“Sure, it’s very easy to get agitated and think about a dollar amount and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go run to Nutanix or I’m going to go to run to Proxmox.’ But guess what? Now you only have one-fifth of the features, and now you need to go figure out how you’re going to do the rest of the four-fifths,” says 11:11 Systems CTO Justin Giardina.
VMware partners say price concerns are easing as AI security needs and VMware Cloud Foundation innovation bolster the platform’s appeal compared to the competition.
“Everybody is so focused on the price and they should be,” said Justin Giardina, chief technology officer of VMware Pinnacle partner 11:11 Systems.
“But when you actually take a step back and the smoke cleared a little bit, the ecosystem and the interaction with VMware in the community—whether it’s disaster recovery or backup or integration with server vendors—is so huge,” Giardina said. “The fact is, sometimes, you just simply can’t walk away from that.”
[Related: VMware Explore Wrap-Up: 10 Huge AI, AMD, Agentic Security And Innovation Launches]
“So even though the pricing went up, you look at the suite of utilities you get with VMware now—think about the recoverability need for AI cyber events now; think about this complex networking that you need to survive in a cyber world; all the stuff with microsegmentation—the fact that you can just buy one thing and you get all of that is huge for customers,” he said.
Fairfield, N.J.-based 11:11 Systems has mostly kept its VMware customer base by explaining VCF’s end-to-end capabilities in the AI era as well as the total price point.
“Sure, it’s very easy to get agitated and think about a dollar amount and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to go run to Nutanix or I’m going to go to run to Proxmox.’ But guess what? Now you only have one-fifth of the features, and now you need to go figure out how you’re going to do the rest of the four-fifths. And by the way, also go pay for it, hire people around it and support it,” said Giardina.
“So when you just really step back and you take a look at the total value of the solution, VMware is starting to make more sense for people,” he said.
VMware Partners Have Negotiated ‘Fair VMware Contracts’ For Customers
VMware partner Sentinel Technologies said its customers have mostly remained with VMware even as competitors pounced on the price increases, which stemmed from Broadcom consolidating VMware’s portfolio from thousands of point products into a small handful of end-to-end private cloud platforms.
“After the initial acquisition from Broadcom, you had some customers looking to move, some looking to stay, some looking at their options. But by and large, mostly everybody we worked with, we’ve been able to negotiate a fair VMware contract for them to remain on the product that they love,” said Bob Keblusek, chief technology officer of Sentinel Technologies.
“Many customer concerns regarding VMware price increases ‘are settling down’ and ‘stabilizing,’” he said.
“The new VMware innovation will make it more attractive for customers to have those conversations around AI, to localize their AI platforms—which may not drive them to the public cloud,” Keblusek said.
“Public cloud may not be the easiest path [for AI adoption]. There’s sometimes a more secure, easier path with VMware on-prem or in a VMware cloud running some of their new capabilities,” Keblusek said.
VMware Infrastructure Software Group Hits $8.75 Billion In Q3 Revenue
VMware is part of Broadcom’s infrastructure software group, which reported third quarter 2026 earnings results last week.
Broadcom’s infrastructure software business generated $8.75 billion in revenue during Q3, representing a 29 percent growth rate year over year compared to $6.78 billion.
“We are seeing huge momentum in the market,” Krish Prasad, general manager of Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation division, told CRN.
“Partly, it’s driven by what is happening with their workloads, because they are bringing more of the workloads back on-prem driven by the cost increases on the public cloud side,” Prasad said.
Prasad said VCF has a lower total cost compared to public clouds and better security for AI workloads.
“Customers have data and IP concerns for AI. So there are more workloads being brought on-prem, and customers want to deploy these workloads in an environment that provides their developers with the same experience that they would get in the public cloud, but in a much more optimized solution which they can get by deploying as a private cloud. That’s what VCF enables them to do, and that’s why we are seeing this huge momentum,” he said.
‘You Simply Can’t Walk Away From’ VMware; Competitors Can’t Replace VMware
Another 11:11 Systems executive said many customers’ concerns about VMware prices, specifically for VCF, are fading as organizations come to realize all the benefits of VCF.
“A lot of people that have worked with VMware. Sure, maybe they looked at other opportunities. But it comes down to a few things including the investment that VMware continues to make on the R&D front, which is just propelling them way beyond what these upstarts are trying to do,” said Dante Orsini, 11:11 Systems’ chief revenue officer.
“You’ve got competitors that are trying to enter a market and displace the market leader that’s been in that space for 15 years. And the ecosystem around VMware is super robust and very hard to replace,” he said.
11:11’s CRO said the investment and constant innovation around VCF “continues to lead as far as the separation that they have between them and the nearest upstart trying to compete” with VMware.
“So it’s the highest value solution,” Orsini said. “It’s also the easiest direct path forward for people.”
