Broadcom’s VMware Price Hikes: Why Third-Party Support Buys Time and Budget for Your AWS Migration

Since Broadcom acquired VMware, you’ve likely seen or experienced price increases, shifting terms, and mounting pressure to change how you run your infrastructure. The move to subscription-based models replaced the flexibility of perpetual licenses, even for stable setups that didn’t need new features.

Well, that change is just inconvenient and forces you to make tough decisions, especially if you’re locked into multi-year platforms like vSphere Standard or relying on NSX Networking.

But you don’t have to jump headfirst into a major overhaul. With third-party support services, you can hold your ground, avoid rushed changes, and gain time to plan your cloud migration properly.

Today, we’re going to discuss the third-party VMware support that’s going to help you achieve all of this. But before we start, let us tell you what changed under Broadcom (if you’re not in the loop already).

 

 

What’s Changed Under Broadcom?

Broadcom has overhauled the licensing model for VMware, which forced every customer into a new set of tradeoffs. You’re no longer able to buy or renew perpetual licences, even if your setup is stable and feature-complete. Everything now runs on subscription licensing, with limited flexibility and rising renewal risks.

That shift forces even stable environments to reassess cost and flexibility.

And cost is, indeed, a big issue. Some teams now face 2–3x higher licensing costs. In one case shared publicly on Reddit, a service provider paying $60K annually for 600 cores was quoted $600K, which is a tenfold jump.

To add urgency, Broadcom is ending support for vSphere 7.x by October 2, 2025. Even with valid perpetual licenses, you’ll lose coverage unless you switch. If you manage a large mix of virtual machines, NSX, or vSphere Foundation, that’s a major disruption.

These forced shifts create both budget pressure and architectural risk, especially if you depend on VMware Cloud Foundation to manage workloads across a hybrid cloud model. Without stable licensing terms, planning cycles shrink and renewal decisions become reactive. That disrupts long-term projects, from workload consolidation to cloud-native replatforming.

Even worse, Broadcom has started actively enforcing VMware licensing through aggressive audits. After killing off perpetual licenses and pushing customers onto subscriptions, they recently began sending cease-and-desist letters warning companies to stop using updates and patches without valid support contracts. What seemed like legal threats at first has turned real: audits are actually happening.

A Netherlands-based software company received an audit letter on June 20, 2025, detailing how Broadcom’s hired firm, Connor Consulting, would inspect their VMware usage. The process is demanding, involving field visits, remote checks, calls with licensing and IT teams, and just three business days to respond. This marks a clear shift: Broadcom isn’t just warning anymore. They’re making sure every customer pays up or faces the consequences.

What does that mean for your business?

The truth is, staying on course requires more than temporary fixes. Whether you plan to integrate NSX into a containerized environment or shift legacy apps from vSphere to EC2, the next move needs to support both current dependencies and future scaling. That decision should come from a strategic roadmap, not a renewal notice.

 

 

Why Third-Party Support Is the Right Move Now

With Broadcom’s licensing shift upending costs and contracts, staying on VMware has become more complex. We don’t need to tell you that you’re facing budget pressure, renewal uncertainty, and migration urgency, all at once.

Third-party support helps you pause the clock, hold your ground, and move on your own terms. Here are the key reasons this approach makes sense now:

 

1. Avoid Punitive Licensing Costs

Broadcom’s subscription model raises prices and inflates them through bundling. Many customers now even pay 8–15× for the same product stack. With third-party support, you avoid getting locked into these new tiers.

Besides, it can help you make important savings.

According to Rimini Street, organizations save 50% on support and up to 90% on total maintenance when moving off Broadcom’s inflated subscription licenses on average.

Telefónica Germany used this route to layer external support onto perpetual licenses. This helped them cut costs without losing reliability or falling behind on compliance.

Of course, you need the right provider.

Providers like NovaCloud let you retain your existing VMware setup while delivering patching, compatibility assurance, and incident response. Nova specializes in regulated LATAM environments and supports workloads across vSphere, NSX, and vSAN, which keeps you stable and compliant while you plan next steps.

 

2. Protect Your CapEx Investment

Abandoning VMware now means walking away from years of sunk investment. You’ve already paid to deploy virtualization software, trained your teams, and built systems around vSphere, NSX, and vSAN. Many businesses realize that starting fresh under a new subscription means spending twice for the same foundation.

When you’re managing long depreciation cycles, recapturing value from existing investments is a requirement. That’s especially true if your team has standardized on vSphere clusters or built security models around NSX microsegmentation. Shifting to a new licensing structure mid-cycle adds costs, disrupts budgets, reallocates engineering effort, and introduces approval delays.

Third-party support can help you extend the life and value of your existing infrastructure. You get continuity without new license fees, which frees up capital for projects that actually move the business forward.

