Licensing Costs Driving 90% of VMware Users To Explore Options, Survey Finds

An anonymous reader reports that a survey conducted by Rimini Street reveals that 90% of VMware users are considering alternatives due to licensing costs. The survey polled 300 organizations globally that currently utilize VMware. Rimini, a provider of third-party support for VMware and other software, conducted the study in collaboration with Unisphere Research. While Rimini has a vested interest in promoting alternatives to VMware, the survey results corroborate recent reports on the challenges faced by VMware customers.

According to the survey, 54% of respondents cited Broadcom's cessation of support for perpetual license holders as a significant factor driving their search for alternatives. The price of VMware licenses has surged by up to 1,000% following Broadcom's acquisition of the company. Many others report more modest increases of 100-300%.

Cost efficiency ranked as the top priority for 73% of survey participants when making decisions about their virtualization strategy. The primary challenges cited by organizations exploring alternative options include operational complexity (40%), multi-vendor management difficulties (38%), addressing the heightened attack surface (37%), and the need for enhanced team skills (37%).

Despite the push for change, organizations are cautious about disrupting existing operations. Rimini's survey found that 60% of respondents are considering a multi-hypervisor approach, reflecting the growing appeal of flexible, hybrid environments that balance operational and financial objectives. Furthermore, 47% favor a hybrid IT virtualization setup combining hypervisors and containers for optimal workload placement.

Notably, 48% of respondents do not plan to migrate any assets to VMware's hybrid cloud platform, Cloud Foundation.