Rimini Street released findings from a survey of 300 organizations using VMware, conducted in partnership with Unisphere Research, examining how customers are reassessing their virtualization strategies. The research indicates widespread concern about VMware’s pricing structure following Broadcom’s acquisition of the company.
Ninety percent of survey respondents stated they are exploring VMware alternatives, with licensing costs cited as the primary driver. Additionally, 54 percent of participants pointed to Broadcom’s decision to discontinue support for perpetual license holders as a significant factor. Reports from VMware customers have documented substantial price increases ranging from 100 to 300 percent, with some claiming increases as high as 1,000 percent following the ownership transition. Cost reduction emerged as a leading priority for 73 percent of respondents when planning their virtualization roadmap decisions.
Organizations exploring new virtualization options face several obstacles, according to the survey. Operational complexity was the most frequently cited barrier, mentioned by 40 percent of respondents, followed by multi-vendor management challenges and security concerns regarding expanded attack surfaces, each noted by 38 and 37 percent respectively. Team skills requirements were also identified by 37 percent of participants. The findings suggest organizations are seeking to balance the need for change with minimizing operational risk and service disruption.
The survey results reflect broader industry trends toward diversification in enterprise virtualization environments. Sixty percent of respondents are considering multi-hypervisor strategies, while 47 percent favor hybrid environments combining hypervisors and containers. Notably, 48 percent indicated no plans to adopt VMware’s Cloud Foundation platform. Gartner’s recent analysis predicts that 55 percent of enterprises will conduct proof-of-concept evaluations of alternative distributed hybrid infrastructure solutions by 2029, compared to 25 percent in 2026, indicating accelerating interest in vendor alternatives and reduced dependency on single-provider solutions.
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