Broadcom completed the acquisition of VMware in November 2023 and, since then, thousands of companies across Europe have seen their virtualization costs multiply by 3x to 12x. If you are a CIO, CTO or infrastructure manager, this guide gives you the data, the alternatives, and a concrete action plan to navigate the crisis.
Key takeaways from this guide
- ▪ Broadcom has killed perpetual licenses and forces mandatory bundles with +300% to +1,200% price hikes
- ▪ Proxmox VE enables 70% to 90% savings on virtualization costs
- ▪ VMware to Proxmox migration is easier than ever with the native import wizard
- ▪ Migration ROI is achieved in 3-6 months
What happened with VMware?
In November 2023, Broadcom closed the acquisition of VMware for $61 billion. What followed was an aggressive restructuring that has completely transformed VMware's business model.
Perpetual licenses disappeared. You can no longer buy vSphere, vCenter or vSAN with a one-time license. Everything has been converted to mandatory annual subscriptions. On top of that, Broadcom eliminated individual editions and forced mandatory bundles: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF). If you only needed vSphere, tough luck: now you pay for a full package that includes products you may never use.
The partner program also suffered a purge. Broadcom reduced the distributor network by 80%, going from thousands of partners to a few hundred selected ones. Many SMEs lost their usual vendor overnight.
Real impact in numbers: the cost of VMware in 2026
These figures are not theoretical. They reflect what the European market has been reporting since early 2024. According to data from Gartner and IDC, 75% of organizations running VMware have experienced at least a 200% increase in their virtualization bill. In many cases, the new VMware price exceeds the total cost of migrating to an alternative platform and operating it for 5 years.
Your options in 2026
Facing the Broadcom scenario, every company running VMware has four possible paths. None is perfect, but the differences are enormous:
| Option | Cost | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| VMware / Broadcom | Very high | No migration, mature ecosystem | Cost x3-x12, forced bundles, total vendor lock-in |
| Proxmox VE | Low | Open source, KVM+LXC, native Ceph, HA, easy migration | Learning curve for VMware teams |
| Hyper-V / Azure Stack | Medium-high | Integration with Microsoft ecosystem | Hyper-V Server discontinued, Microsoft vendor lock-in |
| Nutanix AHV | High | Mature HCI, good enterprise support | Expensive licensing, another vendor lock-in |
Why Proxmox VE is the winning option
Proxmox VE is not a new or experimental project. It has been in production since 2008 and is used by banks, hospitals, universities and companies of all sizes across more than 150 countries. What makes it especially relevant now is that it offers everything VMware charged a premium for, but with an open source model and no vendor lock-in.
- ✓ KVM + LXC: Full virtualization and lightweight containers on a single platform. Native performance thanks to the Linux kernel hypervisor.
- ✓ Integrated Ceph: Native distributed storage, no external SAN needed. Equivalent to vSAN but with no license cost.
- ✓ HA cluster and live migration: High availability and hot migration with zero downtime. The same as vMotion, out of the box.
- ✓ Proxmox Backup Server: Incremental backups, deduplication, automatic verification. No additional cost.
- ✓ 100% open source (AGPL v3): No per-socket, per-VM or per-feature licenses. Everything included.
The migration process: it is not that hard
One of the biggest fears when considering VMware alternatives is migration complexity. But the reality is that, since Proxmox 8.1, the process has been notably simplified thanks to the native import wizard that allows importing virtual machines directly from VMware ESXi.
Audit
Full inventory of VMs, dependencies, networks and storage. Identify critical workloads and priority order.
Design
Proxmox architecture: cluster, Ceph/storage, network, HA. Resource sizing and capacity plan.
Pilot
Migration of 5-10 non-critical VMs. Performance, network and backup validation. Fine tuning.
Mass migration
Native import wizard for VMDK. Automated VMDK to QCOW2 conversion. Planned migration windows.
Optimization
Performance tuning, monitoring implementation, team training. Procedure documentation.
Key fact: The Proxmox 8.1+ import wizard connects directly to ESXi and imports VMs with one click. No need to manually export OVA, nor stop the source VM during copy. Conversion from VMDK to native QCOW2 format is automatic.
How much do you actually save?
The numbers speak for themselves. A mid-sized company with 10 hosts and 200 VMs can expect savings of 70% to 90% in the first year on virtualization licensing costs. Even with Proxmox enterprise support included (which is optional), savings remain above 60%.
The math is straightforward: if a company pays €80,000/year to Broadcom for VMware and migrates to Proxmox with a project cost of €25,000 (including consulting, migration and training), the net savings in the first year are already €55,000. Over 5 years, cumulative savings exceed €260,000, even including Proxmox enterprise support.
What to do now: 3-step action plan
If your company still depends on VMware and the next renewal is approaching, the time to act is now. Every month you wait is another month paying Broadcom's premium. Here is a concrete action plan:
Inventory your environment
Document how many hosts, VMs, storage and networks you have. Calculate your current VMware cost and the projected cost for the next renewal. Without this data, no decision will be solid.
Request a free technical assessment
A team of Proxmox experts can analyze your environment and provide a fixed quote with timeline, cost and migration plan. At everyWAN we offer this assessment with no strings attached.
Plan a phased migration
You do not need to migrate everything at once. Start with non-critical workloads, validate the results, and scale progressively. A well-planned migration takes 4-8 weeks for most environments.
Need help migrating from VMware to Proxmox?
At everyWAN we are Proxmox experts and have helped dozens of companies in Spain escape Broadcom's new pricing. We offer free assessment, guided migration and ongoing support.
Contact everyWAN
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