Company claims 1k% price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Broadcom’s VMware Pricing Changes

  • Many commenters see Broadcom as effectively imposing huge (sometimes ~10x) price jumps, often via bundling rather than simple list-price hikes.
  • New licensing reportedly shifts metrics (cores vs RAM) and forces purchase of full suites (vSphere + NSX + vSAN + automation, logging, etc.) instead of single products.
  • Some customers’ bills increased dramatically; others, already using much of the stack, report lower or similar costs.
  • Several argue Broadcom is targeting only high-revenue, high-margin customers and is comfortable losing smaller or more price-sensitive ones.

Debate Over “1000% Increase”

  • Long side-thread over percentage vs multiple:
    • Correct math: 100% increase = 2x, 200% = 3x, 1000% = 11x.
    • Many note headlines use >100% figures loosely as “huge” rather than precise.
    • Some advocate using simple multiples (“10x price hike”) instead.

Why Organizations Still Use VMware

  • Inertia and ecosystem: vSphere “just works,” is familiar, and ties into backup, storage, and networking tools.
  • Features valued: easy shared storage, live migration, HA restarts, fault tolerance, NSX, vSAN, vCenter-like management.
  • Migration costs are high: retraining, replacing integrated tools, parallel backup systems, and operational risk.

Migration Away from VMware

  • Multiple commenters say every company they know is at least evaluating alternatives; some already moving tens of thousands of VMs.
  • Timelines are multi‑year; many will pay the higher prices while planning an exit.
  • Some see Broadcom as “strip mining” a shrinking or commoditized market before it dies.

Alternatives and Trade-offs

  • Mentioned options: Proxmox, OpenNebula, oVirt/RHV (deprecated), OpenShift + KubeVirt, Xen/XCP-ng, Ganeti, Hyper‑V, OpenStack, SmartOS/ Triton, cloud/Kubernetes.
  • Views vary:
    • Proxmox praised for simplicity but said to struggle beyond ~20 nodes and has tricky encryption/ZFS trade-offs.
    • RH’s direction is toward Kubernetes/ OpenShift, which some argue clashes with “pet VM” workloads common in VMware shops.
    • Some want a “cheaper VMware clone” (oVirt-like), others think that’s backward-looking.

Long-Term Risks and Ecosystem Effects

  • Concerns that abandoning small and mid-sized customers erodes VMware mindshare and future talent.
  • Some see Broadcom as optimizing short-term cash (like other “locust” or PE-style plays), accepting reputational damage and eventual customer exodus.