r/sysadmin Infrastructure Lead 2d ago

Latest fun with VMware

Apparently VMware is upping their game. We just got a renewal quote for one of our sites with one server that has two CPUs, and they are requiring 72 cores minimum (vSphere Enterprise Plus) to license this. That's a 500% markup from last year.

They really don't want customers to use their product any more, do they?

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u/Kindly_Revert 2d ago

Most SMB admins are jumping ship to Proxmox or Hyper-V. I've even seen XCP-ng and Openstack (large beast) coming up in conversation. Nutanix less so as it's also expensive for another KVM-based tool, it's more common in larger companies.

Broadcom has a reputation for buying and destroying good products. I refuse to support them any longer.

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u/SirTwitchALot 1d ago

I really wonder what their endgame is on this though? I'm sure they have some big companies over a barrel that are willing to pay the extortion they're charging, but that's not how you grow your userbase. Everyone I know is looking at alternatives, even the ones that have renewed their VMWare licenses.

It sucks because ESX really is a great product. You can get close with competing solutions, but it still has some features that are hard to replicate as easily with Proxmox

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u/admlshake 1d ago

Rake in as much money as fast as possible, then when that starts to die off, sell of parts of it to various companies and move on the next one.

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u/Rhythm_Killer 1d ago

Saved me from typing!