The VMware skills gap that stalls migrations is not a certification problem. It is not a headcount problem. It is an operating model problem — and most VMware exit plans never model it. When an organization exits VMware, the platform changes. The operating model — the accumulated behavior, toolchain fluency, and institutional memory built over a decade of running vSphere — does not automatically migrate with it. That gap between what your team knows how to operate and what the target platform requires is where VMware exits actually fail. Not in the architecture. Not in the licensing math. In the people who have to run it on Day 91. This post is about that gap. What it actually consists of, how it surfaces as failure, and what a migration plan looks like when it accounts for operational replacement — not just platform replacement. The Licensing Shock Was the Distraction Broadcom's acquisition of VMware triggered the largest infrastructure platform re-evaluation in a decade.…