90% of VMware Users Weighing Alternatives Over Cost
Original: Licensing costs driving 90 percent of VMware users to explore options: Survey
Why This Matters
Broadcom's VMware pricing shake-up is reshaping how enterprises approach infrastructure vendor strategy.
A Rimini Street survey of 300 global VMware users found 90% are exploring alternatives due to rising licensing costs, with 54% citing Broadcom's elimination of perpetual licenses as a key driver.
Rimini Street's '2026 IT Virtualization Survey' polled 300 organizations worldwide still running VMware, and the numbers paint a clear picture of widespread dissatisfaction. Ninety percent of respondents are actively exploring alternatives because of higher licensing costs — costs that have reportedly ballooned by as much as 1,000% since Broadcom's acquisition, with more typical increases landing in the 100–300% range. Another 54% specifically blame Broadcom's decision to kill perpetual license support.
The survey, conducted by third-party research firm Unisphere Research, carries a caveat: Rimini sells third-party VMware support and has an obvious interest in customers seeing obstacles. That said, its findings align with other recent industry reports.
Seventy-three percent of participants named cost savings as a top priority in their virtualization planning. Yet progress is slow. The leading barriers are operational complexity (40%), multi-vendor management challenges (38%), a broader attack surface (37%), and skills gaps (37%).
Sixty percent of surveyed organizations are considering a multi-hypervisor strategy, while 47% prefer a hybrid mix of hypervisors and containers. Notably, 48% have no plans to migrate assets to VMware Cloud Foundation. Gartner analyst Tony Harvey previously told Ars that Broadcom's takeover has been 'a wake-up call' for enterprises over single-vendor dependence.