What is vendor risk in IT?

Vendor risk refers to the financial, operational, and strategic exposure that occurs when your organization depends too heavily on a single technology provider. Common examples include sudden licensing cost hikes, product roadmap changes, or support disruptions—all of which can impact business continuity.

How can storage flexibility help reduce vendor risk?

Storage flexibility allows organizations to separate storage from compute and avoid vendor lock-in. A flexible storage layer lets you move workloads between VMware, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, and cloud environments without downtime or costly rearchitecture—protecting both uptime and budget stability.

Why are VMware customers reassessing their virtualization strategy?

Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, many enterprises have experienced unexpected cost increases and licensing changes. According to “The State of Virtualization Report 2025,” 72% saw higher renewal costs and 69% plan to diversify beyond VMware in the next five years. This shift highlights the need for a vendor-neutral, open storage foundation.

What does “disaggregated storage” mean, and why does it matter?

Disaggregated storage decouples compute and storage resources, allowing each to scale independently. This architectural model gives IT teams the freedom to switch hypervisors or cloud providers without being tied to one vendor’s pricing or platform decisions.

How can I tell if my organization has high vendor risk?

If your compute and storage are tightly coupled, if you can’t easily migrate workloads across platforms, or if your pricing model depends on a single vendor’s licensing structure, your vendor risk is likely high. A flexible, unified storage platform reduces that exposure.

How does Pure Storage help organizations stay flexible?

Pure Storage delivers a consistent data platform that supports VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, OpenStack, and Kubernetes. With nondisruptive upgrades, subscription-based pricing, and cloud-ready architecture, Pure Storage enables customers to modernize at their own pace while maintaining control over costs and performance.

What is the best way to start reducing vendor risk today?

Start by evaluating how tightly integrated your current systems are. Look for storage solutions that support open integrations, disaggregation, and hybrid cloud mobility. Download “The State of Virtualization Report 2025” to benchmark your organization against industry trends and identify next steps.