VMware customers in Europe are facing price increases of up to 1,500%. Get your free exit plan →
VMware Exit Strategy for European Enterprises

Broadcom raised
your VMware bill.
We help you leave.

Since Broadcom completed its $61B acquisition of VMware in November 2023, European enterprises are receiving renewal invoices 5 to 25 times higher than before. 5NINES migrates your workloads to sovereign open-source private cloud — predictable costs, no vendor lock-in, full GDPR compliance.

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1,500%
Max price increase for European VMware customers (ECCO/CISPE, 2025)
5–25×
Typical licence cost multiplier at renewal across enterprise customers
30+
Years building European infrastructure
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What happened

The Broadcom shock that changed enterprise infrastructure

Broadcom completed its $61B acquisition of VMware in November 2023. Within months, perpetual licences were discontinued and mandatory subscription bundles replaced them. The European Cloud Competition Observatory formally rated Broadcom's practices RED — warning they breach EU competition law. Enterprises across the continent are now receiving renewal invoices 5 to 25 times higher than the year before.

1,500%
Maximum VMware price increase reported by European enterprises. The ECCO–CISPE report found some companies facing zero-profitability scenarios.
Network World / ECCO–CISPE Report, May 2025
5–25×
Typical licence cost multiplier at renewal. Verified enterprise cases range from $10K to $250K annually for the same workload. Some report 25× increases.
IDC / Multiple verified enterprise reports, 2024
45M+
OpenStack compute cores running in production worldwide — 350% growth since 2018. The proven open-source alternative running in 300+ public cloud data centers globally.
OpenInfra Foundation User Survey, 2023
Your options

Three paths forward. An honest comparison.

High Risk
Stay on VMware

Accept Broadcom's new pricing, renew your subscription, and absorb the increase.

  • No migration effort required
  • Familiar tooling for your team
  • 5–25× cost increase at renewal
  • Perpetual licences discontinued
  • Mandatory bundles for unused features
  • Fully dependent on Broadcom's roadmap
Expensive and increasingly risky long-term.
Trade-offs
Move to Public Cloud

Migrate VMware workloads to AWS, Azure or GCP. Avoid the VMware bill — pay a cloud bill instead.

  • No upfront hardware investment
  • Rapid elasticity for variable workloads
  • Unpredictable costs at scale
  • Data leaves European jurisdiction
  • New vendor lock-in, different vendor
  • GDPR & NIS2 compliance becomes complex
Solves VMware. Creates new dependencies.
Recommended
Migrate to Private Cloud

Run OpenStack on your hardware or in a European colocation facility. Your infrastructure, your rules, your costs — permanently.

  • Eliminate VMware licensing entirely
  • Predictable, fixed infrastructure costs
  • Data stays in your jurisdiction
  • GDPR & NIS2 compliance by design
  • No vendor can ever raise your costs
  • Requires upfront planning & migration
The durable solution. We make migration straightforward.
The business case

Why private cloud wins on total cost of ownership

For stable, predictable workloads — the kind running on VMware today — private cloud consistently outperforms public cloud on TCO from year two. 37signals saved $7M over five years after leaving the cloud. GEICO repatriated after cloud costs increased 2.5×.

Predictable costs, permanently

Hardware depreciates. Open-source software has no licence fees. After initial investment, your infrastructure cost is essentially fixed — no surprise invoices, no renewal negotiations, ever.

€0 per-VM licence fees
Full European data sovereignty

Your data stays in your data center, in your country, under your jurisdiction. GDPR compliance is structural. NIS2 requirements are met by design — not configuration.

100% data residency
No vendor can hold you hostage

OpenStack is governed by the OpenInfra Foundation — no single company controls it. No acquisition can change your pricing. The Broadcom scenario is structurally impossible.

Zero lock-in risk
Enterprise-grade, battle-tested

OpenStack runs 45M+ compute cores in production globally — 350% growth since 2018. Walmart, China Mobile, Workday and NASA all rely on OpenStack at scale across 300+ data centers.

