Topgolf saved over $11.3 million after leaving VMware

Topgolf, a sports entertainment company, has saved more than $11 million by migrating its virtual machines to VergeIO's VergeOS, after VMware's costs were set to surge by 400 percent following a Broadcom acquisition. The sports entertainment chain, which boasts over 100 locations globally, offers interactive golf games with real-time shot tracking and digital analytics.

Topgolf's global infrastructure manager, Scott Forehand, revealed that the company's previous reliance on VMware's vSphere and ESXi for decades had resulted in a "very deep" connection. In 2017, Topgolf began utilizing VxRail, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform co-engineered by VMware and Dell. Prior to the migration, the sports company's employees actively participated in VMware customer councils and were even interviewed for books detailing their use of vSphere and Horizon (now Omnissa Horizon), according to Forehand, who leads the Dallas/Ft. Worth VMware User Group.