George Crump

VergeIO and Cirrus Data Unite to End Infrastructure Sprawl with a Joint Universal Migration Path and Unifying Platform

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Ann Arbor, MI — September 16, 2025 — VergeIO, the leading VMware alternative, today announced a partnership with Cirrus Data Solutions (CDS), a leader in data mobility technology and services, to help enterprises eliminate infrastructure sprawl—the costly mix of multiple hypervisors, duplicate tools, and isolated stacks, that has crept into data centers. The collaboration combines Cirrus Data’s patented software-only data mobility technology with VergeOS, the industry’s only single-codebase infrastructure operating system for virtualization, storage, networking, and AI.

Sprawl has accelerated as organizations juggle VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, OpenStack, and public cloud IaaS. The result is higher licensing spend, fragmented operations, and slow recovery. VergeIO and Cirrus Data address both sides of the problem: a universal migration path that keeps production online and a unifying destination that consolidates platforms into one operating model.

  • Cirrus Data delivers zero downtime migrations for clustered applications. Its software-only solution can migrate from nearly any hypervisor, including VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM), Proxmox, OpenStack, and others, in addition to the public cloud IaaS. Organizations can now automate the move of heterogeneous estates on schedule and without disruption.
  • VergeOS replaces stacked products with a single operating system covering virtualization, storage, networking, and AI. Per-server licensing, hardware portability, and deep abstraction extend hardware life and simplify operations across core, edge, ROBO (remote office/branch office), and Venues.

Review the VergeIO/Cirrus Data solution brief to learn more.

“Sprawl is the tax on indecision,” said Yan Ness, CEO of VergeIO. “Enterprises didn’t plan to run three hypervisors and a cloud sidecar, but that’s where the market led them. Our partnership with Cirrus Data gives IT a practical way out: move everything with minimal downtime and land on a single, cohesive platform.”

“Consolidation isn’t a one-off,” said Wayne Lam, CEO of Cirrus Data. “Our data mobility solutions give organizations an easy, automated way to securely migrate every acquisition or new business unit to VergeOS quickly, regardless of the starting platform. With Cirrus Data and VergeIO, organizations can prevent sprawl from returning and keep operations streamlined.”

According to analysis highlighted in VergeIO’s new white paper and solution brief, enterprises that consolidate into VergeOS with Cirrus Data can reduce three-year total cost of ownership by 50%+, achieve 12–18 month payback, and gain a platform ready for private AI without standing up separate clusters.

To learn more, register here for the VergeIO/Cirrus webinar on 9/25 at 1:00pm ET.

About VergeIO
VergeIO is the VMware alternative. Its ultraconverged infrastructure platform, VergeOS, integrates virtualization, storage, networking, and AI into a single operating system with unmatched simplicity and cost savings. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, VergeIO helps enterprises, service providers, and public sector organizations consolidate infrastructure, extend hardware life, and prepare for the future of AI.

About Cirrus Data
Cirrus Data Solutions Inc. (CDS) is a leader in the block data mobility technology and services market for global enterprises. The company distributes its solutions through systems integrators, managed service providers, channel resellers, and partners. CDS is headquartered in Syosset, New York, with support centers in Dublin, Ireland, and Nanjing, China, with sales and support offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Denver, London, Melbourne, Munich, and Tampa. For more information, visit CDS online https://cirrusdata.com/cloud-migration-vergeio 

Media Contact:
Judy Smith
JPR for [email protected]
818-522-9673

Media Contact:
Julie McKenna
Cirrus Data
[email protected] 

Double Infrastructure Disruption

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In 2026, IT professionals face a double infrastructure disruption problem that threatens to overwhelm budgets and complicate long-term planning. Server virtualization is undergoing a dramatic change, driven by Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and the expiration of thousands of VMware contracts within the year. At the same time, the VDI market is unsettled by rising costs and vendor reshuffling.

