Survey: 90% of VMware users cite license costs as reason to seek alternatives

Rimini Street on October 23 announced the results of a survey of about 300 companies that use VMware, conducted by Unisphere Research under the title "2026 IT Virtualization Survey – What's Next for VMware Users." According to datanet.co.kr, 90% of respondents cited rising license costs as a reason for considering alternatives to VMware.

The survey also found that 54% of respondents named the end of perpetual license support as a major factor in their deliberations. Among those considering VMware alternatives, 73% said cost savings was their top priority.

Respondents expected several difficulties in migrating: operational complexity (40%), multi-vendor management (38%), securing an expanded attack surface (37%) and a lack of in-house technical skills (37%).

On strategy, 60% of respondents said they are considering a multi-hypervisor approach, and 47% favor a hybrid IT virtualization environment that combines hypervisors and containers. A further 48% said they plan to move no assets to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

Third-party maintenance drew interest as well: 66% of respondents currently use or are considering it, with security (60%), installation and implementation support (57%) and concerns about service and technical support (54%) cited as the main reasons. Separately, 77% of IT virtualization security leaders said security solutions offering real-time threat visibility and proactive protection are valuable, rather than relying only on Broadcom's patch program.