 

3. Buy Time to Build a Smart AWS Migration Roadmap

Rushing out of VMware under a license deadline creates real risk, such as fragmented workloads, degraded performance, and unplanned costs. That’s why timing matters.

Offloading support to a third-party provider frees up space to design your migration plan the right way. These are the critical steps that you need to get right:

• Assess current workloads and identify cloud-ready candidates.
• Design a phased AWS architecture aligned to business priorities.
• Train staff and refactor applications where needed.
• Engage AWS migration experts to ensure smooth delivery.

Each one of these steps avoids disruption and helps you build for scale, security, and cost control. And that will ultimately lead to a better outcome.

 

4. Unlock AWS Migration Funding Through MAP

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) is built to reduce cost and effort, but it requires preparation. Without time to qualify and align with partners, you miss out. Third-party support gives you the window to unlock these benefits.

Here are the advantages you can secure:

• Work with AWS Partners to create a MAP-aligned migration plan.
• Secure funding for discovery, replatforming, and modernization efforts.
• Reduce overall migration expenses and accelerate time to value.

According to AWS MAP, organizations using it see 31% average infrastructure savings and a 62% improvement in operational efficiency. But these results come only if you’re positioned properly.

Third-party support gives you space to do just that, without the pressure of contract expiry looming over your team.

 

5. Maintain Security and Compliance

Cutting support doesn’t mean lowering standards. Leading third-party providers maintain patching schedules, response SLAs, and compliance certifications at levels that meet or exceed OEM standards. You keep your VMware environment current and protected without locking yourself into Broadcom’s future roadmap.

That’s important when you’re dealing with mixed architectures, whether you’re running on a private cloud, integrating with AWS, or balancing workloads across several cloud providers. Without strong security operations, every delay introduces risk.

Side note: That’s especially important in mixed architectures because multiple platforms increase complexity and integration risks. But even in simpler environments, delays in patching or gaps in security operations can introduce serious vulnerabilities. So third-party providers can help you in that scenario, as well.

That’s how you stay covered, keep visibility into your systems, and avoid lapses that put audit outcomes or uptime at risk.

 

 

Why AWS?

When your VMware setup starts limiting your flexibility or your budget, AWS gives you a way out. With it, you’ll gain control over how you scale, spend, and secure your infrastructure. These are the reasons AWS is the clear destination once you’re ready to transition:

 

Lower Storage Costs Without Sacrificing Scale

AWS helps you shift from hardware-bound systems to elastic storage built for cost and durability. In fact, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, Glacier, and EBS SSD deliver up to 69% lower storage costs compared to traditional storage arrays. That means you keep data accessible without overpaying for cold storage.

Besides, services like S3 are already trusted at scale. SmugMug reportedly saved close to $1 million by switching, while Netflix and Reddit continue to rely on it for dependable access under a massive load. These are battle-tested systems, so they can work for you as well.

 

Kubernetes at Scale Without the Management Overhead

Amazon EKS takes care of the Kubernetes control plane by letting your team focus on application performance, not orchestration issues. That shift matters when you’re running sensitive or high-volume platforms.

According to AWS customers, Snap cut developer effort by 77% and handled 2 million transactions per second using EKS. Babylon Health reduced cluster costs by 40% while speeding up deployments by pairing EKS with EC2 Spot Instances.

These results show how managed services translate directly into performance and operational savings. And you can get similar benefits.

 

VMware Compatibility Without Downtime

If you’re running vSphere, NSX, or Horizon, you can’t afford disruption. VMware Cloud on AWS allows you to move virtual machines into EC2 without refactoring or re-architecting. That means fewer handoffs, less training, and minimal risk during the transition.

Kingston University moved 200 VMs this way with zero downtime and cut their data center footprint by 90%. When you already run a hybrid environment, that kind of continuity helps preserve service levels and maintain compliance while scaling into the cloud.

 

Flexible Pricing and Global Reach

AWS’s pricing model lets you avoid the rigid cost structures that come with long-term vendor contracts. Whether you use on-demand, reserved, or spot instances, you only pay for what you actually need. There’s no upfront licensing required and no locked-in infrastructure commitments.

And you don’t trade flexibility for reliability. With 32% of the global cloud market share, AWS runs workloads across more regions and availability zones than any other provider. That reach translates into low-latency access, strong redundancy, and consistent uptime, no matter where your operations sit.

 

 

A Smarter Strategy Forward

If you’re facing rising licensing costs and rushed renewal deadlines, you need a strategy that gives you control. Third-party support can buy you time, but without a clear migration plan, you risk stalling progress. NovaCloud helps you turn this moment into a structured transition that aligns cost control with future readiness.

Here’s the smarter way forward:

 

1. Secure Third-Party Support Today

Stabilize your VMware environment without committing to costly bundles.

