After a few years of profound changes following Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware, the enterprise technology market is still feeling the impact.
The acquisition of the semiconductor giant in 2023 brought dramatic changes to VMware’s products, pricing and portfolio.
The end of support for vSphere 7 in October 2025 now marks another fundamental change in Broadcom’s business model. The company is going through major changes, from licensing, packaging, pricing and GTM to moving from perpetual licenses to subscription packages.
For many companies, these changes present additional challenges in an already complex and evolving enterprise software landscape.
The cost of renewing support at Broadcom
While Broadcom’s new model consolidates VMware’s offerings, this change also introduces new IT management considerations around total cost of ownership, feature utilization and the ability to dynamically scale licenses.
This has led to 98% of customers considering leaving VMware altogether.
Licensing, pricing and packaging challenges have led to increased complexity in budget cycles and procurement planning, with some companies reporting significant changes in renewal costs attributed to packaging packages.
Since the VMware acquisition, companies have seen an eight- to fifteen-fold increase in spending as a result of these challenges.
The nature of the implementation and customer retention strategy raises additional concerns among customers about future changes in costs and prices.
Although there are alternatives on the market, including Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix or various open source models, a rapid migration can lead to higher risks and costs.
Impact on the market and what to do next
IT leaders are turning to alternative, proven methods to maintain vSphere 7 environments and keep critical functions running securely and robustly, while managing ongoing, vendor-driven changes that increase costs and create uncertainty.
Third-party support enables organizations to maximize the full value of existing VMware environments and, with the right partner, benefit from specialized technical solutions, hypervisor security solutions, reduced vulnerability and increased security.
This strategy benefits companies that can:
– Support existing vSphere 7 and vSphere 8 environments with technical expertise that keeps systems running smoothly and securely, removes unwanted pressure and frees up time for strategic roadmap planning.
– Optimize your existing IT infrastructure investments with strategic services and solutions that provide unmatched hypervisor security, maintain compliance and help maximize your VMware investments.
– Innovate with released resources and transform cost savings into strategic investments that strengthen future preparedness.
A smarter way to move forward
As Broadcom redefines VMware’s pricing and support structure, companies continue to look for pragmatic options to save time and money, which can be reinvested in strategic technology development strategies.
As organizations face the end of support for vSphere 7 and a rapidly evolving VMware landscape, priorities are focused on flexibility and control.
Broadcom’s new pricing and licensing model highlights the risk of vendor-dependent modernization and emphasizes the importance of flexibility and cost transparency for companies that previously relied on vendors for their long-term strategy.
Organizations that independently approach the next decade of progress, assess the current environment, and leverage their core investments for as long as possible will be better able to manage change.
Instead of reacting to constant cycles of change and upgrades, IT leaders can chart a smarter, more actionable path while preparing for tomorrow’s innovations with greater flexibility than vendors offer.
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