This is not the time for simple hypervisor swaps or VDI broker switches. Treating each disruption as an isolated project preserves the fragmentation that created today’s challenges. There is a unique opportunity to modernize infrastructure architecture as a whole—reducing cost, simplifying management, and preparing for future workloads like private AI.

Infrastructure Disruption One: Broadcom’s Strategic Customer Abandonment

Broadcom’s VMware strategy is not only about higher prices. It actually represents a deliberate narrowing of focus to large enterprises. CEO Hock Tan first pointed to “upselling VMware’s largest 2,000 customers,” later revised to just 500 top accounts served directly. Mid-market organizations are left with dramatically higher costs or the need to find alternatives.

double infrastructure disruption

The numbers tell the story of the first part of the infrastructure disruption problem. Surveys show 98% of VMware customers are exploring alternatives. Forty-eight percent report costs doubling, 30% see costs quadrupling, and 15% have faced tenfold increases (Heise). New licensing rules add a 72-core minimum order requirement and a 20% penalty for late renewals. For many, what was once 15–20% of the IT budget now consumes 40–60%.

This is not vendor greed; it is market repositioning. For organizations outside Broadcom’s target segment, it is the right moment to rethink architecture rather than pour more money into a fragmented model.

Infrastructure Disruption Two: VDI Market Uncertainty

infrastructure disruption

Desktop delivery is the second part of the infrastructure disruption problem. It is in parallel turmoil. VMware Horizon’s transfer to Omnissa creates questions about support and product direction. Citrix customers face rising prices and growing complexity, often tied to Windows Server back ends.

The pattern is clear. Per-user licensing penalizes growth. Feature bloat drives expensive add-ons. Multiple management consoles increase operational overhead. What was meant to simplify end-user computing has become harder to maintain than the desktops it replaced.

Why an Infrastructure-Wide Vision is Essential

Most IT teams approach these problems in silos. The VMware group looks at hypervisor replacements. The VDI team investigates alternative brokers. The storage team negotiates a SAN refresh. Each makes the best choice within its domain, but the organization still carries multiple licensing models, management planes, and support contracts.

This is the fragmentation tax. It shows up as duplicated labor, integration overhead, and troubleshooting inefficiency. Studies suggest it adds 35–50% to operational costs as compared to unified platforms.

An infrastructure-wide modernization strategy removes that tax while solving the double infrastructure disruption challenges. Unified platforms combine server virtualization, storage, networking, and desktop delivery into a single architecture. Costs drop because organizations are not paying four or five vendors. Labor drops because teams manage one system. Performance improves because the environment is built to work as a whole, not stitched together after the fact.

These benefits compound. By combining VMware licensing savings with simpler VDI economics and reduced operational overhead, IT can build a stronger case for modernization. Future workloads, such as private AI, can run on the same architecture without creating a separate silo. Even if budget cycles don’t align perfectly, taking a big-picture view of infrastructure and incorporating components as renewals and refreshes occur, creates a rare opportunity to present modernization as a single project with a clear ROI.

Even further Infrastructure Disruption: Hardware Deprecation

The legacy licensing models that contribute to the double infrastructure disruption problem also drive unnecessary hardware refresh cycles. Perfectly functional servers are marked “unsupported” to push new purchases or reduce testing costs. Organizations waste capital and create e-waste when older systems could continue to serve production workloads.

Modern ultraconverged platforms take the opposite approach. They run on standard x86 hardware without restrictive hardware compatibility lists. Servers remain in service as long as they meet performance needs. Refreshes happen on IT’s schedule, not the vendor’s. Extending server life by even two years can defer or eliminate $25,000–100,000 in capital costs per 50 users per year.

Why Partners Must Act Now

For VARs, MSPs, and CSPs, the double disruption presents an opportunity to transition from transactional product swaps to strategic infrastructure modernization. Many partners will take the easy route and replace whatever component is failing. That path keeps costs high and complexity intact.

The better path is to guide customers toward a unified infrastructure. Partners who take this approach, deliver measurable savings, protect hardware investments, and become trusted advisors. The result is repeat business and recurring revenue.

