Third‑Party Support and Hybrid Strategies to Mitigate VMware Cost Increases
Introduction:
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has led to significant licensing changes and price increases for VMware, prompting many organizations to seek ways to reduce their VMware costs.
Perpetual VMware licenses can no longer be renewed for official support under Broadcom’s policies, forcing customers toward subscription models. However, there are alternative approaches to controlling costs.
This article examines how third-party VMware support and hybrid licensing strategies can help mitigate rising VMware expenses while maintaining necessary support and functionality.
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Third‑Party Maintenance for Perpetual VMware Licenses
After Broadcom’s changes, customers holding perpetual VMware licenses found themselves unable to renew vendor support once their current contracts expire. Third‑party support providers have emerged to fill this gap for legacy VMware deployments.
These independent companies (for example, Rimini Street or Spinnaker Support) offer maintenance and technical support for VMware environments that are no longer covered by VMware’s support.
How Third-Party VMware Support Works:
A third-party support contract enables you to continue running your existing VMware software versions, assisting with troubleshooting, configuration, and even custom patches for critical issues.
This means if you choose not to subscribe to Broadcom’s new licensing model, you can still get help resolving problems and addressing security vulnerabilities in your VMware environment.
Third-party providers typically focus on on-premises products (such as vSphere, vSAN, and NSX) and offer services to maintain the stability and security of those systems. They may not cover VMware’s cloud offerings, but for traditional data center deployments, they can extend the useful life of your software.
Benefits for Perpetual License Holders:
Third-party maintenance is often significantly cheaper than official VMware support subscriptions, sometimes costing 40–60% less than vendor renewal quotes.
This cost efficiency provides immediate relief for organizations facing steep price hikes for VMware. Additionally, using third-party support “buys time” to plan your long-term strategy.
You can avoid rushing into an expensive subscription commitment and instead use a year or two under third-party support as a period of breathing room.
During this time, you may want to evaluate alternative platforms or wait to see if Broadcom offers more favorable licensing terms.
Importantly, third-party support preserves your investment in perpetual licenses – you can keep using the software you already own without interruption, which helps avoid a forced migration on Broadcom’s timetable.
Limitations and Considerations:
It’s crucial to understand that third-party support is a stopgap solution, not a permanent replacement for VMware’s innovation pipeline.
Third-party providers will not deliver new features or major version upgrades.
Your environment will essentially be “frozen” on its current software version.
For some organizations, that’s acceptable in the short term if the feature set meets current needs.
You should also consider security updates – reputable third-party firms do develop or source fixes for known vulnerabilities, but some IT teams may feel uneasy without official vendor patches.
Support response and expertise are other key factors: while many third-party vendors hire experienced VMware engineers, their depth of knowledge and access to VMware’s internal development team are naturally more limited than those of VMware’s support.
When choosing a third-party maintenance provider, vet them carefully.
Ensure they support the specific VMware products and versions you use, and negotiate service-level agreements (SLAs) that meet your operational requirements.
In summary, third-party maintenance can provide support for perpetual license holders after Broadcom’s policy changes, offering a way to reduce costs and maintain support coverage.
The trade-off is that you’ll be running on static software versions.
Most organizations treat this as a temporary solution; it keeps critical VMware systems running safely for 1–3 years, during which you should actively plan your next steps (whether that means eventually adopting the new VMware subscription model or migrating to a different solution).
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Pros and Cons of Third‑Party Support vs. VMware Subscription
When deciding between staying on third-party support or subscribing to VMware’s official offerings, consider the following pros and cons:
- Cost: Third-party support can dramatically lower your VMware maintenance expenses. Annual fees from third-party providers are generally much smaller than VMware’s subscription license costs. In contrast, subscribing to VMware (under Broadcom’s pricing) often means a higher recurring cost – sometimes a several-fold increase over previous support budgets. If budget reduction is a top priority, third-party support has a clear cost advantage.
- Access to Updates and Upgrades: Choosing VMware’s official subscription ensures you receive all the latest updates, patches, and new feature releases. VMware will continue to evolve the product, and subscribers will benefit from the innovations (for example, newer versions of vSphere, security patches, and new capabilities, such as Tanzu enhancements). With third-party support, you forgo automatic updates – your environment will not get new features or official patches from VMware. Some third-party providers may create custom fixes for critical security issues, but you won’t get major upgrades. This is a key trade-off: if your business demands the newest features or if compliance requires the latest patches, sticking with VMware’s subscription may be necessary.
- Support Quality and Scope: VMware’s support (especially at higher tiers) has direct lines to the product engineering teams and a deep knowledge base of the software. They can issue official bug fixes and have broad expertise across the entire VMware portfolio. Third-party support firms, while staffed by skilled experts (often former VMware engineers), might have varying coverage across all VMware products. You should verify that a third-party can handle the specific components you use (e.g., NSX networking, storage integrations, etc.). Some complex enterprise features might be less familiar to a smaller support outfit.Additionally, if a problem requires code changes, VMware’s support can eventually provide a patch or update, whereas a third-party firm can only offer workarounds or unofficial fixes. That said, many customers report responsive service and more flexible, personalized support from third-party providers who are eager to keep their business. In summary, official VMware support is more comprehensive; however, third-party support can be sufficient for steady-state operations if your environment remains stable.
