Facing VMware’s Price Hikes? Migrating to AWS Might Be Your Answer
8 min readYes, you read that right — it's not a sensational headline; it’s a reality. [Fudzilla.com]
And they’re not alone. Across the board, businesses are bracing for price hikes as high as 10x for VMware’s data center products. [Broadcom]
How VMware's new licensing model affects your business
Changes in VMware’s licensing model now require customers to transition from perpetual licenses to a subscription-based model, causing increased uncertainty regarding the final cost of licenses. Features and add-ons that were once included in base licenses are now bundled separately, adding to the unpredictability of expenses. This shift not only impacts cost forecasting but also raises concerns about the support and services offered within the subscription model.
Compounding these challenges, VMware’s recent sale of its End User Computing division to private equity firm KKR has introduced further uncertainty regarding the future of the product and its pricing structure (CRN). Broadcom, known for reducing R&D budgets after acquisitions, has fueled additional worries about the pace of innovation for future VMware features and updates.
According to Nutanix, price increases for VMware products could climb by at least 2x over the next five years, and many existing customers operating on perpetual licenses have already received notices of price hikes ranging from 2x to as much as 12x (NUTANIX).
vSphere Enterprise+ vs vSphere Foundation (24-core CPU) 
Figure 1 (source)
Moreover, a research brief from NAND Research predicts ongoing price escalation within VMware’s new subscription model.
| Existing vSAN Enterprise + vSphere Standard | New VVF | |
|---|---|---|
| Base License, 2P x 24 Cores (total 48 cores) | $6,000 | $6,480 |
| Capacity Upgrade to 50Tib @ $210/TiB | Included | $9,450 |
| Total | $6,000 | $15,930 |
Figure 2 (source)
Given these challenges, many organizations are now seeking reliable, risk-averse, and cost-efficient alternatives to VMware. A recent Gartner poll found that 73% of respondents are actively exploring alternative solutions but are often constrained by various challenges such as internal expertise, security concerns, and time constraints.
Navigating the complexities of moving away from VMware
For businesses clinging to their perpetual licenses, the financial reality of staying with VMware post-acquisition is a wake-up call. The choice is clear: Either accept the steep price increases or migrate to alternative platforms.
However, migration brings its own challenges, such as:
- Limited internal expertise. Many businesses lack the in-house skills needed to manage the migration process effectively.
- Time constraints. Expiring contracts and deadlines push organizations to move quickly, often without sufficient preparation.
- Security concerns. Transitioning from VMware raises questions about AWS' security capabilities. AWS not only matches but often exceeds VMware's security standards, offering scalable, customizable solutions that can strengthen your organization’s security posture.
- Seamless transition. Ensuring critical services remain uninterrupted during the migration is a significant challenge.
This is where AWS comes in. With its flexible, secure, and cost-efficient offerings, AWS addresses these challenges head-on.
Why not take this chance to transform your infrastructure and develop a modern platform engineering strategy that ensures continuous cost savings?
How AWS simplifies your VMware migration
Here’s a breakdown of how AWS addresses the challenges of migrating VMware workloads:
- Cost efficiency with pay-as-you-go. AWS lets businesses scale workloads up or down as needed, avoiding overpaying for unused capacity, unlike VMware's upfront licensing.
- Reduced management overhead. AWS manages scaling, infrastructure, and security, easing the burden on IT teams and reducing maintenance complexity.
- Enhanced security. AWS offers robust security and compliance with services like Amazon Inspector, Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Config, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Firewall Manager for monitoring and compliance.
- Flexible network security. AWS offers more than just a two-tier security model with NACLs (network access control lists) and security groups. It allows for layered security across multiple levels, providing a flexible and customizable approach to network protection. This ensures that organizations can implement security controls at both the subnet and instance levels, while also benefiting from AWS’ advanced tools for managing and automating security at scale, simplifying the process without compromising on protection.
- Continuous innovation. AWS, with over 200 managed services, enables businesses to experiment and innovate without the need for upfront infrastructure investments. Its pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model allows organizations to access these services as needed, empowering experimentation and scaling, all while managing costs more efficiently.
These advantages make AWS a flexible, secure, and cost-efficient cloud provider for businesses considering VMware migration.
Migration paths
There are two recommended migration paths for customers depending on their timeline:
Lift-and-shift: Ideal for customers facing short deadlines (less than 12 months), this approach moves existing VMware workloads to AWS with minimal changes, allowing for a fast transition without overhauling infrastructure.
Modernization through migration: For customers with more time until their contracts expire (12 to 18+ months), this approach focuses on modernizing the infrastructure during the migration process, ensuring a more optimized and future-ready setup.
How to get started
As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner with deep VMware expertise, SoftServe helps customers migrate to AWS securely and efficiently. Our team is skilled in handling complex migrations, utilizing a variety of approaches including lift-and-shift, re-platforming, and refactoring. Additionally, we leverage AWS’ funding programs to make the financial aspect of migration and modernization more manageable for our customers.
Our VMware Migration Factory is a proven framework that not only addresses technical challenges but also tackles organizational and skills gaps. By reusing and retraining your existing engineering teams, we help transition them into capable cloud engineers. With dedicated AWS funding for VMware migration incentives, we also ensure your organization receives the financial support needed to make a smooth transition to the cloud.
SoftServe follows the Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) framework, which consists of a three-phase approach to migration and modernization:
- Assessment: In this phase, we conduct an infrastructure assessment to help customers understand the cost of ownership in the cloud and build a solid business case for migration. For modernization projects, we partner with CAST Software, using tools like CAST Highlight and CAST Imaging to determine the best modernization approach. We also utilize services like AWS Application Discovery Service or Cloudamize to gain a clear understanding of the infrastructure and workload dependencies.
- Mobilize: During this phase, we establish the foundation for a successful migration or modernization. Our team creates a secure and customizable landing zone using AWS Control Tower, enabling the customer to govern AWS accounts in a controlled, efficient manner. At this stage, we also help establish a cloud center of excellence, build standardization, upskill internal teams, and select pilot applications for migration or modernization. We then set up automation pipelines to accelerate the migration process.
- Migrate at scale: This phase focuses on migrating or modernizing workloads at scale. By organizing workloads into groups that can be migrated or modernized independently, we maximize velocity and ensure efficient execution.
- Manage: Post-migration, our team continues to monitor and optimize the workloads, working closely with the customer to continually modernize and improve operations in the cloud.
Why SoftServe
As a Premier Tier Partner to AWS, SoftServe holds 12 AWS Competencies and numerous Service Delivery Program certifications. This partnership grants us access to the AWS MAP, including dedicated funding for VMware migration incentives, providing financial support to ease your cloud transition. Our specialized migration and modernization services are tailored to meet the specific needs of your business, ensuring a smooth, efficient, and risk-reduced migration process.
Additionally, SoftServe has developed an AWS Upskill Program to train and empower your existing engineering teams, helping them gain the knowledge and skills they need to effectively operate in the AWS Cloud environment, maximizing your existing talent.