Leave VMware without betting the business.
A vendor-neutral decision plan with a full inventory, three-year TCO, target architecture, and wave-by-wave migration roadmap.
Renewal decision
model
Assessment inputs
3-year
TCO baseline
2–3 weeks
Fixed scope
One of these is why you are here.
Broadcom ended perpetual licensing and reshaped the channel. The pressure shows up in four shapes—each has a defined path out.
Renewal
The quote came back 2–5x
A subscription renewal lands months before the deadline at multiples of the old price. There is no time to migrate under pressure, so you sign—and lock in three more years.
TCO + negotiation leverageBundling
You pay for the whole stack
vSAN, NSX, HCX, and Site Recovery Manager now arrive inside bundles, billed per core on every populated socket—including modules you may never turn on.
Rightsizing + target fitChannel
Your reseller lost status
The reshaped channel left many SMB-focused resellers and providers out. The partner who used to plan and support your estate may no longer be available.
Independent senior benchSkills
Your team has never left vSphere
They know VMware, not necessarily the target platform. Planning and operating a migration without downtime is a skill set most in-house teams do not carry.
Senior delivery planPressure is real. The decision is not binary.
Do not replace one vendor commitment with another on instinct. Start with workload facts, commercial math, and a viable rollback path.
projected cut in deployment size across VMware’s largest 2,000 customers, driven by Broadcom price increases.
Source: Forrester, 2024of surveyed enterprises are actively reducing their VMware footprint. The direction is decided.
Source: CloudBolt, 2026report a completed full migration away. The exit is a multi-year program, not a weekend project.
Source: CloudBolt, 2026AT&T alleged in court that a VMware renewal proposal was 1,050% higher than its prior fees. That is one dispute—not a market average—but it is the shape of the tail risk.
Read the coverageEstimate the 3-year cost of staying.
Move the sliders to your estate and current renewal. This is an illustrative model—the assessment replaces every assumption with your actual licensing, hardware, and labor.
Est. 3-year savings
$232k
Illustrative, vendor-neutral estimate across targets. Not a quote.
We compare paths. We do not inherit one.
Workload profile, licensing, team capability, and recovery requirements decide the answer.
Path
Stay & optimize
Best fit
A short horizon or deep dependencies on your current stack.
What it gives you
Avoids immediate change risk and improves your renewal position.
What to model
Core commitments and lock-in still need to be modelled.
Path
Nutanix AHV
Best fit
HCI, VDI, DR, or larger estates that need a familiar operating model.
What it gives you
A strong alternative for teams that value vSphere-like operations.
What to model
Commercial terms and HCI alignment require a real comparison.
Path
Proxmox VE
Best fit
Cost-conscious environments with solid Linux and operations skills.
What it gives you
Open-source KVM with optional commercial support.
What to model
Support design and operational discipline become more important.
Path
Hyper-V / Azure Local
Best fit
Windows-centered environments with existing Microsoft investment.
What it gives you
A familiar stack that may align with licenses you already hold.
What to model
Capabilities and ecosystem fit are different from vSphere.
Path
OpenShift Virtualization
Best fit
Teams already moving toward containers and platform engineering.
What it gives you
A shared platform for virtual machines and containers.
What to model
A Kubernetes operating model is a real commitment, not a checkbox.
Path
Hybrid waves
Best fit
Most business-critical environments that cannot move in one weekend.
What it gives you
Moves workloads in deliberate phases and protects critical systems.
What to model
Coexistence, rollback, and change windows must be designed upfront.
Neutral does not mean noncommittal.
For estates built on vSphere, HCI, and VDI, the assessment often points to Nutanix because it is the shortest operational jump from VMware—not because we resell it.
We still model two or three targets against the cost of staying. If Proxmox, Hyper-V, or a hybrid wave fits better, the report says so in numbers.
VMware vSphere
esxi-01 · 224c
esxi-02 · 224c
esxi-03 · 224c
Nutanix AHV
ahv-01 · AOS
ahv-02 · AOS
ahv-03 · AOS
Nutanix Move
Agentless replication from ESXi to AHV. Pre-seed data, sync deltas, and cut over per VM in a short window while retaining the source VM for rollback.
Prism ≈ vCenter
AHV is the closest operating model to vSphere: live migration, one management plane in Prism Central, and familiar day-two workflows.
DR without SRM
Protection Domains with Async, NearSync, or Sync replication can replace vSphere Replication plus SRM in a native operating model.
VDI & workloads
Citrix and Omnissa Horizon can run on AHV, while editions align the feature set to the workloads you actually use.
Migration waves
Critical workloads move last.
An exit plan you can take to the CFO, the change board, and the vendor.
The output is written for execution. It creates enough clarity to migrate in waves or negotiate from a stronger position.
Full environment inventory
Hosts, VMs, applications, and the dependencies that change the plan.
Three-year TCO
The commercial picture for staying versus two or three viable paths.
Target architecture
A recommendation tied to workloads, skills, and recovery objectives.
Migration waves
Order of operations, change windows, and a workable rollback approach.
Risk register
Known risks, assumptions, owners, and mitigations before work begins.
Executive summary
A concise decision brief for owners, finance, and technical leadership.
03 / TCO model
Decision baseline
Deliverable
Executive-grade PDF with the technical detail underneath.
Independent advice. A practical delivery plan.
Read-only first
The assessment is designed to understand your estate before anyone touches production.
No forced exit
Staying and optimizing can be the right outcome when the facts support it.
Written decisions
You receive a documented model and roadmap, not a vague recommendation after a call.
Local accountability
IT-Charlotte remains your technical partner through the decision and the next phase.
Advice starts with your environment.
Clear scope. No theatre.
If a decision depends on details outside the assessment, we name the assumption instead of hiding it.
We define the collection scope first. It is read-only and limited to the systems and exports needed to understand the virtual estate, application dependencies, and current commercial baseline.
Get the exit plan before the next renewal makes the decision for you.
Each engagement is scoped to your estate and decision deadline. You receive a fixed proposal before any read-only collection begins.
A practical next step whether you stay or move.
A written decision baseline—not a vague recommendation.
A Charlotte-based technical partner for your business.
Request a scoping call
We will use this information only to scope the assessment and respond to your request.
VMware is a trademark of Broadcom Inc. IT-Charlotte is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Broadcom or VMware.