Federal agencies face growing pressure to strengthen cybersecurity, improve citizen services and adopt new digital capabilities while operating under flat or declining budgets. At the same time, they must maintain strict compliance, ensure system availability and protect mission-critical platforms that can’t afford disruption.
This tension creates a fundamental challenge: How can federal agencies advance IT priorities and modernization demands without additional appropriations?
The answer is self-funded modernization — a pragmatic approach that enables agencies to redirect existing operational spending toward innovation by rethinking how they support and manage their existing IT investments. By optimizing what they already own, agencies can create both fiscal and operational headroom to move forward on their own terms.
Budget constraints can enable, not inhibit, innovation
In the federal environment, constraints are a constant. Yet those constraints often can act as a catalyst for positive change, driving sharper prioritization, greater discipline and more intentional investment decisions.
This dynamic is especially relevant for agencies running long-lived enterprise platforms such as VMware, SAP, and Oracle, where the majority of IT budgets are consumed by operations, maintenance and vendor-mandated upgrades and migrations.
Rather than pursuing large-scale, high-risk transformations, many federal agencies are finding success by adopting a composable ERP strategy —protecting core systems while freeing resources to innovate where it delivers the greatest ROI and value.
This is where Rimini Street’s independent, third-party enterprise software support and services provide a smarter, more strategic path forward.
From keeping the lights on to fueling innovation with Rimini Street Software Support and Services
Across civilian and defense agencies, approximately 80% of IT budgets are allocated to operations and maintenance (O&M).[1] Vendor support contracts and forced upgrade cycles often consume a disproportionate share of those funds — leaving limited budget available for initiatives such as automation, zero-trust architectures, data resilience and AI-enabled services.
Rimini Street enables federal agencies and public sector organizations to replace OEM support for VMware, SAP and Oracle environments with independent support while maintaining security, reliability and compliance. Agencies can reduce annual support fees by up to 50%, immediately reclaiming budget that can be reinvested in mission priorities.
Though there is misconception that moving away from OEM support increases exposure, in reality, agencies that conduct proper due diligence often find that independent support models strengthen — not weaken — their control posture.
Rimini Street directly addresses core federal concerns, including license and IP compliance, regulatory updates, proactive cybersecurity, mission continuity and audit-ready operations supported by ISO-certified processes.
These are just a few examples of how Rimini Street provides government agencies using VMware perpetual licenses with greater peace of mind:
- Rimini Support™ – Keeps critical IT virtualization systems running smoothly for years to come, increasing uptime through expert support and industry-leading SLAs for issue response and resolution.
- Rimini Protect™ Advanced Hypervisor Security, powered by Vali Cyber® – Delivers proactive, zero-day attack prevention across VMware and other Linux-based and KVM-based hypervisors.
- Rimini Street Global Licensing and Advisory Services – Helps federal agencies maintain license compliance, confidently navigate vendor audits and understand current software license rights.
VMware cost pressures and the federal response
Recent changes to VMware licensing and subscription model changes have intensified budget pressure across federal IT organizations. Many agencies are now being asked to upgrade or consolidate environments on sped-up timelines — often at significantly higher cost.
The most effective federal IT strategies share a common principle: protect the core and innovate at the edge. By keeping mission-critical IT virtualization platforms like VMware stable and secure, agencies can redirect reclaimed O&M dollars into targeted initiatives — such as workflow automation, data protection, resilience improvements and cloud or hybrid architectures — without placing core systems at risk.
Rather than reacting under pressure, federal agencies are increasingly taking a more strategic approach:
- Stabilizing existing VMware environments
- Extending the life of current investments
- Evaluating alternative platforms on their own timelines
Self-funded modernization doesn’t happen in isolation. Federal agencies rely on partners that understand government procurement, security mandates and operational realities.
Merlin Cyber also plays a key role in this ecosystem, helping agencies evaluate modernization paths, align technology choices to mission outcomes and ensure that innovation efforts are grounded in real-world federal requirements.
Key takeaways
Self-funded modernization offers federal leaders a practical way forward in an era of fiscal constraint. It empowers agencies to reduce dependency on vendor-driven roadmaps, reclaim some of the significant budget allocated to maintenance, improve security without disruptive upgrades and fund innovation aligned to mission priorities.
Modernization, particularly at the IT virtualization layer, does not require larger budgets, but better choices, starting with how agencies support the software they already own.
[1] https://www.uschamber.com/assets/documents/Unleashing-the-Value-of-Federal-IT-Modernization-Report-2024.pdf