- Vendor Lock-In and Flexibility: Opting for third-party support means you are not committing to VMware’s new licensing model right away. This can be strategically useful if you want to avoid vendor lock-in or protest the price hikes. It gives you the freedom to explore other options without the sunk costs of a subscription. However, it’s essentially delaying the decision – eventually, you’ll need to either upgrade or migrate as software ages. Subscribing to VMware, on the other hand, locks you into Broadcom’s ecosystem (and future price structures) but provides a clear, long-term path under VMware’s umbrella. Some organizations may value having the latest technology and a direct relationship with the vendor, despite the higher costs, especially for mission-critical systems that demand guaranteed updates and full support.
Bottom Line: Third-party VMware support is a viable short- to mid-term strategy for saving money and continuing operations, especially if your current VMware deployment meets your needs without requiring new features.
The downsides (no new versions and reliance on an external provider) mean it’s not a forever solution for most. Subscribing to VMware assures you’re on the latest software with official backing, but at a significantly higher price and with less flexibility.
Many enterprises are now combining both approaches – leveraging third-party support for certain systems while utilizing official subscriptions for others – as they weigh their next steps.
Hybrid Strategies to Mitigate VMware License Costs
A hybrid strategy can help balance cost and functionality by combining different licensing and platform approaches.
Instead of an all-or-nothing move to VMware’s new subscriptions, consider these tactics to reduce VMware costs while maintaining necessary performance and support.
This type of hybrid cloud licensing approach may involve splitting workloads across multiple environments and optimizing what you continue to run on VMware.
Key strategies include:
- Split Critical vs. Non-Critical Workloads: Identify which systems require VMware’s capabilities and support, and which could run on alternative platforms. For your most critical production workloads – those requiring the highest performance, reliability, and vendor support – you may opt for the VMware subscription model (and its associated costs) to ensure these systems remain fully supported and up-to-date. Meanwhile, move less critical or more flexible workloads to alternative platforms to avoid expanding your VMware licensing footprint. For example, development and test environments, disaster recovery setups, or branch office deployments could be migrated to other hypervisors or cloud solutions. Some organizations are shifting non-critical VMs to open-source or lower-cost hypervisors (like KVM, Proxmox VE, or Microsoft Hyper-V) or public cloud services. By splitting workloads this way, you limit the number of VMware subscription licenses you need to pay for, reserving them for where they deliver the most value. This hybrid approach also gives you experience with other platforms, which can be a strategic advantage if you plan a broader move away from VMware in the future.
- Right-Size Your VMware Environments: VMware’s new per-core licensing means that the more CPU cores you have in your hosts, the higher your costs will be. A powerful lever to control costs is rightsizing your hardware to reduce the licensed core count. Analyze your current virtualization environment for underutilized resources – many data centers run ESXi hosts with lots of headroom and idle VMs. By carefully consolidating workloads and optimizing resource allocations, you may be able to reduce the number of physical servers or CPU cores required to run VMware. For instance, instead of using many servers at low utilization, you might consolidate VMs onto fewer hosts running at higher utilization (up to safe limits), allowing you to decommission or repurpose some hardware and drop those licenses. Another tactic is to use CPUs with fewer cores but higher clock speeds if they meet performance needs, so that each host has a smaller core count to license. Some administrators even consider disabling excess cores in BIOS to align with lower licensing tiers (for example, capping each CPU at 16 cores if you’re only licensed for 16 per socket). The goal of rightsizing is a leaner VMware footprint: every core you eliminate from VMware’s count translates to direct savings on subscription fees. Beyond cost, this also improves efficiency – you’re making the most of the hardware you have, with less waste.
- Leverage Short-Term License Commitments: Broadcom will push for multi-year subscription contracts, but you don’t have to agree to a long-term right away. Negotiating a flexible 1-year term for your VMware subscription can be a smart interim strategy. A shorter commitment might come at a slightly higher rate than a multi-year deal, but it buys you flexibility. With an annual renewal cycle, you can re-evaluate your situation each year. Suppose your company is considering cloud migration, data center changes, or simply wants to see how Broadcom’s pricing evolves. In that case, a one-year subscription prevents being locked into a three- or five-year expense. During that year, you can also prepare alternative solutions or push for better discounts in the next negotiation. In some cases, customers have used the threat of switching to third-party support or alternative platforms as leverage to secure a short-term deal or a transitional discount from Broadcom. The key is to avoid overcommitting: a flexible subscription term keeps options open and ensures you’re not stuck if costs rise further or a better opportunity arises.
- Phased Migration and Cloud Alternatives: A hybrid approach can also mean gradually migrating workloads to the cloud or other infrastructures to reduce dependence on VMware licensing. For example, you might start moving certain applications to a public cloud service or a SaaS solution, thereby shrinking the VMware environment over time. Some organizations leverage hybrid cloud licensing by using VMware’s cloud offerings (like VMware Cloud on AWS) for part of their load, which in some cases might be more cost-effective for bursty or growth workloads. Others evaluate completely different solutions like container platforms (Kubernetes) for new applications instead of spinning up new VMs. By implementing a phased or partial migration plan, you avoid a sudden spike in costs – you only pay for VMware where it makes the most sense, and all other costs are handled via alternative means. This approach also distributes the effort and risk of switching platforms. You might, for instance, keep VMware for your private cloud core systems, but deploy a new remote office on Hyper-V or move your VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) to a cloud DaaS provider. Over time, this dual-vendor strategy can significantly reduce your VMware licensing needs, although it introduces some complexity in managing multiple platforms.
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