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Muskego staff seek $200,000 for 2026 IT backbone upgrades as VMware licensing soars
Summary
IT director warned Broadcom's VMware licensing increases and aging disaster-recovery hardware are driving a request for capital funding to replace network switches, hosts/servers and SAN storage and to refresh disaster-recovery equipment; the proposed 2026 ask was presented to the Committee of the Whole for inclusion in the capital budget.
MUSKEGO, Wis. ' The city's IT lead told the Committee of the Whole on Sept. 9 that steep vendor price increases and aging backup infrastructure are driving a request of roughly $200,000 for 2026 capital funds to refresh the city's networking and server backbone.
Why it matters: Broadcom's ownership of VMware and reported license increases are creating recurring software costs the IT director said the city can reduce by moving to alternate virtualization platforms and by replacing obsolete hardware.
What was presented The IT presenter described a "perfect storm" of rising VMware license costs and an aging disaster-recovery (DR) backup at a school-district site, which was established in 2024 using older equipment. The presenter said Broadcom increased the annual VMware service fee from about $5,300 to a projected $11,760 for the city (an increase she quantified as roughly 118%).
To respond, IT proposed a bundled capital purchase that would allow the city to: - Replace network switches (the backbone ports that connect devices), - Replace hosts/servers (virtualization hosts for city servers), and - Replace SAN storage (centralized data storage), and to reconfigure the disaster-recovery site by moving newer equipment there and replacing the old DR hardware.
The presenter said alternatives to VMware include Proxmox (open-source) and Microsoft Hyper-V, and observed Hyper-V may be attractive because the city already licenses Microsoft products.
Discussion and next steps Aldermen asked about shared purchasing or regional cooperative contracting. The presenter and other members noted conversations at the League of Municipalities regarding regional cooperative purchasing, but said statewide or regional centralized procurement is not currently a turnkey solution. The committee asked the IT director to include the IT capital request in the 2026 capital projects fund and confirmed the request will be considered as part of the capital budget process.
No formal approval was sought at the Sept. 9 meeting; the IT director flagged that the requested funding would cover equipment expected to serve the city for several years and said she would provide exact quotes and a prioritized list as the budget process continues.
Ending: The committee received the presentation and acknowledged IT will be included in capital discussions for 2026; no vote was recorded.