Join our exclusive webinar with Inuvika and Ethos Technology to learn how to position unified infrastructure solutions that solve both VMware licensing and VDI complexity simultaneously. This session provides specific strategies for guiding customers toward architectural modernization rather than component-level replacement. Register here.

The VergeIO and Inuvika Answer

VergeIO delivers ultraconverged infrastructure that integrates server virtualization, enterprise-class storage, networking, and AI in a single code base. Licensing is per server, avoiding Broadcom’s per-core penalties. The platform runs on standard x86 hardware, protecting existing investments and extending hardware life. As end-users become dependent on their virtual desktop instances, VergeOS provides the resilience needed to meet user expectations.

Inuvika’s Linux-based VDI works perfectly within this environment. It eliminates the need for Windows Server back ends and simplifies desktop and application delivery. Together, VergeIO and Inuvika provide coordinated support, predictable pricing, and an end to vendor finger-pointing.

The ROI on an Infrastructure-Wide Vision

Focusing on traditional infrastructure updates maintains operational complexity while changing vendors. Innovative infrastructure teams use this disruption to implement unified platforms that solve multiple problems simultaneously. Based on our interviews, VergeIO customers see significant annual savings using this approach:

Traditional vs. Modern Infrastructure Economics (per 500 users):

Cost CategoryFragmented StackUnified PlatformAnnual Savings
Software Costs$90,000-120,000$40,000-60,000$50,000-60,000
IT Labor20-30 hours monthly5-8 hours monthly$25,000-40,000
Hardware RefreshRequired every 3-4 yearsExtended 5-7 years$37,500-75,000
Total Annual Savings$112,500-175,000

Large enterprises report $500,000-2,000,000 annual savings moving from fragmented to integrated platforms, while avoiding strategic risk from vendors that explicitly deprioritize their market segment. Hardware investment protection adds another layer of savings, with organizations typically deferring $25,000-100,000 in capital expenditures per 50 servers by extending hardware lifecycles based on performance needs rather than vendor compatibility requirements.

Real-World Elimination of the Double Infrastructure Disruption Problem

CCSI, a cloud service provider, solved its double infrastructure disruption problem by implementing VergeIO’s ultraconverged infrastructure with Inuvika’s VDI platform. They achieved:

  • 80% reduction in infrastructure costs compared to the VMware stack
  • 3-day migration completion vs. 6-month VMware refresh timeline
  • Single vendor relationship replacing five separate support contracts
  • Simplified operations without SAN dependencies or complex networking

“The integrated approach eliminated the vendor finger-pointing we experienced with our previous fragmented infrastructure,” reports CCSI leadership. “When issues arise, we have single-point accountability instead of coordination between multiple vendors.”

The Wait-and-See Strategy is Over

Many IT leaders renewed short-term agreements after Broadcom’s acquisition, hoping for stability. That stability has not arrived. Renewal mechanics now dictate timing and cost. Terms are tighter, penalties higher, and deadlines closer.

The wait-and-see strategy is no longer neutral. The impending double infrastructure disruption problem makes waiting a penalty. The time to modernize is now. Contact VergeIO for a technical whiteboard session to explore how VergeIO with Inuvika can provide a comprehensive solution to the double infrastructure disruption problem.

What is Infrastructure-Wide Deduplication

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Infrastructure-wide deduplication expands what IT professionals know about deduplication, a storage feature that saves disk space. Arrays deduplicate blocks, backup systems compress datasets, and WAN optimizers reduce transmission overhead. Each system handles deduplication independently, creating islands of efficiency in an already fragmented infrastructure.

Infrastructure-wide deduplication takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of treating deduplication as separate features scattered across various systems, it implements deduplication as a unified capability that spans the entire infrastructure—storage, virtualization, networking, and data protection—under a single, consistent framework.

