Since Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, it has significantly adjusted product offerings and licensing fees. This change directly impacts corporate virtualization strategies and has led many companies to re-evaluate their virtualization environments and IT investment decisions.
Many enterprises are forced to continue using VMware due to existing equipment architecture and business constraints; however, at the same time, an increasing number of companies are starting to look toward other platform service providers in search of new virtualization strategies. Most importantly, the core concern shared by enterprises has shifted from simply choosing a platform to how to achieve cost optimization, performance enhancement, and architectural flexibility in long-term operations.
Rethinking how workloads and infrastructure are built not only effectively optimizes IT investments, but also helps businesses gradually complete their modernization transformation, redirecting saved resources toward business innovation and service development rather than merely keeping existing systems running.
Upgrade, or not upgrade? Enterprises are facing a difficult choice
However, the migration of virtualization platforms cannot be completed overnight. Depending on the scale of the enterprise environment and the architectural complexity, it will take at least 18 to 48 months, or even longer. Therefore, during the migration process, there will be a transition period where VMware and the new virtualization solution coexist.
The change in VMware's licensing model also serves as a reminder to enterprises of the risk of putting all their "eggs in one basket." Despite this, many IT teams continue to use VMware because it has been long-proven in mission-critical enterprise environments and has accumulated mature and stable operational experience.
The reality, however, is that many enterprises' VMware environments have gradually become outdated. Limited by existing systems and legacy architectural designs, they struggle to meet the demands of modern workloads for flexibility and scalability. In addition, many companies continue to run older platforms such as vSphere 5.x to 6.x, versions that have long since ceased receiving security updates and technical support. Therefore, as businesses prepare to upgrade to newer versions, alongside the challenges of system upgrades and migration, they must also bear the skyrocketing costs brought on by the new subscription licensing model.
Many companies are asking, "Should we stay in the VMware ecosystem?", this is actually an imprecise question; enterprises should instead ask: "How do we build a flexible architecture that can adapt as our strategy evolves?" And the answer might exceed your imagination and expectations.
Proxmox VE: A New Choice for Enterprise Virtualization
In recent years, Proxmox VE has become a new choice attracting significant attention in the market. Proxmox VE adopts the Linux KVM architecture, integrating virtual machines (VMs), LXC containers, cluster management, and a Web UI management interface. It features high deployment flexibility and supports distributed storage, meeting the virtualization needs of most enterprises.
The greatest advantage of Proxmox VE lies in its extremely high system openness, allowing for customized integration, an active open-source community, and a relatively diverse selection of packages. Although the initial learning curve is high, the overall system costs are stable, which can significantly reduce licensing and maintenance expenses, enabling enterprise IT teams to regain control over virtualization and storage architectures.
Starting in 2024, VMware introduced a new vSphere Foundation (VVF) subscription model: billed per core, with a minimum of 16 cores billed per CPU (even if the actual core count is fewer than 16), and a minimum purchase threshold of 72 cores per order (channel restriction). Although the new plan integrates features such as vCenter, Aria Operations, and Tanzu, licensing costs have also increased significantly, leading a growing number of enterprises to begin re-evaluating virtualization platforms other than VMware.
Differences between VMware subscription plans and Proxmox VE subscription plans
As shown in the table below, although the overall cost difference between Proxmox VE and VMware is only about 26%, this is primarily due to the higher one-time costs associated with implementing Proxmox VE and migrating the VMware environment. From a long-term operational perspective, as migration costs are amortized year by year, enterprises can expect to save more than 60% in annual licensing expenses, significantly reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO).
