Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has introduced a wave of pricing and packaging changes, prompting many organizations to reassess their virtualization strategy. With shifting policies, fluctuating bundles and pricing often disclosed late in the renewal cycle, what was once a reliable standard has become a source of uncertainty.
A recent Rimini Street survey found that 98% of VMware customers have adopted or are actively exploring cost-effective VMware alternatives. Rather than being locked into expensive, rigid subscription models, businesses are examining other options for their virtualization strategy that will provide greater control, flexibility and long-term value.
If you’re in the process of determining your next move, here are the primary paths we’re seeing customers evaluate, along with the benefits and challenges of each.
Path 1: A self-support model
Some organizations are opting to retain their perpetual VMware licenses and move to a self-support model. While this approach can yield immediate cost savings, it raises challenges as well — namely in acquiring the necessary technical expertise and ensuring timely support resolution. Rimini Street’s survey found that 51% of respondents express concerns about the ability to retain technical expertise, and 44% worry about the slow resolution of complex issues, which could potentially hinder productivity.
VMware environments are complex and mission critical, often hosting revenue-generating business applications. Self-support requires a strong internal technical team. Without expert support, you could risk extended downtime, slower issue resolution and increased exposure to security threats.
If you’re considering self-support as a VMware alternative, you need to have the right tools and internal resources to maintain a stable, secure and compliant environment. It is essential that you weigh the gains of self-support against the potential operational risks that may arise.
Path 2: Alternative hypervisors
According to Gartner, VMware’s hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) market share is projected to decline from 70% in 2024 to just 40% by 20291 signaling a major shift in customer preferences and opening the door for alternative vendors to gain traction.
As a result, many organizations are actively exploring hypervisors that offer comparable functionality, better pricing models and greater alignment with modern workloads. For example, Nutanix AHV continues to see strong revenue growth as it positions itself as a leader in HCI.2
Additionally, open-source VMware alternatives are growing in popularity. These solutions support enterprise-grade virtualization at a lower total cost of ownership, but they do require a higher level of internal expertise and support planning.
Many emerging alternatives are evolving rapidly, creating a prime window for organizations to modernize their virtualization stack. However, major changes and a new wave of vendors entering the market will likely take place within the next few years, and a long-term commitment now could limit flexibility and future options. For many, the smarter move is to stay agile and avoid trading one lock up for another.
Path 3: Third-party support
Third-party support strikes the right balance between the other available VMware alternatives, offering VMware clients the ability to keep their perpetual VMware licenses running while freeing themselves from high-cost subscriptions, often with bundled products they likely don’t need.
Rimini Street is an analyst-recognized global leader of third-party support for VMware, helping businesses around the world maintain full control over their VMware environments. Rimini Support™ for VMware is backed by robust 24/7/365 global support and industry-leading exclusive security offering, Rimini Protect™ Advanced Hypervisor Security powered by Vali Cyber®, actively protecting mission-critical hypervisor infrastructure, including US military VMware deployments.
Included with standard support, clients gain advanced protection across VMware and other hypervisors, including Nutanix, Citrix Hypervisor, XenServer, Proxmox and KVM. This solution creates a secure, locked-down hypervisor environment, 24/7/365, allowing businesses to manage hypervisor risk in a manner that was previously unavailable in the market.
More than 60 organizations worldwide have already made the switch, reducing renewal costs, improving support quality and enhancing their security posture, all without sacrificing control or uptime.
Third-party support is more than a cost-cutting tactic — it’s a strategic lever for IT modernization and long-term flexibility.
“The Rimini Street VMware support experience is the best we’ve ever had. We are impressed with both the quality of the support and the depth of services we receive from Rimini Street. We highly recommend business leaders seek them out for their VMware needs.”
— Jean-Pierre Roullin, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
Key takeaways
Every organization has unique requirements, and the right path forward for virtualization depends on factors such as budget, internal expertise, performance demands and long-term IT strategy. Self-support offers cost savings but comes with considerable risk, whereas alternative hypervisors promise innovation and savings but often require significant planning and investment.
For organizations who want to take charge of their IT roadmap, Rimini Support for VMware offers the best of both worlds among the available VMware alternatives: the ability to avoid costly subscriptions and receive comprehensive support and robust security without compromise. If you’re looking for vendor-agnostic guidance for your virtualization strategy, reach out today to learn how Rimini Street can provide a smarter path forward.
[1] https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/collectConsent?sessionId=1_cc-session_99277a2a-e5b9-4aef-a681-582791e01aa9
[2] Chris Mellor, “Nutanix beats forecast with 16% revenue growth for Q1 FY25,” Blocks & Files, retrieved 2 April 2025 from https://blocksandfiles.com/2024/11/27/nutanix-q1-2025/