VMware in 2026: Four Paths After the Broadcom Model Change
VMware in 2026: four paths after the Broadcom model change.
If your vSphere 7 or 8 is humming along, you have zero reason to touch it. Period. What changed is the licensing model, not the platform — and there are four reasonable paths: stay with Broadcom, keep what you have with third-party support, migrate to Proxmox VE, or jump to OpenShift Virtualization. The decision about when — or if — you upgrade is back on your side. We run any of the four.
30-second TL;DR: four reasonable paths for your VMware in 2026 — stay with Broadcom (VCF/VVF), keep your vSphere on third-party support, migrate to Proxmox VE, or move to OpenShift Virtualization. All four work; the fit depends on your stack, your timeline, and how much budget you feel like committing to the vendor.
We've been running VMware since before Broadcom existed, and since Broadcom exists. We also do third-party support for enterprise software, migrations to Proxmox and OpenShift, and official training in whatever you need. No favourite horse — just very different customers, and this post is what we tell them when they ask "OK, so what do I do?".
in 2026
VMware acquisition
in enterprise virtualization
What changed at VMware after the Broadcom acquisition?
Broadcom closed the VMware acquisition on November 22, 2023. From that point, several things changed on the commercial side — outlined in Broadcom's official portfolio changes article. The technical platform is still the same. What changed is how you buy it, not how it runs.
- New perpetual licenses are gone. The catalog switched to subscriptions, mainly through two bundles: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).
- Catalog reorganized. Products previously sold separately (vSAN, NSX, Aria) are now integrated into the bundles, which changes the per-server licensing math.
- Partner program reset. Channel agreements were renegotiated and many customers now deal directly with Broadcom or with a tier-one partner.
- Existing perpetual licenses remain valid: customers who already bought them can keep running them, though without new updates if they don't keep a support contract.
It's a commercial-model change, not a technical fault in VMware. For some organizations the transition is manageable; for others — especially those that don't use all bundle components — the bill multiplies. Do the math before you renew, not after.
Why are so many companies rethinking VMware in 2026?
We hear it in almost every conversation — three reasons that usually show up together:
- The bill goes up. Switching to a bundle with components you don't use (vSAN, NSX, Aria) multiplies the per-core cost.
- The clock is ticking. Multi-year contracts expiring, and the classic email of "your renewal is in 90 days, please confirm".
- The platform is aging. vSphere 7 reached End of General Support on October 2, 2025; vSphere 8 is scheduled for 2027.
Not everyone experiences this the same way. If you have 3 hosts and a modest cluster, the adjustment is manageable. If you have 300 hosts with stretched vSAN, opening the option set has a clear and quick return. The question is no longer "which version do I buy?" — it's now "what do I do with everything I already have deployed and running?".
What are your four real options in 2026?
There are four reasonable paths today. There's no universal answer: the fit depends on how much VMware you have, what runs on top of it, who operates it, and what timeline you're managing.
All four work. What we do NOT recommend: deciding against the clock with the renewal looming. In that scenario you almost always end up renewing by default, without having compared anything — and that's the worst option of all, because you didn't even choose it.
Which path fits you?
Three quick questions and we'll tell you which of the four paths makes the most sense in your case. No data collected, no email asked — everything runs in your browser.
What is third-party support for VMware?
It's not "tech support" in the usual sense. It's what happens when the vendor stops being your maintenance provider and someone else steps in to do that work — us, in this case. We keep your vSphere 7 or 8 stable, patched and under contractual SLA while you decide what to do long-term. It does not replace vendor version upgrades. It does replace the maintenance contract — which is where the money goes.
Customers hire us for four reasons, in varying order:
- Staying on vSphere 7 or 8 for another five to ten years without anyone pushing you to upgrade. If your platform is stable, you don't need a new version — you need yours to stay secure.
- Getting the lever back: you set the timeline, not Broadcom's End of General Support date.
- Pulling money out of software maintenance and putting it where it adds value — new hardware, a project you've been putting off for a year, one more person on the team.
- A single contract for the entire stack (hypervisor, hardware, guest OS). You stop collecting vertical contracts with whichever vendor.
It fits especially well when your vSphere is solid and you want to stretch it while evaluating Proxmox or OpenShift calmly — or neither, if you change your mind on the way. We cover vSphere 7 and 8 from Spain, in English (and Spanish, and French), with an assigned engineer who doesn't rotate. Scope, SLA and process: third-party VMware support. Same approach for SAP lives at the third-party support hub.
And if I want to migrate? Proxmox or OpenShift?
It depends on where your platform is heading over the next five years.
Proxmox VE — the lateral migration
Proxmox VE is the natural answer if what you have is a classic VMware shop — Windows and Linux VMs, shared storage, backups — and you want an open source hypervisor that resembles what you already operate. It supports VM import from VMware, runs on KVM and LXC, and offers enterprise support subscriptions. It's a lateral migration, not a paradigm shift.
OpenShift Virtualization — Kubernetes consolidation
OpenShift Virtualization (based on KubeVirt) is the answer if your organization is already heading toward containers and you want a single platform for VMs and pods. You can run virtual machines as Kubernetes resources alongside your containerized applications, sharing the same network and storage. There's more learning curve, but also more runway if your roadmap is cloud-native. This is also the area where our GSC data shows the most interest from English-speaking visitors — VMware-to-OpenShift migration has become a real conversation in 2026.
A third path: OpenStack
There's a fourth destination worth keeping in mind: OpenStack with Ceph is still a solid option for large environments that want to operate a complete private cloud. Choosing between the three isn't ideological; it's about technical fit and team capability.
How much does it cost to migrate from VMware? And how long does it take?