The Problem with Fragmented Deduplication

Traditional deduplication creates a cycle of inefficiency. Data may start deduplicated in primary storage, expand to full size during backup operations, then deduplicate again in the backup appliance using different algorithms. For disaster recovery, the same data rehydrates before replication, deduplicates for transmission, expands again at the destination, and deduplicates once more on DR storage.

Infrastructure-wide deduplication

This fragmentation forces organizations to deploy 30–50% more CPU and RAM than workloads otherwise require to absorb the overhead of constant rehydration and re-deduplication. WAN circuits carry redundant data streams. Backup windows extend as data repeatedly expands and contracts. IT teams assume they have comprehensive deduplication coverage, but in reality, they are paying a hidden tax across every system boundary.

Understanding these inefficiencies—and the architectural approaches that eliminate them—requires examining how different vendors implement deduplication across their platforms. Our white paper “Building Infrastructure on Integrated Deduplication” provides a detailed analysis of implementation patterns from bolt-on approaches to native integration, plus vendor-specific guidance on Unity, vSAN, Nutanix, Pure, and VergeOS platforms. Get the complete analysis at verge.io/building-infrastructure-on-integrated-deduplication.

How Infrastructure-Wide Deduplication Works

Infrastructure-wide deduplication eliminates these inefficiencies through three key principles:

Native Integration. Rather than bolting deduplication onto existing systems, it’s built into the platform from the earliest lines of code. Deduplication becomes part of the core infrastructure operating system, not a separate process competing for resources.

Unified Metadata. Instead of each system maintaining its own deduplication tables, infrastructure-wide implementations use a single, consistent metadata model. A block deduplicated in New York remains deduplicated when referenced in London or Tokyo. Data never loses its optimized state as it moves between functions or sites.

Cross-Layer Operation. Deduplication runs simultaneously across storage, virtualization, and network layers. When the hypervisor makes deduplication decisions, they directly inform storage operations. Network transfers automatically leverage existing deduplication metadata without redundant processing cycles.

Infrastructure-wide deduplication

This cross-layer integration has practical consequences. For example, when a virtual machine snapshot is taken, the hypervisor references existing deduplicated blocks instead of writing new ones. That reduces both I/O and backup times. Similarly, when replication jobs run, they automatically leverage deduplication tables maintained across the entire infrastructure, eliminating duplicate transfers without additional processing.

The VergeOS Implementation

VergeOS demonstrates this approach through its Infrastructure Operating System. Instead of separate storage, virtualization, and networking products that require integration, VergeOS provides a unified platform where deduplication operates across all infrastructure functions.

When a virtual machine writes data, the hypervisor immediately deduplicates at the source. Storage operations work with the optimized dataset. Network replication transmits unique blocks. Backup operations reference existing deduplicated blocks rather than creating new copies. Recovery uses the same optimized structure, eliminating expansion penalties.

This architectural integration explains why infrastructure-wide deduplication remains rare. Other vendors build platforms around separate components. Retrofitting unified deduplication requires redesigning core architectures rather than adding features—a significant undertaking that few vendors attempt. VergeOS avoids this problem by collapsing the stack into one code base where deduplication is built in, not bolted on. Deduplication becomes a key element in the VergeOS architecture.

Measurable Infrastructure-wide Deduplication Benefits

Infrastructure-wide deduplication delivers improvements that compound across the entire infrastructure:

Performance. By operating on deduplicated datasets from the start, I/O operations decrease by 40–60%. Cache hit rates improve by 2–3x because the working dataset is fundamentally smaller. Applications experience lower latency and higher throughput.

Infrastructure-wide deduplication

Resource Efficiency. Organizations can right-size servers based on actual workload requirements rather than deduplication overhead. Memory utilization improves because duplicate data never enters the cache hierarchy.

WAN Optimization. Only unique blocks traverse the network, reducing replication traffic by 70–90%. Organizations can handle more data on existing circuits or reduce bandwidth costs while maintaining protection levels.

Operational Simplicity. Backup windows shrink by 60–80% because data doesn’t rehydrate during protection operations. Snapshots become instant references to deduplicated blocks. Recovery operations are complete 5–10x faster using the same optimized block structure.

