Rimini Street surveyed 300 global organizations using VMware to assess their current virtualization strategies. The findings indicate that 90 percent of participants are investigating alternatives due to rising licensing costs, while 54 percent cited the termination of support for perpetual licenses by Broadcom as a primary concern.
Respondents reported cost increases ranging from 100 to 300 percent, with some experiencing hikes as high as 1,000 percent since Broadcom acquired VMware. Consequently, 73 percent of surveyed organizations identified cost savings as a top priority for their future virtualization roadmaps.
Organizations face significant hurdles when transitioning, including operational complexity at 40 percent, multi-vendor management at 38 percent, and security concerns at 37 percent. Additionally, 37 percent of participants noted that team skill requirements present a major barrier to adopting new virtualization solutions.
To mitigate risks, 60 percent of surveyed companies are considering a multi-hypervisor strategy, while 47 percent favor hybrid environments utilizing both hypervisors and containers. Furthermore, 48 percent of respondents stated they have no plans to migrate assets to VMware Cloud Foundation.
Gartner forecasts that the number of enterprises conducting proofs of concept for alternative distributed hybrid infrastructure to replace VMware deployments will rise from 25 percent in 2026 to 55 percent by 2029. This shift reflects a broader industry trend toward reducing reliance on single-vendor ecosystems.
