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A year ago, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware sent shockwaves through the IT industry. VMware, once a dominant force in enterprise virtualization with a 40% market share, was suddenly an unknown quantity. Prices changed, licensing terms shifted, and uncertainty spread. IT leaders had a tough question to answer: stick with the familiar or jump ship to something new?
For many, the answer has been clear. Over 80% of OpenInfra Foundation members have received requests from companies looking to migrate workloads from VMware to OpenStack. And more than 60% of them have already completed a migration.
So what’s really driving this shift? In a recent OpenInfra Live panel, four industry experts—Michael Iatrou (Canonical), Randy Bias (Mirantis), Josh Villarreal (Rackspace), and Paul Miller (Wind River)—joined Jonathan Bryce, Executive Director of the OpenInfra Foundation, to talk about what they’re seeing firsthand.
Here’s what we learned.
Why Are Companies Leaving VMware?
The Broadcom acquisition was a wake-up call, but as Michael Iatrou put it, the move away from VMware isn’t just about one event—it’s part of a larger trend:
“The acquisition and the subsequent changes have been a catalyst… but in reality, we see this is actually in line with an existing trajectory. Companies have been looking for a more modern, open, and comprehensive way to run their infrastructure.”
For years, businesses stuck with VMware out of inertia. Randy Bias described it bluntly:
“Enterprises tend to stick with their existing vendors because of momentum, relationships, and procurement familiarity. There has to be some kind of tectonic shift. Broadcom was that shift.”
And when that shift happened, companies didn’t just look for another proprietary vendor—they wanted out of vendor lock-in altogether.
“The new defacto standard is to go with open source,” Bias said. “They don’t want vendor lock-in, and they’re thinking less about a commercial alternative and more about an open, no-lock-in, open source-based solution.”
Migration: Easier Than You Think?
For many companies, the idea of migrating workloads off VMware sounds terrifyingly complex. But according to the panel, that fear is largely outdated.
“Once upon a time, this was really difficult,” Bias admitted. “VMware and Citrix had very different hypervisors. But now, with KVM, Intel VT instruction sets, and standardized virtualization drivers, moving a VM from one platform to another is trivial—minutes of work with almost zero downtime.”
Paul Miller added that companies often overestimate the complexity and cost of migration:
“People are misjudging how complex this is. Moving VMs, containers, applications, and data between systems is not the most complex thing in the world. With the right partner and tooling, it’s very doable.”
Josh Villarreal pointed out that it’s also an opportunity to clean house:
“You don’t need to migrate every single VM you have. This is a good time to step back and ask, ‘Do I really need to move everything?’ It’s like moving houses—you don’t want to bring all your old junk with you.”
The Real Cost: Staying with VMware Might Be Pricier
One major concern for businesses is cost. A recent Ars Technica article claimed it could cost $5,000 per VM to migrate off VMware. But is that really the case?
Michael Iatrou broke it down:
“A TCO [Total Cost of Ownership] model for migration should include everything—the cost of migration and the ongoing operational costs. When you compare that to the recurring licensing fees of VMware, it quickly becomes obvious that the TCO of an OpenStack-based solution is much more compelling.”
But the bigger issue? What happens if Broadcom hikes prices again?
“What’s the cost of staying?” Bias asked. “Broadcom could change pricing again next year. You’re basically allowing them to keep their hands around your throat. Is that where you want to be?”
And let’s not forget incentives. Many open source vendors offer migration assistance programs to help offset costs. Villarreal mentioned Rackspace’s AMP program, which helps lower migration expenses significantly.
“It’s a buyer’s market right now,” he said. “There are tons of incentives out there for companies making the switch.”
Is OpenStack Really Ready for Enterprise Apps?
One of VMware’s biggest strengths was its application ecosystem—companies have relied on VMware to run business-critical apps like Oracle, Datadog, and other enterprise workloads. So can OpenStack really match that?
Josh Villarreal didn’t hesitate:
“Absolutely. We partner with Datadog, and most of our customers have this built-in.”
And as Paul Miller pointed out, major enterprise workloads are already running on OpenStack—at a massive scale:
“We’ve brought over 60 different enterprise applications into OpenStack and Kubernetes environments just in the past few weeks—with no code changes to the platform.”
Even the most demanding workloads—like high-performance databases and GPU-accelerated applications—are supported.
“OpenStack supports bare metal,” Iatrou said. “For heavyweight enterprise databases, running on bare metal with OpenStack Ironic is a perfect solution. And GPU acceleration? Already solved. We’re working closely with NVIDIA to push DPU acceleration forward, too.”
Who Do You Call for Support?
One of the biggest myths about OpenStack is that you’re on your own. If something goes wrong, there’s no VMware support line to call. But that’s just not true.
“Every single business today is a technology business, and every business has some software they have to manage themselves,” Bias said. “Who do they call when that software breaks? They call themselves.”
And for companies that don’t want to go fully DIY, an entire ecosystem of OpenStack vendors is ready to help.
Canonical, Mirantis, Wind River, and Rackspace all offer different support models—including fully managed services, where they run OpenStack for you.
“If you don’t want to manage OpenStack yourself, you don’t have to,” Iatrou explained. “We provide managed services where we take full responsibility for operations. Your team focuses on business. We handle the infrastructure.”
VMware’s Hold is Breaking—Are You Ready to Move?
The shift away from VMware isn’t just happening—it’s happening fast.
Companies that once saw no alternative to VMware are realizing they can have everything VMware offered—without the vendor lock-in.
As Paul Miller put it:
“This is the beginning of a tsunami—and it’s unstoppable.”
If your company is considering making the move, now’s the time. The open source ecosystem is ready. The tooling is ready. The support is there.
The only question left: Are you?
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