Beyond VMware: Navigating Virtualisation & Cloud Alternatives

This pathway supports organisations evaluating alternatives to VMware in light of recent pricing and licensing changes post-Broadcom acquisition. It explores open-source, commercial, and cloud-native platforms with a focus on cost, performance, migration, and operational continuity.

Beyond VMware: Navigating Virtualisation & Cloud Alternatives

Introduction

The Broadcom acquisition of VMware has sparked a wave of concern across IT organisations, particularly due to rising costs, new licensing models, and uncertainty about product roadmaps. For enterprises heavily reliant on VMware, this learning pathway offers strategic and tactical guidance on evaluating alternatives. It includes insights on platform selection, architectural impact, migration strategy, and future-proofing infrastructure through hybrid, open-source, and cloud-native solutions.

Relevant Skills

  • Infrastructure strategy and evaluation
  • Virtualisation platform comparison
  • Cloud-native infrastructure design
  • Cost modelling and licensing analysis
  • Migration planning and risk mitigation
  • Open-source platform adoption
  • Hybrid cloud architecture

  1. Cloud Strategy and Infrastructure Understand foundational concepts in cloud computing and how infrastructure decisions affect scalability, cost, and agility.

  2. Architecting the Cloud – Michael Kavis Delve into how to structure and evaluate modern cloud-first infrastructure to replace legacy virtualisation environments.

  3. Revolutionizing IT with Open Source – Dirk Slama et al. A practical look at enterprise-grade open-source alternatives like Proxmox, KVM, oVirt, and Kubernetes as VMware substitutes.

  4. Infrastructure as Code – Kief Morris Learn how infrastructure automation and declarative environments help reduce reliance on monolithic platforms.

  5. Cloud FinOps – J.R. Storment & Mike Fuller Guidance on financial operations, cost transparency, and optimisation in a post-VMware world dominated by pay-as-you-go cloud models.

Analyst Reports & Whitepapers

  1. Gartner Magic Quadrant for HCI (2024) – Comparative analysis of Nutanix, Red Hat, Microsoft, and AWS Outposts.

  2. IDC Report: The Future of Virtualisation after VMware – Discusses enterprise readiness for migration.

  3. Broadcom-VMware Impact Study (Forrester) – Analysis of customer sentiment, market shifts, and pricing impacts.

  4. Linux Foundation: KVM and Open-Source Virtualisation Trends – Community-driven development, security posture, and support ecosystem.

Migration Strategy Topics

  • Assessing current VMware estate (vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Horizon)

  • Evaluating replacement candidates:

    • Hypervisors: KVM, Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V
    • HCI Platforms: Nutanix, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Scale Computing
    • Cloud Equivalents: AWS Nitro, Azure Stack HCI, GCP Bare Metal

  • Re-host vs re-platform decisions

  • Tools: Migration accelerators, replication, and automation

  • Managing workloads, snapshots, templates, and integrations

  • Governance and compliance considerations (e.g. for regulated industries)

Strategic Response Options

The Broadcom licensing changes require enterprises to rethink their virtualisation roadmap. While there’s no single correct response, organisations typically align to one of three strategic paths depending on their risk tolerance, financial outlook, and technical dependencies.

1. Contain and Control (Short-Term Stabilisation)

Approach: Freeze the VMware estate—no net new workloads, only critical updates—and establish a time-boxed evaluation of alternatives.

  • ✅ Pros: Minimal disruption; maintains business continuity; gains time for planning.
  • ⚠️ Cons: Still exposed to rising costs; limited flexibility; defers architectural change.

Best for: Organisations with active VMware contracts, stable environments, or regulatory inertia.

2. Hybrid Diversification (Parallel Adoption)

Approach: Introduce one or more alternative platforms (KVM, Nutanix AHV, Hyper-V, Harvester) alongside VMware, shifting new workloads first while running in dual mode.

  • ✅ Pros: De-risks the transition; allows gradual skill-building and tool integration.
  • ⚠️ Cons: Requires temporary operational overhead to support multiple stacks.

Best for: Enterprises with moderate VMware lock-in who want to pilot new platforms safely.

3. Full Exit and Platform Modernisation

Approach: Commit to a structured VMware decommissioning plan, replatforming all workloads to modern, open, or cloud-native infrastructure.

  • ✅ Pros: Regains full control; eliminates licensing exposure; enables long-term flexibility.
  • ⚠️ Cons: High upfront investment; migration complexity; requires strong stakeholder alignment.

Best for: Organisations with strategic cloud ambitions, strong DevOps maturity, or financial pressure to reduce legacy software costs.

These strategies can evolve over time—starting with containment, then piloting hybrid adoption, and finally transitioning toward full exit as tooling, skills, and confidence grow.

Reflection & Application

  • Review your licensing cost trajectory: What does your VMware spend look like over 3–5 years?
  • Evaluate technical lock-in: Are workloads tightly coupled to vCenter or NSX?
  • Engage internal stakeholders: Involve security, operations, and finance teams early.
  • Prototype a candidate platform: Start with a sandbox or non-critical workload.
  • Monitor the ecosystem: Broadcom’s roadmap, vendor incentives, and community movements can inform timing.

Key Takeaway

The path away from VMware is not simply a technical migration—it’s an opportunity to redesign for resilience, openness, and cost control. Whether through cloud-native platforms, hybrid approaches, or open-source solutions, the key is to plan deliberately, de-risk gradually, and build capabilities that reduce dependency on any single vendor.