Ninety percent of VMware customers are exploring alternative virtualization strategies, driven primarily by licensing cost increases following Broadcom's acquisition. A survey of 300 VMware users by Rimini Street found that 73 percent now prioritize cost savings in virtualization decisions.
Many customers have absorbed price increases ranging from 100 percent to 300 percent, with some reporting increases as high as 1,000 percent. Fifty-four percent specifically cited Broadcom's decision to discontinue perpetual license support as a reason to reassess their infrastructure.
The shift reflects a fundamental break in customer trust. By forcing migration from perpetual licenses to subscriptions, Broadcom eliminated the economic moat that made VMware's platform sticky and created an opening for competitors to attack installed bases that had been locked in for years.
Migration barriers remain substantial. Forty percent of respondents cited operational complexity as a top challenge, while 38 percent pointed to multi-vendor management. Attack surface expansion and team skills gaps each affected 37 percent of participants.
Sixty percent of organizations are now pursuing multi-hypervisor strategies. Forty-seven percent favor hybrid environments combining hypervisors and containers, seeking optimal workload placement across infrastructure types. Forty-eight percent do not plan to migrate assets to Broadcom's Cloud Foundation platform.
The numbers underscore a competitive opportunity. Broadcom's licensing strategy has handed rivals like Nutanix and OpenStack a gift: access to enterprise customers who suddenly view switching costs as preferable to subscription lock-in.
