With Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, many enterprises are compelled to re-evaluate their IT infrastructure strategies and explore potential alternatives. However, the heavy reliance on VMware and various technical uncertainties make it difficult to determine whether to move away from VMware and, if so, what the next step should be.

Our blog series aims to provide clear answers to the most frequently asked questions around VMware replacement, covering strategy planning, evaluating alternative solutions (for both ESXi/vSphere and vSAN), and executing a smooth migration.

This article focuses on the planning and decision-making process involved in replacing VMware, offering a comprehensive guide to help you assess whether, when, and how to make the switch based on your unique business needs.

1. What Are Key Changes to VMware’s Licensing Model and Product Portfolio After the Acquisition?

Since late 2023, VMware by Broadcom has made a series of changes to its licensing models and product portfolios.

• In Q4 2023, VMware by Broadcom announced “the end of sale of perpetual licenses, Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual offerings, and hybrid purchase program/subscription purchase program (HPP/SPP) credits,” meaning that all products/services would be available as subscription software only.
• In Q1 2024, VMware by Broadcom consolidated over 50 standalone products into four solutions with add-ons — the vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) and vSphere Standard (VVS) that target the lightweight virtualization needs of small and midsize businesses, and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), which are enterprise-class solutions with more functionality.
• In Q4 2024, vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) was removed from the offering list, and a new option for using vSphere - vSphere Enterprise Plus - was added. This new portfolio allows users to leverage advanced virtualization features such as distributed switches, trust authority, DRS, VM encryption, SR-IOV, vGPU, etc.
• In Q1 2025, some VMware by Broadcom distributors disclosed that, since April 10, 2025, it would suspend the offering of vSphere Standard (VVS) in APJ (Asian-Pacific and Japan) regions and introduce a 72-core minimum purchase quantity to all product portfolios.

VMware by Broadcom product portfolios by April 2025

Retrieved from VMware by Broadcom - vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation Frequently Asked Questions

These changes made it more difficult for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that don’t run massive clusters to use VMware in a flexible and cost-efficient way.

• As VVS and vSphere Enterprise Plus only provide virtualization and centralized management services, users who want to use vSAN or other services can only subscribe to the two enterprise-class solutions, VVF and VCF. These solutions include limited vSAN capacity (250 GB per CPU core for VVF and 1 TiB per CPU core for VCF). If users need more storage capacity, they will need to purchase additional add-on licenses.
• If the enterprise’s servers don’t add up to 72 cores, they still need to pay for 72 cores.
• For APJ enterprises that only use vSphere and enterprises that want to deploy LLMs on VMware clusters (i.e., using the vGPU feature), they may need to subscribe to vSphere Enterprise Plus edition.

2. Is It Time to Quit VMware?

It should be noted that not all users need to decide immediately whether to replace their current VMware products with a new portfolio. Instead, their decision window depends on two factors:

• Is the existing product license up for renewal? If a user's current product service is about to expire and cannot be renewed at the original price, they may be forced to switch to a new license model or discontinue the product altogether. Without timely renewal, the system will run without official support services. While some applications can remain stable for a period without upgrades or new features, the lack of OEM support remains a potential risk.
• Do I need to upgrade the version of existing VMware products or scale up the cluster? Software upgrades not only enhance functionality, performance, and security by patching bugs and vulnerabilities but also accommodate business growth by enabling system expansion. Without Broadcom’s new license, users cannot upgrade or expand existing VMware systems.

During the “decision window,” users should assess their current VMware adoption and thoroughly test alternative products for the best choice. It’s also important to note that VMware by Broadcom has been adjusting its product offerings and licensing models for over a year. The longer you wait to make a decision, the greater the risks your organization may face. Gartner's report, A Guide to Choosing a VMware Alternative in the Wake of Broadcom Acquisition, advises enterprise users to evaluate their overall goals in IT modernization and decide whether to opt for a tactical (short-term) or a strategic (long-term) solution.

For more details, please refer to  https://www.arcfra.com/blog/vmware_alternatives.

3. How to Make A Risk-Free Plan for VMware Replacement?

First and foremost, users should validate the stability of existing VMware products in their production environment while rigorously evaluating alternatives to vSphere, the core hypervisor. Alternative vendors should be capable of delivering a full-stack solution—covering virtualization, distributed storage, networking and security, container management, cluster management, disaster recovery, and VM migration—that matches VMware’s original SDDC solution. This reduces the complexity of integrating multiple vendors and accelerates the replacement process. During evaluation, users should pay particular attention to the core components—hypervisor, distributed storage, and virtualized network and security—ensuring they meet the functionality, stability, and performance required for production-grade operations.

Next, based on the potential alternative, users should deploy a test cluster (or use it as a backup cluster) for the production environment. On this platform, users can migrate application system, VMs, and data copies from the production environment to create a complete IT system, which can be achieved through methods such as VM migration, storage migration, or application reconfiguration. Subsequently, users need to conduct long-term and comprehensive testing (including stress tests) of product performance and stability to validate the platform’s stability, reliability, and ability to maintain business continuity at the production grade. Only after the IT team is familiar with the O&M of the new system can the user consider replacing the original VMware system with the new one.

To ensure the smooth implementation of VMware replacement, meticulous and rigorous preparation is essential. Without sufficient validation, rushing the new system into operation may lead to frequent failures, which could affect business operations and subsequent replacement work.

4. What Are the Options for Replacing VMware?

Gartner's report, A Guide to Choosing a VMware Alternative in the Wake of Broadcom Acquisition, presents alternative options under both tactical (immediate, short-term solutions) and strategic (long-term solutions) approaches.

• Tactical approaches: VMware with alternative delivery, third-party maintenance, alternative hypervisor replacements, and Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI).
• Strategic approaches: public cloud migration, Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure (DHI), container management, and full-stack infrastructure platforms.

Among these options, HCI is highly rated in aspects such as ease of migration, ISV support, skills applicability, hybrid cloud integration, cloud-native compatibility, and long-term viability, making it a mature solution for VMware replacement. Representative vendors and products include Arcfra Enterprise Cloud Platform (AECP) and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI).

For more details, please refer to  https://www.arcfra.com/blog/gartner_vmware_alternative.

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