Multi-Site Flexibility. With consistent deduplication across locations, entire data centers can migrate between continents with minimal data transfer. AI training checkpoints that previously required hours to replicate are now completed in minutes.

Use Case Spotlights

VMware Exits. Organizations moving away from VMware face major infrastructure transitions. Infrastructure-wide deduplication offsets migration costs by reducing hardware requirements and enabling faster workload mobility.

AI/ML Pipelines. Training large language models generates terabytes of repetitive checkpoint data. Infrastructure-wide deduplication reduces replication from hours to minutes, enabling faster iteration and lower infrastructure cost.

Disaster Recovery Compliance. Meeting aggressive recovery time objectives (RTOs) requires restoring systems quickly. Infrastructure-wide deduplication cuts recovery times by up to 5–10x, helping organizations meet compliance and business continuity mandates.

Competitive Landscape

Not all deduplication is created equal. Broadly, vendors take one of three approaches:

  • Bolt-On: Deduplication is a separate process layered onto existing systems. It introduces overhead, requires additional metadata, and forces rehydration between steps.
  • Integrated Later: Deduplication was added to the platform after launch. Better than bolt-on, but still scoped to clusters or volumes rather than spanning the entire stack.
  • Array-Native: Vendors like Pure Storage offer always-on deduplication, but it starts once data hits the array. CPU, RAM, and WAN costs remain untouched.
  • Infrastructure-Wide: Platforms like VergeOS embed deduplication across storage, compute, and networking in a unified architecture, eliminating silos and preserving deduplication across the entire lifecycle of the data.

When Infrastructure-wide deduplication Matters

Infrastructure-wide deduplication becomes strategically relevant during periods of infrastructure change. Organizations evaluating VMware alternatives should reconsider their entire technology stack. AI workloads generate massive repetitive datasets that storage-specific deduplication handles poorly. Budget pressures make the 30–50% resource overhead of fragmented approaches increasingly difficult to justify, and fragmented deduplication is a key component of the AFA Tax.

The question for IT leaders isn’t whether deduplication works—it’s where it works and how broadly its benefits extend. Infrastructure-wide deduplication transforms a commodity storage feature into a competitive strategic advantage that improves performance, reduces costs, and enables new operational patterns.

Looking Ahead

As infrastructures evolve toward ultraconverged, AI-ready, and private-cloud designs, deduplication will become more than an efficiency tool. It will serve as a foundation for agility, enabling IT to scale workloads globally, replicate AI datasets instantly, and deliver faster recovery from outages.

Rather than accepting the inefficiencies of fragmented deduplication, organizations can adopt infrastructure-wide approaches that optimize the entire stack. The technology exists, the business case is clear, and the timing—with widespread infrastructure reevaluations underway—is ideal.

Ready to eliminate the deduplication tax?

[ Schedule a Whiteboard Technical Deepdive ] [ Download The White Paper ]

Storage Challenges at Distributed Sites

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Storage challenges at distributed sites are inhibiting organizations that want to reduce reliance on the cloud and instead extend workloads into remote offices, retail sites, venues, and edge locations. Storage is the critical obstacle preventing these distributed sites from operating effectively.

IT was promised that all data could be centralized in the cloud, but the lack of independence and the high costs of storing and moving data make that approach impractical. What once lived in a data center or the cloud must now be delivered locally at dozens or hundreds of sites, each with tight limits on space, staff, and budget.

Register Now

These environments show varied workload needs: some sites need high-capacity storage for video, others require high performance for real-time tasks, and some demand intensive AI processing. Many sites have a mix of these needs, often with limited IT staff, rack space, and budgets. Balancing cost, performance, capacity, and manageability is essential.

The stakes are high. Availability expectations for remote locations often exceed those for the data center. Many are more than customer-facing—they are customer-touching, directly impacting the customer experience. Protection from hardware failure is essential, as is rapid recovery at another site or the data center in case of disaster.

