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What changed after Broadcom acquired VMware?
Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023. In December, VMware announced it would end sales of perpetual licenses and related renewals, shifting customers toward subscriptions. Broadcom also consolidated VMware’s broad product catalog into a smaller set of bundles, including VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), and moved toward per-core licensing.
Broadcom presents the changes as portfolio simplification and a way to invest in private-cloud products. For customers, the consequences depend on what they previously licensed, their renewal date, contract terms, and whether a new bundle includes products they do not need. The company’s announcement and portfolio description explain Broadcom’s stated model; they do not establish what every customer will pay.
Changes to partner and reseller arrangements also affected how some customers obtained quotes and support. As a result, the disruption was not just a price change: it involved licensing, packaging, procurement, and channel relationships, often on timelines determined by individual contracts.
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Who felt the commercial shock most?
Smaller organizations, schools, and nonprofits
Organizations with tight budgets and small IT teams can be especially exposed when they previously bought only a narrow slice of VMware’s portfolio but must now assess bundled subscriptions or different minimums. Schools, hospitals, and nonprofits also have long procurement cycles, compliance obligations, and limited capacity to run a complex migration alongside day-to-day operations.
Lake Land College reported that its VMware Enterprise Edition costs rose roughly 300 percent without additional features or benefits, according to Ars Technica’s October 31, 2024 reporting. That is a customer-specific account, not a universal VMware price increase.
Managed service providers and partners
MSPs can feel the effects through customer pricing as well as changes to partner eligibility, quoting, direct sales, and the ability to serve smaller accounts. A provider’s choice is not simply whether a hypervisor works: it must also consider what its customers can afford and how to support a different platform across multiple environments.
Large enterprises
Large organizations may have more budget flexibility, but they can also have more VMware-dependent applications, integrations, and operating procedures. Veeam reportedly saw a 300 percent increase and chose to remain with VMware for internal services. Its decision illustrates why a large bill does not automatically make migration the cheaper or safer option.
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How large were the reported increases?
Customer and partner accounts in the 2024 reporting included increases of about 300 percent, as well as annual increases cited at 146, 179, and 201 percent. AT&T reportedly alleged a proposed 1,050 percent increase in a litigation context. Gartner described possible two- or threefold increases associated with the move from perpetual, socket-based licensing to subscription, core-based licensing and bundles. These are attributed reports and analyses, not a published universal rate.
Quotes can differ substantially because customers start from different contracts and buying arrangements. Relevant variables include physical core counts and minimums, past discounts, which products were previously purchased separately, support coverage, bundle fit, term length, reseller margin, currency, geography, and hardware changes such as server consolidation. A fair comparison needs the old and proposed entitlements side by side, not just two headline totals.
Are customers actually leaving VMware?
“Considering leaving” and “has left” describe different outcomes. The 2024 reporting captured several points along the path: customers evaluating products, moving selected workloads, operating alternatives alongside VMware, and planning broader exits.
Encore Technologies tested eight products, moved development environments first, and said about 60 percent of its infrastructure had moved at the time of the article; it aimed to reach zero VMware infrastructure by year-end 2024. Lake Land College was testing Proxmox but had not committed to a complete migration. Those examples show both active movement and unresolved decisions, not a single market-wide outcome.
In 2026, reporting cited a survey in which 86 percent of surveyed organizations were reducing VMware dependence; earlier research cited 51.9 percent considering leaving and 48.7 percent exploring alternatives. Those survey measures are not a verified count of completed migrations, global churn, or lost VMware revenue. The 2026 ITPro report describes a market where evaluation and reduction are significant, but they should not be conflated with full exit.
Four different stages of a VMware decision
- Evaluate: Build a lab, proof of concept, or vendor shortlist without moving production workloads.
- Reduce: Move selected development, backup, edge, or noncritical systems first.
- Run multiple platforms: Keep VMware for difficult workloads while placing new or suitable systems elsewhere.
- Exit: Move production workloads, retire VMware infrastructure, and complete the related support, backup, and disaster-recovery changes.
Organizations can remain at one stage for years, and different workloads within the same company may follow different paths.
Why can leaving take years?
VMware is often more than the ESXi hypervisor. A migration may touch vCenter operations, distributed networking, storage, automation, monitoring, backup, disaster recovery, vendor-certified appliances, and staff procedures. Replacing the hypervisor alone does not replace that surrounding system.
Lake Land College identified backup reliability, cluster creation, staff training, proof-of-concept testing, and differences in platform behavior as migration concerns. Encore reported difficulty finding one replacement that could support all of its vendor-specific workloads. A conversion tool can move a VM’s files; it cannot by itself prove that the application is certified, performs correctly, meets recovery targets, or can be supported by the organization’s vendors.
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The following categories are planning guidance, not measured migration benchmarks. Actual difficulty depends on the application, infrastructure, and target platform.
| Workload or environment | Planning difficulty | Why to examine it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary Windows or Linux VM | Low to moderate | Confirm guest compatibility, drivers, backup, and application support. |
| Development and test | Low to moderate | Often a practical place to learn the new operating model before moving critical services. |
| Stateless web service | Moderate | Check networking, deployment automation, load balancing, and recovery behavior. |
| Database or clustered application | Moderate to high | Validate performance, cluster behavior, storage, and vendor certification. |
| Vendor appliance | High when certification is VMware-specific | Get written confirmation from the appliance vendor for the target platform. |
| GPU, SR-IOV, or passthrough workload | High | Check hardware, firmware, driver, and hypervisor support together. |
| Fibre Channel or specialized storage | High | Validate multipathing, storage integration, and supported configurations. |
| Highly automated vSphere estate | High | Automation, APIs, templates, and operational workflows may need redesign. |
| VMware-dependent disaster recovery | High | Rebuild and test replication, failover, and restore procedures on the destination. |
Migration planning should include rollback, downtime windows, backup validation, disaster-recovery redesign, application recertification, staff training, and temporary licensing overlap. Running VMware and a replacement concurrently can reduce transition risk, but adds management systems, skills, patching routines, backup policies, capacity planning, and possibly overlapping costs.