• Audit current VMware licenses and contracts to map what you can legally cover via third-party support.
• Identify critical patch levels and SLA gaps before engaging a provider. This shapes your support scope.
• Confirm the provider’s experience with your specific VMware stack (e.g. NSX-T vs NSX-V, vSAN version) to avoid support mismatches.

NovaCloud helps you keep your existing stack (vSphere, NSX, vSAN) running with full patching and incident response. You extend the life of your current setup and hold off on any premature platform decisions

 

2. Design an AWS Migration Roadmap

Here’s what such a migration roadmap would entail:

• Inventory workloads by dependency type (e.g. latency-sensitive, legacy OS, container-ready) to define move groups.
• Map out network, storage, and security requirements before deciding lift-and-shift vs refactor paths.
• Align phase boundaries to business calendar events (e.g. avoid quarter-end freeze periods or audit windows).

If you need assistance, NovaCloud builds phased migration plans shaped by your real workloads and team readiness. Our engineers evaluate dependencies, design hybrid options using VMware Cloud on AWS, and include automation tools like Terraform to streamline provisioning. The result is a roadmap grounded in your business goals, not vendor timelines.

 

3. Leverage AWS MAP Funding

AWS’s MAP incentives can offset discovery, replatforming, and modernization work. To benefit from them:

• Engage an AWS Partner early to pre-qualify your workloads for MAP eligibility. Don’t wait until the plan is built.
• Document modernization opportunities (e.g. moving DBs to RDS, file servers to S3), which strengthen MAP funding proposals.
• Track and submit baseline cost data. MAP savings are tied to proving your before-and-after spend.

Alternatively, NovaCloud works directly with AWS partners to structure your plan for maximum benefit. This means faster migration, reducing spend, and improving infrastructure efficiency long-term.

 

4. Migrate on Your Timeline

A rushed migration usually leads to rework, downtime, or missed dependencies. So:

• Build rollback plans for each migration phase, including snapshot and recovery points.
• Pre-stage AWS landing zones and test interconnectivity before moving any production workloads.
• Set internal success metrics (e.g. cutover time, rollback thresholds) for each phase so go/no-go calls are objective.

NovaCloud helps you do all this faster. Our team coordinates each phase based on your actual resource needs, application readiness, and staffing capacity.

Whether you’re running Horizon for remote desktops or NSX for microsegmentation, we align the transition with your operations. That approach gives you the space to modernize workloads gradually, test thoroughly, and move only when every component is in place.

 

 

Final Thoughts

The Broadcom-VMware changes create immediate pressure, but they don’t have to dictate your next move. Using third-party support allows you to cut licensing costs, extend the life of vSphere or NSX environments, and gain the time needed to build a sustainable cloud strategy.

With Nova’s VMware Support Solutions for AWS, you hold onto operational control while setting up a cost-efficient migration path on your terms. This is a way to avoid rushed decisions that impact long-term architecture and budget.

Ready to make the shift on your own timeline? Schedule a call with Nova to plan your next step.

 

 

FAQ

What support models are available if I don’t want to stay locked into Broadcom’s VMware subscription-only model?

You can choose between staying with Broadcom’s bundled support, outsourcing support to third-party vendors, or adopting hybrid support models. Third-party vendors often provide more flexibility, letting you retain control over your existing setup while avoiding forced upgrades or bundled costs.

How does support quality compare between Broadcom and outsourced support providers?

Leading third-party vendors can match or exceed Broadcom’s support quality in areas like patching, configuration management, and security management. The key is to vet providers carefully to ensure they have experience with your VMware version and architecture.

What exactly changed in VMware licensing policies under Broadcom?

Broadcom’s VMware licensing change eliminated perpetual licenses entirely. VMware is now sold exclusively under a subscription-only model, usually bundled with higher-tier options like Enterprise Plus. This shift means customers face trade-offs between cost, flexibility, and contract terms.

Are there trade-in programs or license reviews that can help offset VMware migration costs?

While Broadcom hasn’t offered official trade-in programs, some third-party vendors and cloud providers (like AWS partners) help organizations offset migration costs through programs such as AWS MAP funding. A license review can also identify unused entitlements or consolidation opportunities to reduce spend.

What should we factor into VMware migrations to avoid cost overruns?

Plan for more than just license and hardware costs. Account for tooling, cloud-native services adoption, staffing capacity, and integration with security and configuration management systems. Phased migrations with clear rollback options can help control risk and expense.

Can third-party vendors handle customer support for both VMware and cloud-native services during a migration?

Yes, many outsourced support providers now offer dual expertise in VMware environments and cloud-native services. This allows for unified customer support across hybrid or transitional architectures, minimizing gaps in monitoring, patching, and incident response.