Enterprise Infrastructure Modernization beyond VMware: A Cost-Optimized Decision Framework for the Broadcom Era

Abstract

Modernization in terms of enterprise infrastructure has become a more significant topic due to organizations review their virtualization schemes in changing VMware licensing and commercial status alongside the acquisition of Broadcom. This proposed research paper presents a cost-efficient decision model adopting the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) theories, to assess VMware continuation, alternative virtualization, and Private/HCI, Public Cloud, and Hybrid/CloudNative solutions. The framework takes into account the financial, technical, operational, and strategic criteria and is tested with representative enterprise cases, robustness and sensitivity analysis. Findings indicate that Public Cloud has the minimal fiveyear TCO, and least break even time, whereas Hybrid/Cloud-Native has the optimum score of 0.695 on the overall MCDA. Scenario analysis additionally illustrates that the best infrastructure decisions will depend on the enterprise characteristics and priorities. The sensitivity test suggests that rankings of the strategies are rather stable, with shifting migration-cost assumptions. The proposed framework offers enterprises with an organized and flexible tool of balancing the longterm cost-efficiency, technological viability, functional practicability, risk, and strategic adaptability.