Kocho Ditches VMware, Taps Zadara for Sovereign AI Cloud

LONDON, UK – February 03, 2026 – In a significant move reflecting a turbulent cloud infrastructure market, UK managed services provider (MSP) Kocho has announced a strategic partnership with Zadara. The collaboration sees Kocho transitioning its cloud infrastructure to Zadara’s sovereign AI cloud platform, explicitly positioning it as an alternative to VMware in the wake of widespread disruption following its acquisition by Broadcom.

Kocho, which specializes in cybersecurity, cloud transformation, and managed services for a range of UK enterprises, is pivoting away from traditional infrastructure stacks plagued by rising costs and complexity. The partnership equips the MSP with a consumption-based, multi-tenant cloud powered by NVIDIA GPUs, designed to address modern demands for data sovereignty and artificial intelligence workloads while mitigating the pricing uncertainty that has shaken the VMware customer base.

The Broadcom Effect: A Market in Turmoil

Kocho's decision is not an isolated event but rather a symptom of a much larger industry trend. Since Broadcom finalized its acquisition of VMware in late 2023, the enterprise IT world has been reeling from a series of aggressive strategic changes. Broadcom swiftly moved to end perpetual licenses, forcing customers into a subscription-only model. This shift was accompanied by drastic price hikes, with some reports citing increases of several hundred percent, and a dramatic simplification of the product portfolio that often forces customers to buy bundled features they do not need.

This strategy has created significant friction. A recent survey of IT decision-makers found that nearly all were concerned about the acquisition's impact, with a large majority already exploring or actively moving to alternative platforms. The primary drivers for this exodus are escalating financial costs, fears of future price increases, and dissatisfaction with the new licensing terms. Broadcom’s reduction of its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program from over 4,500 partners to a select few has further limited choice and support options for end-users, creating an opportunity for competitors to step in.

It is within this climate of uncertainty and dissatisfaction that companies like Zadara are finding fertile ground. By offering a clear alternative to the new VMware reality, they are appealing to service providers and enterprises seeking financial predictability, operational simplicity, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

A Strategic Pivot to OPEX and Sovereignty

By deploying Zadara, Kocho is fundamentally altering its financial and operational model. The move represents a strategic shift from a capital expenditure (CapEx) model, which involves significant upfront investments in hardware and licenses, to an operating expenditure (OpEx) model. Zadara’s consumption-based pricing means Kocho pays only for the resources it uses, enabling it to scale services on demand without the burden of long-term capacity planning and large capital outlays.

“Zadara’s distributed edge cloud delivers performance, data sovereignty, and real-time AI processing without data egress fees or financial lock-in,” said Jacques Fourie, Global Operations Director at Kocho. “Partnering with Zadara has been a critical step in future-proofing Kocho’s cloud services. Zadara liberates our team to focus on application work. We live in the house; Zadara provides the house.”

This partnership also directly addresses two of the most critical demands in modern IT: data sovereignty and AI readiness. A 'sovereign cloud' ensures that all data is stored and processed within a specific jurisdiction—in this case, the UK—and is subject only to its laws. This is a non-negotiable requirement for many of Kocho’s clients in regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare, who must comply with stringent regulations like the UK’s Data Protection Act. Zadara’s infrastructure provides guaranteed data residency, a key differentiator against global hyperscalers where data sovereignty can be complex to manage.

Furthermore, the integration of NVIDIA GPUs into Zadara’s multi-tenant architecture equips Kocho to offer high-performance AI services. These GPUs are essential for accelerating the computationally intensive workloads associated with AI model training and real-time inference, allowing Kocho’s clients to build and deploy sophisticated AI applications efficiently and securely.

Future-Proofing Services for a New Era

The collaboration is more than just a technology swap; it’s a strategic realignment for Kocho. By leveraging Zadara's fully-managed services, Kocho’s internal IT teams are freed from the day-to-day burden of infrastructure management. This allows them to refocus their expertise on higher-value activities, such as developing bespoke applications and delivering transformative services that directly benefit their clients. The result is enhanced agility and faster service delivery for customers like Bupa and Liontrust Asset Management.

This move also aligns seamlessly with Kocho’s established Microsoft-first strategy. Zadara’s platform offers deep compatibility with Microsoft Azure, ensuring a smooth integration for clients heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. This hybrid capability allows organizations to balance workloads between private sovereign clouds and public clouds, optimizing for cost, performance, and compliance.

For Kocho's clients, the benefits are tangible. They gain access to a more agile, secure, and cost-effective cloud environment that is built for the future. The promise of guaranteed data residency, coupled with advanced capabilities for secure client backups and AI workloads, provides a compelling value proposition in a market where data governance and innovation are paramount.

“We are proud to partner with Kocho in delivering a cloud infrastructure that is sovereign, secure and built for the demands of real-time AI and data-intensive workloads,” stated Alasdair Hill, Sales Director for Northern Europe at Zadara. “Zadara is enabling Kocho to drive innovation and provide unmatched value to their clients while ensuring performance, compliance and scalability.”

As the cloud landscape continues to fragment in the post-Broadcom era, strategic partnerships like the one between Kocho and Zadara highlight a critical path forward for service providers. By embracing flexible, consumption-based models and focusing on specialized capabilities like data sovereignty and AI, MSPs can not only navigate market disruptions but also build a more resilient and competitive foundation for the future.