| Expense items | VMware solution | Proxmox VE Solution (PVE + PBS) | Cost difference and savings rate compared to VMware |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software license / Subscription fee | Approx. NT$1,000–5,000, 3.6 million / 3 years 16 cores x 2 sockets x 5 units = 160 cores 160 x 22,500 (3-year plan) = 3,600,000 | NT$ 0 (Community Edition) ~ Approximately NT$ 1.32 million / 3 years (Enterprise Edition) 2 Socket solution = 88,000 88,000 x 5 units x 3 years = 1,320,000 *Adopting the highest PREMIUM plan, the cheapest BASIC plan 2 Socket plan = 29,600 29,600 x 5 units x 3 years = 444,000 | Save 63% ~ 88% |
| Centralized Management and HA Licensing | Included in the subscription | Native built-in clustering and HA, no extra cost | Same |
| Distributed Storage (vSAN vs. Ceph) | An additional plan must be purchased, with a single storage license costing approximately NTD 800,000, or via capacity add-ons starting at approximately USD 210 per TiB. | Native integration with Ceph / ZFS, no extra charge | Save 100% |
| Backup software (e.g., Veeam vs. PBS) | Approx. NT$1,000–NT$5,000 748,500–2,598,600 / 3 years, depending on the plan selected * Assuming the Foundation plan billed by workload: 4,990 x 50 VMs x 3 years = 748,500 Advanced plan billed by CPU Socket 86,620 x 10 Sockets x 3 years = 2,598,600 Since Veeam does not offer a Socket-based plan for the Premium edition, the Advanced Socket-based plan is used as the highest-tier option. | Approx. NT$1,000–5,000 672,000–2,688,000 / 3 years (PBS), depending on the plan selected *Billed per server using the Basic plan: 44,800 x 5 servers x 3 years = 672,000 Premium plan billed by server count 179,200 x 5 servers x 3 years = 2,688,000 | Mid-to-low tier: Save 10% to 30% High-tier: 3% ~ 4% |
| One-time migration and training costs | VMware Certified Administrator Training NT$ 120,000 per person 建議1~3人受訓 | Proxmox認證培訓 NT$ 100,000 / 人 建議1~3人受訓 遷移ESXI單機約10萬 遷移1台VM約 2萬 遷移總費用 10萬+ 2萬x 50台vm =110萬 | 一次性支出 貴100% |
| 3年總費用 (TCO Estimate皆用最貴計算) | 約 NT$ 740萬 | 約 NT$ 545萬 | 總體成本預計節省26 % 以上 |
無論最終選擇 VMware 還是 Proxmox VE，虛擬化平台的轉換從來都不只是「比價」問題，更是影響企業 IT 是否能長期穩定運作的戰略決策。
在規劃過程中，備份備援、權限控管、資安防禦與未來擴充性等面向，缺一不可。建議在正式導入前，先對現有環境進行全面盤點，釐清未來需求，並務必透過 POC（概念驗證）測試環境來驗證架構可行性，才能為企業打造出兼顧安全與成長的最佳 IT 基石。
以下提供企業自我評估檢核表，可以更快速的幫助您尋找最佳企業虛擬化策略：
| 問問您自己： | 如果回答為「是」： |
|---|---|
| 您是否有興趣評估當前虛擬化架構的替代方案？ | 考慮您短期與長期的應用程式工作負載需求，並評估混合式架構的各個選項契合度。 |
| 您的基礎架構策略是否包含將更多工作負載遷移至雲端？ | 現在是盤點哪些工作負載適合雲端部署的最佳時機。確保您選擇的遷移選項確實能從地端 VMware 部署平移（Lift-and-shift）而無需重構。 |
| 您是否願意考慮替代的虛擬平台？ | 雖然其他虛擬平台可能可以節省成本，但請確保您瞭解遷移至新平台的管理影響。會間接產生遷移成本以及員工培訓需求。 |
| 業務干擾和轉換成本是否是您的主要考量？ | 考慮採取漸進式方法，透過能提供無中斷遷移或真正平移雲端遷移的儲存設備，將干擾降至最低。 |
| 在您的企業中，創新是否優先於風險？ | 能承受更多潛在干擾風險、以創新優先的企業，可以考慮採取更積極的開源專案(如Proxmox)來支援前沿技術。 |
解決方案：Hyper-converged virtualization platform solution
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