VMware has defended its decision to quietly stop offering public downloads of its Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK), an SDK used for backup, recovery and cloning of virtual disks. Rivals had incorporated VDDK into their own migration tools to help customers move virtual machines off VMware, so removing public access threatens to disrupt migrations already under way and makes it harder for smaller players to shift away from the platform, even though VMware insists the change is simply about enforcing licensing terms.

VMware told The Register that VDDK remains available through select "technology alliance partners" for its licensed use case, which it says has always been backup and recovery rather than migration, and that it was never bundled with a Broadcom purchase. Critics, including integrator ShapeBlue, argue the withdrawal was made without warning and hits small consultancies, open-source projects and DIY users hardest, since larger backup vendors with partner relationships are unaffected. The move follows years of VMware tolerating such use and comes amid broader unease over Broadcom's licensing changes, though VM migration is generally seen as the easier part of leaving VMware compared with rebuilding networking, security and storage.