Optimize vSphere investments with confidence
As Broadcom phases out general support for vSphere 7 and vSphere 8, IT leaders must decide whether to upgrade, migrate or maintain existing perpetual licenses. Extending the life of vSphere 6.x, 7.x and 8.x perpetual licenses provides a strategic alternative to costly migrations and subscription models, allowing stability, cost control and planning flexibility.
Rimini Street, the global leader of third-party support for VMware, helps organizations maintain operational stability and compatibility with existing workloads and integrations, offering a proven path to reduce costs, avoid disruption and confidently run vSphere environments for years to come.
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Global VMware licensing expertise
Rimini Street provides Global License and Advisory Services for VMware to help enterprises navigate shifting licensing models, pricing changes and product roadmaps. Our experts help you clarify your entitlements, identify cost-saving opportunities and deliver vendor-agnostic guidance for subscription transitions, per-core pricing, bundling requirements and renewal decisions.
Gain unmatched expertise and ultra-responsive vSphere support
With Rimini Support for VMware vSphere, get 24/7/365 access to full-time engineers worldwide. With guaranteed 10-minute SLAs for priority cases, delivered on average in less than two minutes, protecting your business is our business. See why our clients rate our services 4.9 out of 5.0 in client satisfaction.
Protect, optimize and transform IT virtualization investments
Rimini Street serves as a strategic IT partner and trusted advisor for organizations like yours. Let us guide you on a path toward not only protecting and future-proofing your IT virtualization investments but also helping to achieve growth and profitability goals — faster — by optimizing and securing existing infrastructures.
Get always-on third-party support for VMware with unlimited requests across an extensive service catalog, backed by exclusive, advanced security for malware and threat protection for your VMware investments.
With Rimini Support for VMware, you gain:
- Dedicated engagement focused on aligning technology performance to business objectives
- 10-minute guaranteed SLA for Priority 1 issues to protect uptime
- Expert guidance delivered by seasoned technical, functional and application professionals
Strengthen VMware security with proactive, zero-day protection. Safeguard your enterprise with tailored, cost-effective solutions that address vulnerabilities before they become threats.
With Rimini Protect for VMware, you gain:
- Exclusive Rimini Protect™ Advanced Hypervisor Security, powered by Vali Cyber® for coverage across any Linux- or KVM-based hypervisor
- Initial security assessment to identify and evaluate risks across your ecosystem
- Hardening and threat intelligence with advanced insights and best practices to fortify security
- Proven services and solutions designed to mitigate hypervisor security risks
Transform your hypervisor strategy with vendor-neutral and hands-on consultation, aligning your IT goals with your business objectives.
With Rimini Consult for VMware, you gain:
- Strategic guidance to help assess options whether to maintain VMware, migrate to a single or multiple hypervisor environment, modernize with containers or a hybrid environment – or a combination of these options
- Custom projects spanning outcomes identification, solution discovery and implementation from planning through execution
- On-demand skills and staffing support to help scale your team quickly during peak periods
Get the third-party VMware support you need to keep your business running — delivered through a flexible, pay-as-you-go model. Our services are available worldwide, and U.S.-based clients with primary data centers in the U.S. can conveniently purchase support for up to 200 VMware hosts directly through the Rimini Store.
With Rimini Support Flex for VMware, you gain:
- Scalable solution that fits the needs of those with smaller footprints
- 24/7/365 support delivered by global experts on VMware
- Convenient online system to submit support tickets
“As a Rimini Street client, we appreciate the proactive approach to security and the comprehensive protection offered by Rimini Protect for our VMware hypervisor environment. The VMware team at Rimini Street has been incredible and true experts in their field. Their support has made our VMware journey seamless and impactful. I’m excited by what we’ll accomplish in the future.”
FAQs
Is VMware offering a perpetual license for vSphere?
No, VMware is no longer offering perpetual licenses for vSphere. VMware, now under Broadcom, announced the end of sale of vSphere perpetual licenses in December 2023 and have now entirely transitioned to a subscription-based model. vSphere support renewals for existing perpetual licenses are also no longer available. Once support for your version of vSphere ends, access to patches and updates are no longer available from Broadcom, unless you’ve been provided with a grace period.
What happens when your vSphere perpetual license expires?
Once your vSphere perpetual license expires, your vSphere environment will continue to run, but you immediately lose access to new patches, technical support and updates, leaving your vSphere estate vulnerable to security threats.
How do you check the status of your vSphere license?
To check the status of your vSphere license, login to the vSphere client portal, navigate to the Admin menu, click on “Licensing,” then “licenses.” Here, you can view the expiration date of your perpetual license.
What is the cost of a VMware vSphere license?
The cost of a subscription for a vSphere license is calculated by the number of hosts, the number of CPUs per host and the number of cores per CPU. Broadcom’s average list prices per core are:
- VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF): $350 per core
- vSphere Foundation (VVF): $135 per core
Try our free estimator tool to estimate the cost of transitioning to a vSphere subscription-based license.
When is the end of support date for vSphere 7?
VMware vSphere 7.x, VMware ESXi 7.x, vCenter Server 7.x and vSAN 7.x reached the end of general support (EoGS) on October 2nd, 2025. Learn more about end of support for vSphere 7.
Additional resources
As Broadcom continues to reshape VMware’s licensing and support model, many organizations are re-evaluating their IT virtualization strategies. VMware officially marked the end of general support (EoGS) for vSphere 7.x perpetual licenses on October 2, 2025. Additionally, the end of general support for vSphere 8.x perpetual licenses is currently scheduled for October 11, 2027. These […]
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