Balancing Storage Demands at the Site

One of the storage challenges at distributed sites is balancing the performance and capacity needs, which can vary greatly. Some require high-performance storage for real-time tasks like point-of-sale, video analytics, or sensors. Others need high-capacity storage for surveillance videos, medical images, or records. Some sites face both demands. Without proper balance, workloads either stall due to latency or run out of space before meeting retention needs.

IT teams are forced to choose between costly, oversized storage that wastes resources and basic local disks lacking resilience. Direct-attached drives offer decent performance but risk disruptions if a drive or server fails. Hyperconverged solutions reduce risk but are costly and may impact performance. None provides the ideal balance of resilience and affordability.

How VergeOS Helps: VergeOS addresses these challenges by collapsing storage, compute, and networking into a single code base, delivering both performance and capacity in the smallest possible footprint. IT teams can size hardware to each site’s exact needs while still getting enterprise-class data services like global deduplication, snapshots, and replication. This unified approach gives small sites the same capabilities as large ones, without oversized appliances or fragile local disks.

Download our white paper: “A Comprehensive Guide to a VMware Exit for Multi-Site Organizations.“

Remote Site Storage Protection and Recovery Gaps

If performance and capacity are difficult to balance at remote sites, protecting the data stored there is even harder. Skilled IT professionals can get these sites backed up, but it is expensive because of WAN bandwidth requirements and high software costs.

Local snapshot capabilities could fix these issues, but low-end storage appliances often lack such features or require costly upgrades. Direct-attached storage has no snapshot option. Hyperconverged storage offers limited snapshots, which can impact performance. Hardware failures mean restoring from outdated backups, risking data loss or downtime at remote sites.

The recovery challenge is just as severe. Moving large amounts of data back across limited WAN bandwidth can take days. Outages from fiber cuts or local disruptions always occur at the worst possible time—such as in the middle of a long backup job. When the connection is restored, the job must start over, wasting time and leaving data exposed.

Testing disaster recovery across dozens or hundreds of sites is time-consuming and often overlooked. In many cases, the first time recovery procedures are attempted is during a real-life failure—when the pressure is highest and tolerance for mistakes is lowest.

How VergeOS Helps: VergeOS solves these issues by making data protection a built-in function, not an add-on. Instant, immutable snapshots and WAN-efficient replication are integrated into the platform, ensuring consistent recovery options across all sites. Organizations no longer depend on fragile appliance snapshots or expensive backup software. By unifying storage and protection in one system, VergeOS makes recovery faster, more predictable, and resilient even across limited WAN connections.

Remote Storage Operational Fragmentation

Organizations manage diverse storage solutions, which become even more complex at distributed sites. The core data center uses SAN and NAS, while edge and remote offices typically rely on direct-attached storage, hypervisor-based storage, and backup appliances. Each layer has different tools, update cycles, and licensing models.

Storage Challenges at Distributed Sites

The result is operational fragmentation. IT staff must jump between consoles to monitor health, provision capacity, and validate protection. Policies differ by vendor, features behave inconsistently, and vendors update on different schedules. Without a single source of truth, it becomes challenging to determine which sites meet data protection requirements, have adequate recovery points, or are drifting out of alignment.

Another one of the top storage challenges at distributed sites is that storage features which appear similar, may work differently across platforms. Drive failure protection, replication, deduplication, encryption, and snapshots may all exist, but each behaves in its own way depending on the vendor, and they don’t understand each other. Vendor A can’t replicate to Vendor B, and Vendor C can’t leverage deduplication metadata from Vendor D. This inconsistency makes it nearly impossible to apply a single policy or rely on predictable results. These inconsistencies also exacerbate the IT skills gap.

