Virtualization Sheetz is quitting VMware, migrating 11,000 virtual machines The convenience store chain will use StorMagic instead. Scharon Harding – Jul 15, 2026 5:41 pm | 20 Credit: Sheetz Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Sheetz, a US convenience store chain, is moving its 838 locations off VMware. Sheetz has used VMware virtualization across two Dell R440/R450-series servers at each of its locations since 2019. Now it’s migrating 12 to 14 virtual machines (VMs) in each of its stores from VMware vSphere to StorMagic’s SvHCI, “with an additional two VMs to be replaced over the coming months to transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11,” Scott Robertson, infrastructure team manager at Sheetz, told Ars Technica via email. Ultimately, Sheetz will move about 11,000 VMs from Broadcom’s virtualization platform. Sheetz is still running the original Dell server hardware.
So far, Sheetz has finished migrating more than 600 stores, averaging 200 per month, according to a company announcement today. Sheetz should be finished with the migration in four months, the announcement said. Robertson said that Sheetz decided to quit VMware because Broadcom’s changes, which include eliminating perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions to large bundles , forced the retail chain’s hand. He added: The projected price hikes, coupled with a mandatory subscription model and a five-year commitment, simply created too much uncertainty around long-term budgeting and increased our vendor dependence.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/07/sheetz-moves-838-stores-off-vmware-broadcom-created-too-much-uncertainty/
So far, Sheetz has finished migrating more than 600 stores, averaging 200 per month, according to a company announcement today. Sheetz should be finished with the migration in four months, the announcement said. Robertson said that Sheetz decided to quit VMware because Broadcom’s changes, which include eliminating perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions to large bundles , forced the retail chain’s hand. He added: The projected price hikes, coupled with a mandatory subscription model and a five-year commitment, simply created too much uncertainty around long-term budgeting and increased our vendor dependence.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/07/sheetz-moves-838-stores-off-vmware-broadcom-created-too-much-uncertainty/