Which alternatives fit which organizations?
These products are not interchangeable. Some are hypervisors; others are integrated infrastructure or cloud-management platforms. Compare the full operating model and workload support, not just the VM import path.
| Option | Potential fit | Important trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Proxmox VE | Organizations seeking an open-source KVM and Linux-container platform with integrated management, clustering, storage, and networking. | Requires validation of backup, application, hardware, and enterprise support needs; administrators may need Linux and storage expertise. Open source does not remove support, staffing, or operational costs. |
| Nutanix AHV | Organizations willing to adopt Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and its integrated management model. | AHV is included with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, not sold as a standalone hypervisor. Include infrastructure, storage, support, and licensing in the cost comparison. |
| OpenNebula | Service providers or organizations that want cloud-oriented management across heterogeneous infrastructure. | May require more architecture and integration than a conventional ESXi/vCenter replacement; validate backup, networking, storage, and application support. |
| Microsoft Hyper-V / Azure Local | Organizations already standardized on Windows Server, Microsoft management, or Azure services. | Assess Windows Server rights, Azure Local terms, Linux and third-party application support, and the desired on-premises versus hybrid operating model. |
| Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization | Organizations already adopting OpenShift or Kubernetes and seeking to manage VMs alongside containers. | Requires OpenShift expertise and may be excessive for a small estate that only needs conventional VM hosting. |
| HPE Morpheus VM Essentials | Customers evaluating a commercial alternative with HPE infrastructure and migration support. | Validate hardware and feature fit. A 2026 report described a time-limited offer for qualifying customers; eligibility, geography, dates, and terms require confirmation with HPE. |
Proxmox describes its platform as combining KVM, LXC, storage, networking, clustering, and management; its product information should be read alongside workload-specific compatibility checks. Nutanix says AHV is integrated with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and offers Nutanix Move for migrations from VMware ESXi and other sources; that vendor claim is a starting point for a proof of concept, not a guarantee of application readiness. OpenNebula was selected by Encore after evaluating multiple products, according to the 2024 reporting, but that does not make it a universal fit.
For Microsoft, compare the complete Windows Server or Azure Local licensing and support model, not the hypervisor component in isolation. For OpenShift Virtualization, the strategic case is strongest when Kubernetes or OpenShift is already part of the organization’s direction. HPE’s offer, as reported in 2026, was a promotion rather than a permanent list price; the report does not establish that every buyer qualifies.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When does staying with VMware make sense?
Renewing can be rational when migration risk and labor outweigh the increase, or when VMware’s integrations and support are operationally important. That case is stronger for environments with VMware-certified appliances, extensive automation, compliance constraints, limited staff capacity, or planned infrastructure modernization around VCF.
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Broadcom continues to develop VMware: its 2026 documentation references VCF 9.1 as well as earlier VCF and vSphere releases. Broadcom’s current licensing documentation also describes solution license keys for VCF and VVF, while noting release-specific behavior and brownfield cases where component keys may remain. See the license-key guidance and VCF 9.1 FAQs for details applicable to particular releases.
Eligible VCF subscriptions may include license portability to certified cloud services, subject to prerequisites, versions, destinations, and current provider rules. It is not unrestricted portability; consult Broadcom’s license portability policy and certified-provider list before treating it as a design assumption.
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How should a customer choose: stay, shrink, or leave?
Stay and renegotiate
Use this path when VMware supports critical or difficult-to-certify workloads and the organization cannot safely absorb a platform migration. Ask for a written, itemized quote; map each proposed bundle component to a real requirement; compare term lengths and support entitlements; and seek clarity on renewal mechanics and any transition options. Broadcom has described portfolio simplification as a response to customer and partner feedback, while customers have reported concerns about price, flexibility, bundles, support, and partner access.
Shrink VMware dependency
This is often the practical middle course when the full environment is too risky to move at once. Test a target on development systems or other bounded workloads, then move only where application, backup, recovery, and support requirements are satisfied. Keep the hard cases on VMware until there is a validated alternative or a separate modernization plan.
Exit in phases
A broader exit is most plausible when renewal economics are unsustainable and the organization has the time, skills, and support to operate a new platform. Build the migration around workloads and dependencies, not a single company-wide date. Include a parallel-running period, acceptance criteria, recovery tests, rollback conditions, and a plan for retiring VMware entitlements and infrastructure only after the destination is proven.
Quick Recap
What to check before the next renewal
- Calculate three- and five-year total cost, including core or host minimums, bundles, support, hardware, migration, training, backup, disaster recovery, and dual-running.
- List every workload’s application certification, guest OS, storage, network, GPU or passthrough, and recovery requirements.
- Confirm migration tooling can preserve the properties the application needs, then test performance, backup restoration, and disaster recovery in a proof of concept.
- Price staffing, consulting, local support, and retraining—not just subscription licenses.
- Check contract rights, renewal deadlines, support entitlements, and any portability or transition eligibility in writing.
- Decide whether the target is a traditional hypervisor, a hyperconverged platform, a cloud-management layer, or a VM-and-container strategy.
- Set a workload-level decision: remain on VMware, move now, or defer pending a dependency being resolved.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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