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Quo vadis VMware vSphere?

·916 words·5 mins
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Reconsidering VMware #

Many users are searching for alternatives to VMware after Broadcom’s acquisition due to concerns about pricing, support, innovation, and strategic changes that may impact how VMware operates moving forward. Here are the key reasons why users are reconsidering their use of VMware:

Concerns Over Price Increases #

  • Broadcom’s Pricing Strategy: Broadcom has a history of significantly raising prices after acquiring companies. This was evident when Broadcom acquired companies like CA Technologies and Symantec, where licensing costs increased substantially.
  • Budget Pressures: With potential price hikes on the horizon, many organizations, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), are looking for more cost-effective solutions, as they may not be able to afford higher licensing fees in the future.

Uncertainty Around Product Innovation #

  • Broadcom’s Focus on Profitability: Broadcom is known for focusing on profitability rather than innovation. Many fear that VMware’s product development could slow down, with fewer investments in cutting-edge technologies like Kubernetes, multi-cloud management, and hybrid cloud capabilities.
  • Cloud-Native and Edge Technologies: VMware has been pushing forward with cloud-native initiatives, such as Tanzu for Kubernetes management, and customers are worried that Broadcom might de-prioritize these innovations.

Potential Decrease in Customer Support Quality #

  • Broadcom’s Approach to Customer Service: After acquiring companies, Broadcom has been known to reduce support resources, focusing primarily on larger enterprise clients while smaller customers often experience a decline in service quality. This has raised concerns that VMware’s extensive customer support might suffer the same fate.
  • Impact on Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: SMBs, which make up a significant portion of VMware’s user base, are particularly concerned about being deprioritized.

Fear of Vendor Lock-In #

  • Broadcom’s Business Model: Broadcom may seek to lock customers into its ecosystem by integrating VMware more tightly with its other product lines.
  • Exploring Open-Source Options: To avoid vendor lock-in, many organizations are considering open-source alternatives such as Proxmox VE, KVM, and Xen. These platforms offer more flexibility and freedom to tailor the virtualization environment to their needs.

Concerns About Long-Term Vision #

  • Broadcom’s Lack of Focus on Virtualization: Broadcom’s core business is not virtualization. Many VMware customers fear that the long-term vision for VMware could shift away from its traditional strengths, such as virtualization and cloud infrastructure, and that Broadcom may focus more on short-term profitability than on long-term innovation.
  • Looking for Vendors with Strong Vision: Organizations are exploring alternatives that have a clear focus on virtualization and cloud management.

Reduced Investment in Cloud and Hybrid Solutions #

  • Cloud-Native Strategy at Risk: VMware has invested heavily in cloud-native technologies, including multi-cloud management and hybrid cloud capabilities. However, there are concerns that Broadcom may reduce investment in these areas, leading to stagnation in VMware’s cloud strategy.
  • Switching to More Cloud-Focused Platforms: Customers who rely on cloud-native and hybrid cloud solutions are exploring alternatives like Red Hat OpenShift, AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, which provide more robust cloud management capabilities and better integration with existing cloud infrastructures.

Licensing Complexity #

  • Broadcom’s History with Complex Licensing: Broadcom’s licensing models in past acquisitions have often become more complex and restrictive. Customers worry that VMware’s already intricate licensing structure could become even more complicated, leading to increased administrative burden and potentially higher costs.
  • Simpler Licensing with Alternatives: Many are turning to alternatives with simpler licensing models.

Fear of Reduced Partner Ecosystem #

  • Impact on VMware’s Partner Ecosystem: VMware has built a broad and diverse ecosystem of partners, but customers worry that Broadcom could shrink this ecosystem by focusing on only the most profitable partnerships. This could limit the availability of third-party integrations and reduce innovation in the VMware environment.
  • Preference for Platforms with Strong Ecosystem: Many organizations are looking for virtualization platforms that maintain strong relationships with a wide range of partners and provide robust third-party integration.

Reasons for VMware Virtualization #

It has been a market leader in the field of virtualization for years and is used as the standard for virtualization platforms in many companies worldwide.

  • It is used by large and small organizations worldwide, which has led to extensive testing and a strong community.
  • vSphere can easily handle workloads of different sizes, from small environments to large data centers.
  • It offers features such as vMotion, High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and Fault Tolerance.
  • VMware regularly releases updates and patches that address both new features and security vulnerabilities.
  • The extensive APIs, native functions and third-party support make VMware vSphere a highly integrable platform, e.g. for backup and storage.

About alternatives #

There are a variety of alternatives to VMware for virtualization, depending on the requirements and environment.

The choice of the best alternative depends heavily on the specific requirements. For small to medium-sized companies, Proxmox or Hyper-V might be possible alternatives, while OpenStack is more suitable for larger and complex environments.

Criteria for the selection include:

  • Costs (licenses, subscriptions, support)
  • Complexity (operation and expertise)
  • Use cases (e.g. VDI, Server virtualization)
  • Ecosystem (integration of backup, storage and automation solutions)
  • Performance
  • Scalability
  • Hardware Requirements

Let’s get started. #

To provide an introduction to the search for alternatives, I have started a list at Github that lists the most common VMware alternatives in the desktop and server area. The list serves as a starting point and shows the many possibilities.

Github Repository awesome-vmware
Github Repository awesome-vmware

Conclusion #

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has introduced significant uncertainty, prompting many customers to explore alternatives due to concerns about rising costs, reduced innovation, potential declines in customer support, and tighter vendor lock-in. But on the other hand, there are also numerous alternatives on the market.