Established 2000  ·  Fort Worth, Texas
We run our own cloud on Proxmox
Statewide  ·  Texas service areas
What changed

VMware used to be the safe choice. Then Broadcom bought it.

For years, VMware was the sensible answer for a small business running a few servers. You bought it once, it worked, and it stayed out of your way. Broadcom acquired VMware in late 2023 and changed the rules.

If you are a CEO or CFO staring at a VMware renewal several times higher than last time, nothing is wrong with your math. The pricing model was rebuilt for giant enterprises, and small business is the one paying for it. The specifics are below. The way out is too.

Who this hits hardest

Small business gets the worst of it.

The same servers doing the same work now cost several times more to license. One of our own Fort Worth clients watched a renewal go from about $4,000 a year to roughly $25,000. Same hardware, same workloads, six times the bill. If that sounds like your renewal quote, you are not imagining it and you are not alone.

What the new deal looks like

  • Subscription only: perpetual licenses are gone; the license you used to own is now a bill that never ends
  • Cease-and-desist letters: Broadcom has even sent them to businesses still running the perpetual licenses they already bought and paid for
  • Bundles you did not ask for: the small-business kits were discontinued, and the products you need come packaged with products you do not
  • Core-count math: per-core licensing with per-processor minimums that punish small servers. Broadcom even floated raising the minimum more than fourfold in 2025 before backing off after the outcry
  • Renewal pressure: a reported 20 percent surcharge if you renew late
  • A thinner channel: many smaller resellers and partners were cut, taking local help with them

What businesses are doing about it

  • Renewal shock is common: increases of several hundred percent are widely reported for small shops, with worst cases far higher
  • The exodus is real: in one 2026 industry survey, 86 percent of organizations said they are actively shrinking their VMware footprint
  • The alternative is proven: Proxmox has quietly become the standard landing spot for small business virtualization
  • The window is your renewal: the businesses that fare best start planning before the renewal notice arrives
  • Local help still exists: that is us, and this page is us telling you so
The way out

Proxmox is not a downgrade. It is the right tool for your size.

Mature and proven

Proxmox VE is open-source, has been in production for years, and runs on hundreds of thousands of hosts worldwide, including at major hosting providers. It is built on KVM, the same virtualization technology behind much of the public cloud.

Everything included

Clustering, live migration, high availability, central management of all your hosts, and built-in backup all come with it. There is no separate management server license to buy, and nothing you need is locked behind a higher tier, because there is no higher tier to sell you.

Priced for small business

Proxmox is free to run in production. The optional support subscription is priced per CPU socket, not per core, which is the exact opposite of how VMware now charges. For a typical small cluster, the yearly difference can easily run to tens of thousands of dollars.

The migration

A known, controlled process. Not a science experiment.

Fair warning from people who do this for a living: free software does not mean a free project. The value is in doing the migration right and running it well. Here is how we do it.

STEP 01

We assess and scope

We look at your current VMware environment: hosts, VMs, storage, backups, and the quirks. Then we give you a clear scope and a real number, before anything moves.

STEP 02

We plan and move

The migration is scheduled around your business, not ours. Proxmox has built-in migration tooling that connects directly to VMware, so we can move machines while your systems stay up, then cut each one over in a planned window. Deliberate order, small downtime windows.

STEP 03

We verify and finish

Every VM checked, backups configured and tested, and your environment documented. We do not call it done until it is actually done.

After the migration · Managed Proxmox

We do not move you and disappear.

Here is the honest trade: Proxmox does not hold your hand the way VMware did. It is powerful, stable, and rewards having capable people behind it. Updates, monitoring, patching, tested backups, and someone who answers when something breaks. With managed Proxmox, those people are us.

  • Patching & updates: your hosts kept current on stable, tested releases
  • Monitoring: we watch your cluster so a small problem never gets to be a big one
  • Backups that work: configured, verified, and actually tested for recovery. Veeam officially supports Proxmox, so a Veeam-based setup carries straight over
  • Support that knows your setup: the team that migrated you is the team that answers the phone
  • Part of the bigger picture: pairs naturally with our flat-rate managed IT
Common questions

Fair questions, plain answers.

Is Proxmox really enterprise-ready, or is it a hobbyist thing?
It is production-grade. Proxmox has been around for years, runs on hundreds of thousands of hosts worldwide, and major hosting providers run their businesses on it. The technology underneath, KVM, powers a large share of the public cloud. And here is our own answer to that question: we run our own cloud hosting environment on Proxmox. We would not put our infrastructure, or your business, on an experiment.
Will my applications still work after moving off VMware?
Yes. Your virtual machines keep running the same operating systems and the same applications. We are changing the platform underneath them, not the servers your business actually uses. The one wrinkle we plan for: some software ties its license to a hardware fingerprint and wants to be reactivated when it notices the new platform. We identify those ahead of time so nothing surprises you on cutover day.
How much downtime should I expect?
It varies by environment, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can promise is a plan: we schedule cutovers around your business hours, move systems in a deliberate order, and keep the disruptive windows as small as your environment allows. Most clients are surprised how quiet it is.
What does it cost?
It depends on how many hosts and VMs you are running and what your storage looks like, so we scope it per environment. The bigger picture: the project typically pays for itself quickly compared to what VMware now costs year after year. Bring us your renewal quote and we will give you the real comparison.
Do I have to switch right now?
No, but timing matters. The moment the math hurts most is your renewal date, and the worst time to plan a migration is the week that renewal is due. If your VMware renewal is coming up in the next year, that is the right time to talk.

The worst time to figure this out is renewal week.

If your VMware renewal is on the horizon, the math is worth a conversation now, while you still have room to plan. No pressure, no pitch. Bring your renewal quote and we will walk you through the comparison.

Get in touch