45M+ cores in production
Dedicated, consistent performance

On dedicated hardware, your workloads don't share resources with other tenants. No noisy neighbours — critical for databases, ERP systems, and latency-sensitive applications.

Zero resource contention
Your team stays in control

VMware administrators adapt to OpenStack quickly — the fundamental concepts are similar. We provide structured knowledge transfer and full documentation so your team owns the platform independently.

Full knowledge transfer

Sources: OpenInfra Foundation 2023 User Survey; 37signals cloud exit case study (DHH, 2023); GEICO repatriation; ECCO–CISPE report May 2025.

How it works

Your VMware exit, step by step

Migration sounds daunting. With the right process and experienced engineers, it is methodical and low-risk.

Discovery & Infrastructure Audit

We map your existing VMware environment — VMs, networks, storage, dependencies, and compliance requirements. You receive a written report with recommended migration architecture and realistic cost projections, before any commitment.

Week 1–2
Private Cloud Architecture Design

We design your target OpenStack environment — hardware sizing, network topology, storage strategy, high availability, and security posture. Everything is documented before a single server is touched.

Week 2–4
Automated Deployment

We deploy OpenStack using Infrastructure as Code — every configuration is version-controlled, reproducible, and auditable. The environment is CIS-hardened and fully tested before any workload migration begins.

Week 3–6
Phased Workload Migration

We migrate workloads in priority order — non-critical first, production last. VMware and OpenStack run in parallel until you are fully confident. No forced cutovers, no data loss.

Week 4–12
Handover, Training & Ongoing Support

Full documentation and hands-on training for your team. Ongoing support, monitoring setup, and upgrade assistance available. Our goal is your team's independence — not dependency on us.

Ongoing
Common questions

Everything you need to know about leaving VMware

Migration risk is manageable with the right process. The key is a phased approach — running VMware and OpenStack in parallel, migrating workloads incrementally, and validating each step before proceeding. We never perform hard cutovers. A well-planned migration carries less risk than staying on a platform where the vendor has already imposed 5–25× price increases.
Most VMware VMs migrate to OpenStack with minimal changes. We use automated tooling to convert VMDK disk images to QCOW2 format — in most cases the guest OS requires no modification. For complex workloads we conduct a pre-migration compatibility assessment before committing to a timeline.
Timeline depends on environment size and complexity. Small to mid-size environments (50–200 VMs) typically complete in 8–16 weeks. Larger or more complex environments run 4–6 months. We provide a specific timeline estimate in your free assessment — before any commitment.
Not necessarily. OpenStack can run on the same x86 hardware that currently runs VMware — in many cases the identical physical servers. If your hardware is ageing we'll advise on right-sized replacements. We can also deploy in European colocation facilities if you don't operate your own data center.
Engagement costs vary by scope. Mid-size environment migrations typically range from €40,000–€120,000 in professional services, with ongoing support available separately. In virtually all cases, first-year VMware licensing savings alone cover the migration cost — often within 12 months. We provide a detailed cost comparison in your free assessment.
Yes — and that is always the goal. VMware administrators adapt to OpenStack quickly because the fundamental concepts are similar. We provide structured knowledge transfer, full documentation, and a supported handover period. Ongoing managed operations are also available if you prefer not to operate in-house.
Private cloud makes GDPR structurally simpler — your data never leaves your jurisdiction, so the legal basis for processing is clearer. We design every deployment with GDPR, NIS2, and relevant sector-specific compliance requirements built in from day one.
Absolutely. We work with organisations migrating from AWS, Azure, GCP, Nutanix, or legacy bare-metal environments. The same principles apply — assess the current environment, design a target private cloud architecture, and migrate methodically. Fill in the assessment form and describe your situation.
Your next step

Your VMware renewal is coming.
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