There's no catalog price. Anyone giving you a number without looking at your infrastructure is making it up. What it takes and what it costs depends on three things:
- Estate size: number of hosts, number of VMs, TB size, presence of vSAN/NSX.
- Network and storage complexity: distributed switches, microsegmentation, replication, DR.
- Upper-stack dependencies: backup, monitoring, automation, CI/CD.
As planning reference:
- A migration of dozens of VMs from vSphere to Proxmox or OpenShift typically runs in weeks, with controlled per-service windows.
- A project on hundreds of VMs runs in months, in waves, using a strangler pattern: new workloads on the destination platform, existing workloads migrated in blocks.
What lengthens (and increases the cost of) projects usually isn't the hypervisor — it's the dependencies hanging off it: backup, DR, legacy automation, CMDB integrations. That's why the first deliverable of any serious migration is an inventory and dependency map, not a PoC of the new hypervisor.
What's the recommended order to decide?
This is the procedure we apply at SIXE when a customer asks "what do I do with VMware?". Check the steps off as you complete them — the bar tells you how much you have left and the plan is yours.
Hosts, cores, VMs, vSAN, NSX, Aria, active contracts and expiration dates. Without this, any calculation is fiction.
Backup, DR, monitoring, automation, CMDB integrations. The real timelines — and the hidden risks — live here.
Cost of renewing with Broadcom under the new model · Cost of third-party support for 12-24 months · Estimated migration cost (labour + tooling + training).
The four paths can be combined. Frequent pattern: third-party support for 18 months + progressive migration to Proxmox for standard workloads and to OpenShift for those heading to containers.
Quarterly review. The point is to separate the technical decision from the commercial calendar — the lever is in your hand, not in the renewal date.
What about the team's training?
Any of the four paths requires training, though in different proportions:
- Stay on VMware under Broadcom: little new training, mostly on the licensing model and bundles.
- Third-party support: no additional training; the team keeps operating what they already know.
- Proxmox VE: moderate training; the mental model resembles vSphere but tooling and networking differ.
- OpenShift Virtualization: significant Kubernetes training; start it before the migration, not during.
We're a training partner for several of these platforms: VMware, Red Hat (including OpenShift), and KVM-based solutions. If you want to keep your team certified on what they already operate, we run official VMware vSphere training. When migration is paired with early training, waves go faster and with fewer incidents.
Is VMware a bad platform after Broadcom?
No. And it's worth saying. Here are things we could say for easy clicks, and won't:
- That VMware is a bad product. It isn't — we've supported vSphere for more than fifteen years.
- That Broadcom is the villain. It's a legitimate commercial decision by a vendor. Customers have to decide what to do with it, not insult whoever made it.
- That Proxmox or OpenShift are "the answer". They're an answer when they fit. In other cases, what fits is staying on VMware — with or without Broadcom.
Don't decide in a rush. Do the math with all four. And if you need time to do it right, third-party support exists precisely for that. We've been running VMware since before Broadcom existed. We also run Proxmox, OpenShift and OpenStack. Whatever you decide, we execute — that's the difference.
The essentials in 5 points
→ The model changed, not the platform. Subscription (VCF/VVF) instead of new perpetuals. The perpetuals you already own are still yours.
→ Four reasonable paths: stay with Broadcom, third-party support, migrate to Proxmox or move to OpenShift. All four work.
→ Third-party support = buying time without compromising security. Your vSphere 7 or 8 stays patched and SLA-covered, but the contract is no longer with Broadcom.
→ Don't start with the new-hypervisor PoC. Start with the inventory and dependency map. The hypervisor is almost never the hard part.
→ The four paths combine. Most frequent pattern: 12-18 months of third-party support + progressive migration in parallel.
Frequently asked questions
Is third-party VMware support legal?
Yes — and it's not a grey area. It covers operational maintenance of the versions you already have deployed, without redistributing software or modifying licenses. It does not replace vendor version upgrades — it replaces the maintenance contract, which is something else.
Can I keep using VMware if I don't renew with Broadcom?
If you have prior perpetual licenses, yes: you can keep running them. What you lose is access to new updates and direct vendor support. To cover that gap, there's third-party VMware 7 and 8 support with contractual SLA.
When does support for vSphere 7 and vSphere 8 end?
VMware vSphere 7 reached End of General Support on October 2, 2025, per Broadcom's official communication. vSphere 8 is currently scheduled for 2027. Dates are updated periodically in the official lifecycle portal.
Is Proxmox VE a serious enterprise alternative?
Yes, and anyone still claiming otherwise hasn't looked at Proxmox in years. It runs in production in serious organizations, has enterprise support subscriptions and a mature ecosystem of backup, high availability and clustering. The difference with VMware isn't about technical maturity — it's about model (open source vs. proprietary) and tooling.
Does OpenShift Virtualization replace vSphere?
For many workloads, yes. It runs VMs as Kubernetes objects and lets you consolidate VMs and containers on a single platform. If your organization isn't moving toward Kubernetes in the next few years, it's not for you. If you already are, it's one of the strongest cards on the table.
How much will I exactly save by migrating or moving to third-party support?
It depends on your estate and current model. Significant savings are common in large infrastructures with bundles that aren't used at 100% — but you can only state a number after running the math with your numbers. Any percentage without your inventory is marketing.
Same approach for SAP?
Yes. We apply the same "you decide, we execute" logic to SAP infrastructure — IBM Power, AIX, Linux for SAP HANA. It lives at third-party SAP support.
Want to see the four paths with your numbers, not ours?
We'll put together a short report with the real cost of each option applied to your actual inventory: stay with Broadcom, third-party support, Proxmox or OpenShift. First conversation is free — if we don't fit, we don't fit. If we do, you'll tell us.
