Understanding Your VMware Alternatives

The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom marks a significant change in the IT industry. This transition, which started in November 2023 when the VMware acquisition was finalized and culminated in Broadcom’s publicly announcing VMware’s new licensing models in February 2024, introduced various shifts in the company’s operational model. These developments are crucial for IT leaders to understand and address proactively. Blue Mantis has a long history with VMware, delivering enterprise-grade solutions for almost three decades. Let’s take an objective analysis of the current state of VMware licensing available today to help you navigate these changes effectively.

Understanding the Changes

With Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, several critical changes have been introduced. VMware is transitioning from the legacy perpetual license model to a subscription-based software as a service model. Broadcom noted that VMware planned to move to the SaaS licensing model prior to the acquisition, but the acquisition accelerated the timeline on these changes.

The new cloud-only SaaS licensing models for VMware virtualization are sold on one, three, and five-year terms. The SaaS licensing is now tied to the number of processor cores rather than physical processor sockets. So, rather than charging a single VMware server processor license for your server built using a single-socket CPU with a 32-core AMD EPYC processor, VMware now calculates the cost of your server based on the 32 cores on that single processor. In addition, support offerings have shifted to a 24/7 concierge model, eliminating the cheaper option where support was only available during standard business hours.

Furthermore, various VMware products are now consolidated into four distinct suites:

• VMware Cloud Foundation
• vSphere Foundation
• vSphere Standard
• vSphere Essentials Plus

Obviously, the consolidation helps to streamline VMware’s product offerings with the goal of making it simpler for IT leaders to choose an appropriate solution. However, these modifications to the VMware product line have some IT organizations in limbo, wondering what to do and how the changes impact their IT strategy, operational costs, and future roadmap. That’s why Blue Mantis recommends CIOs and other IT leaders assess their current VMware environment through an objective “all options are on the table” lens.

Assessing Your Current VMware Environment

The first step in navigating how Broadcom’s changes affect your VMware strategy is to conduct a thorough assessment of your current VMware environment. Blue Mantis offers comprehensive evaluation services to help you understand the current state of your infrastructure. We look at critical factors such as your existing licenses, hardware lifecycle, and cloud roadmap. Our goal is to identify any potential risks and areas where costs can be optimized.

Identifying Potential Risks

The Broadcom acquisition has raised concerns among VMware customers, particularly around potential price hikes, support quality, and stalled development. Drawing from Broadcom’s history with CA and Symantec, where customers experienced similar issues, it is essential to be proactive. Blue Mantis helps you evaluate these risks and develop a contingency plan to mitigate any negative impacts on your business.

Strategic Recommendations for Migration

If the new VMware model does not align with your budget or strategic goals, migrating to an alternative platform might be the best course of action. However, moving off VMware is a complex process that requires careful planning. Blue Mantis offers strategic recommendations to ensure a seamless migration with minimal disruption to your business processes.

Four Crucial Steps to Buy Time and Control Costs

1. Downgrade: Evaluate if you can move from vSphere Enterprise Plus to vSphere Standard to control costs. For example, a mid-sized company with moderate virtualization needs could benefit from downgrading to vSphere Standard. This decision would help reduce licensing fees while still maintaining essential features like vMotion and High Availability.
2. Optimize Core Count: Reduce the number of physical cores to the bare minimum needed and increase memory density. An enterprise running a large number of virtual machines (VMs) on hosts with high core counts could potentially reduce their core count to match their exact needs rather than “overprovisioning” resources. Simultaneously, increasing memory density allows the same or even more VMs to run efficiently without the extra cost of additional cores.
3. Upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation: If you currently use multiple products from the suite (Aria, NSX, etc.), consider upgrading. One use case would be a financial services firm using VMware vSphere, vSAN, and NSX separately could integrate these into VMware Cloud Foundation. This integration would streamline management and potentially lower total cost of ownership due to unified licensing.
4. Re-evaluate Your Future on VMware: Determine if the new cloud model fits within your budget and strategic plans. For example, an organization with a long-term cloud strategy may find that the subscription-based SaaS model introduced by Broadcom aligns well with their financial planning. In this scenario, the company can leverage the scalability and flexibility of VMware’s new cloud licensing model to support their ongoing digital transformation efforts.

Exploring Your Alternatives

In some cases, an organization might try downgrading, upgrading, and optimizing with VMware but still conclude they must migrate off the VMware technology stack. Few CIOs or CTOs would ever make such a decision lightly. Migrating an established IT infrastructure to an alternative virtualization technology is extremely labor intensive, often incurs steep costs, and should always be a “last resort” option. However, if your organization is leaning toward migrating off VMware, then Blue Mantis Datacenter Modernization experts have hands-on experience deploying several potential VMware alternatives:

• Azure Stack HCI: Azure Stack HCI is a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution that combines on-premises infrastructure with cloud capabilities. It allows organizations to run virtualized workloads on-premises and connect seamlessly to Azure for cloud services. Azure Stack HCI offers advanced features such as stretch clustering for disaster recovery, built-in security, and simplified management through Windows Admin Center and PowerShell. It’s ideal for hybrid cloud scenarios, providing a consistent experience across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Azure VMware Solution (AVS): AVS allows organizations to run VMware workloads natively on Azure. It provides a seamless path to the cloud for existing VMware customers, enabling them to leverage Azure’s global infrastructure, scalability, and services while maintaining their VMware environment. AVS supports VMware vSphere, vSAN, and NSX-T, ensuring compatibility with existing tools and processes. It also offers integrated networking, security, and disaster recovery capabilities, making it a robust solution for hybrid cloud deployments.
• HPE KVM Solution: Targeted at small-to-midsized business customers, the nascent HPE KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) solution leverages open-source virtualization technology. KVM is integrated into the Linux kernel, providing high performance and stability. HPE enhances KVM with enterprise features such as advanced management tools, high availability, and robust security measures. This solution is suitable for organizations looking for an open-source alternative with enterprise-level support and cost efficiency.
• Microsoft Hyper-V: Hyper-V is a type-1 hypervisor developed by Microsoft, included with Windows Server. Hyper-V supports virtualization of both Windows and Linux operating systems and offers features such as live migration, storage migration, and dynamic memory. It integrates with other Microsoft services like Azure and System Center, providing a comprehensive virtualization and cloud solution. Hyper-V is known for its cost-effectiveness and seamless integration with the Windows ecosystem.
• Nutanix AHV: Nutanix AHV is a native hypervisor for the Nutanix enterprise cloud platform. It offers integrated management through Nutanix Prism, enabling simplified infrastructure management. AHV provides high performance, scalability, and built-in security features. The platform also supports a variety of workloads, from traditional enterprise applications to modern cloud-native applications. With AHV, organizations can reduce costs by eliminating the need for additional hypervisor licenses.

The list above represents just a tiny sliver of available options when it comes to the marketplace of virtualization technologies. Blue Mantis does not recommend any one of these technologies instead of Broadcom VMware and encourages IT executives considering VMware alternatives to discuss their concerns with an objective third party like us prior to making such a costly decision.

Next Steps with Blue Mantis

Navigating the changes brought by Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware requires a strategic approach and expert guidance. Blue Mantis is dedicated to helping you secure your present infrastructure while innovating for the future. Connect with the Blue Mantis Datacenter Modernization team to discuss your unique needs and develop a tailored strategy for your business.