgolf has secured a five-year enterprise license agreement (ELA) with VergeIO, compared to the three-year ELA offered by VMware. This decision has allowed Topgolf to avoid the increased costs associated with Broadcom's decision to stop selling VMware perpetual licenses.
In conclusion, Topgolf's migration from VMware to VergeIO has resulted in significant cost savings, improved management, and scalability. This success story highlights the benefits of migrating to a new virtualization platform and demonstrates the potential for companies to reduce their infrastructure costs and improve their overall IT efficiency.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/Topgolfs-Transformation-How-Migrating-from-VMware-Saved-Over-113-Million-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/10/topgolf-saved-over-11-3-million-after-leaving-vmware/
https://chronicle-global.vercel.app/articles/topgolf-saved-over-113-million-after-leaving-vmware
Published: Tue Oct 13 20:37:49 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
