Rimini Street released its 2026 IT Virtualization Survey examining 300 organizations worldwide that use VMware. The survey, conducted with third-party research firm Unisphere Research, found significant momentum among customers to reassess their virtualization strategies following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware.
Ninety percent of survey participants indicated they are exploring alternatives to VMware, citing elevated licensing costs as the primary driver. Additionally, 54 percent of respondents pointed to Broadcom’s decision to discontinue support for perpetual license holders as a concern. Since Broadcom’s takeover, VMware customers have reported substantial cost increases ranging from 100 to 300 percent, with some experiencing increases as high as 1,000 percent. In the Rimini survey, 73 percent of participants identified cost reduction as a leading priority when making virtualization decisions.
Organizations exploring new virtualization options face multiple challenges in their transition efforts. The most commonly cited barriers included operational complexity, cited by 40 percent of respondents; multi-vendor management challenges at 38 percent; security concerns related to expanded attack surfaces at 37 percent; and insufficient team skills at 37 percent. Despite these obstacles, survey results indicate that organizations are seeking approaches that balance risk mitigation with necessary modernization.
The survey results reveal shifting preferences in infrastructure strategy. Sixty percent of respondents are considering multi-hypervisor approaches, while 47 percent favor hybrid environments combining hypervisors and containers. Notably, 48 percent of organizations have no plans to adopt VMware’s Cloud Foundation hybrid cloud platform. These trends reflect a broader movement toward diversified, multi-platform environments that combine on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, and public cloud solutions.
Industry analysts suggest the VMware transition reflects a broader recognition among enterprises of the risks associated with vendor concentration. Gartner’s recent research predicted that 55 percent of enterprises will conduct proof-of-concept evaluations of alternative hybrid infrastructure products by 2029 to replace VMware deployments, an increase from 25 percent as of this year.
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