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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Broadcom’s reported 10x price increases and bundling strategy for VMware products are prompting many organizations to reassess their reliance on the platform and explore alternatives such as Proxmox, KVM-based stacks, OpenNebula, and Kubernetes‑centric options. Commenters describe widespread anger and active migration planning, but note that high switching costs, VMware’s mature ecosystem (storage, networking, backups), and entrenched enterprise workflows still slow exits. Many see Broadcom as strip‑mining a shrinking but lucrative on‑prem virtualization market, betting that large enterprises will tolerate steep hikes longer than smaller, more agile customers.

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.