Have your VMware license costs skyrocketed?

Here’s why now might be the right time to modernize your infrastructure.

Budget pressure accelerating strategic thinking

Since VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom, many organizations have faced a sharp and unexpected increase in licensing costs. The elimination of perpetual licenses, the enforcement of mandatory bundles, and the shift to a subscription-based model have disrupted budget forecasts. Some organizations have seen their bills triple year over year with no added technological value in return. This new reality is forcing CIOs to re-evaluate their strategic options. Should they continue to absorb the cost increases, or is this the moment to launch a more structural transformation of their IT infrastructure?

Sticking with legacy systems is more expensive than evolving

Clinging to traditional infrastructure, often built around VMware, now means allocating an increasing share of IT budgets to simply maintaining the status quo. These aging environments are costly to operate, hard to scale, and pose heightened risks due to postponed updates or security vulnerabilities. More importantly, they hinder innovation. When an organization must choose between stabilizing the past or investing in the future, business agility suffers. In this context, the status quo becomes both an operational bottleneck and a financial burden.

Migrating to the cloud: a tactical and strategic move

Cloud migration isn’t just about “lifting and shifting” your existing setup. It’s an opportunity to rethink the entire IT architecture; rationalizing assets, cleaning up obsolete data, and eliminating redundancies that have built up over the years. With a cloud-based infrastructure, organizations can adjust computing capacity in real timetabling up or down based on seasonal demand or activity spikes. This enables more granular consumption, better aligned with current needs, and allows for more transparent internal cost distribution. Transitioning from a CapEx to an OpEx model also avoids heavy, unflexible hardware and license investments. Instead, organizations benefit from a more fluid, scalable budget structure that reflects current usage across different business units. This approach also enables direct cost attribution, enhances financial accountability and aligns between IT and business performance.

Measurable results, fast

Organizations that begin their cloud migration journey typically observe a significant reduction in their total cost of ownership (TCO). Fewer physical servers, fewer outages, less maintenance and faster execution, greater resilience, and improved agility for delivering strategic projects. This shift also frees IT teams from heavy operational tasks, allowing them to focus on high-value initiatives like automation, cybersecurity, and the development of new digital services.

Turning a constraint into a lever for growth

The rise in VMware costs isn’t just a pricing change, it’s a strategic wake-up call. It reveals deep dependencies on rigid technologies, outdated business models, and an infrastructure that no longer evolves at the pace of the organization. At Cortex Génie Humain, we support mid-sized and large enterprises in modernization programs tailored to their reality. Our approach combines technical assessment, governance, and a clear road map to help you regain control of your infrastructure.

Are you affected by the rise in VMware costs?

Let’s talk. Book a free discovery call. We’ll assess your environment and identify the most relevant transformation levers together.