How VergeOS Helps: VergeOS replaces fragmented tools with a unified management plane and consistent features across every site. This eliminates silos and provides a single source of truth for monitoring, reporting, and compliance. It also eliminates inconsistency by applying global inline deduplication across the entire infrastructure—core, ROBO, edge, and venue locations. Deduplication is not siloed per vendor or appliance; identical blocks of data are recognized once, no matter where they originate. This reduces capacity requirements, improves replication efficiency across sites, and ensures all data management policies work consistently everywhere. Just as importantly, this same consistency extends to all features—snapshots, replication, encryption, and drive failure protection—so policies behave uniformly across every site.


The Path Forward: Unified Infrastructure Software

Solving the fragmentation issue requires more than incremental gains; the real challenge is architectural. Sites depend on diverse storage products, increasing complexity and risk. IT must unify infrastructure via a single software platform that offers storage, virtualization, and networking uniformly across multiple locations and supports diverse hardware.

A unified infrastructure platform eliminates storage challenges at distributed sites, such as the sprawl of consoles and feature sets. Replication, snapshots, deduplication, encryption, and drive failure protection all behave the same way whether they are deployed in the core data center, a regional office, or a small remote site. Policies can be defined once and applied everywhere, giving IT predictable outcomes.

This approach creates a single source of truth. Monitoring, reporting, and compliance data come from one system, giving IT visibility across the entire environment instead of forcing them to reconcile information from multiple consoles. With unified telemetry, trends are easier to spot, issues easier to diagnose, and compliance more straightforward to prove.

Operationally, benefits are immediate. IT teams spend less time managing incompatible tools and more on delivering value. Features work equally well at small and large sites—small sites get advanced capabilities without oversized appliances, and the core maintains resiliency without siloed complexity. Licensing and support are streamlined, avoiding duplication and waste from fragmentation.

Storage Challenges at Distributed Sites

Unified infrastructure software removes inconsistency, not choice. Teams can make per-site decisions on hardware, but standardizing the software layer across sites creates a resilient, easy-to-manage, scalable foundation. Architectural simplicity is essential for sustainable distributed infrastructure.

How VergeOS Helps: VergeOS delivers this architectural simplicity today via its ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) design, which consolidates storage, virtualization, and networking into one tightly integrated code base. This ensures consistent features, policies, and management across every site—edge, ROBO, venue, and core—providing a unified foundation that scales without multiplying complexity.

Conclusion

Distributed sites are essential to modern operations, but traditional storage models were never built for environments with limited space, staff, and budgets. The result is a recurring cycle of over-provisioning, fragile local infrastructure, and operational silos that add cost and risk with every new site.

The solution to overcoming the storage challenges at distributed sites lies not in more point products but in a unified architectural approach. By consolidating storage, compute, networking, and data protection into one code base, VergeOS removes fragmentation and delivers consistent capabilities across every location. The result is simpler management, stronger resiliency, and predictable scalability.

Organizations that adopt this model can treat distributed sites as first-class citizens of the enterprise infrastructure—resilient, efficient, and prepared for the future.

Click here to learn more about VergeIO’s distributed sites solution.

Upgrade Edge Data Protection

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upgrade Edge data protection

The Broadcom acquisition of VMware is prompting IT leaders to reassess remote deployments, making it an ideal time to upgrade Edge data protection. The Edge encompasses Remote Office Branch Offices (ROBO), Venues in the entertainment industry, and true Edge sites for data collection.

Organizations with any or all of these location types adopted VMware for server consolidation, not resilience. A few small servers could run all workloads and remain online without the cloud or core, providing local processing and independence in the event of a WAN failure.

Now the economics and packaging of VMware have changed, but exiting VMware should be more than a hypervisor swap. It’s a chance to upgrade edge VMware protection and DR.

upgrade Edge data protection

Doing so can reduce licensing and hardware costs, eliminate redundant backup appliances, and enhance recovery speed after outages or accidental deletions. It also prepares IT for new edge use cases, such as AI inference, where local processing demands stronger resilience and faster recovery. If you are an IT professional with multiple sites, download our comprehensive guide to a VMware exit for multi-site organizations.

The Old Data Protection Model

Backup dependency
VMware offered rudimentary edge protection. Customers relied on third-party backup appliances or agents, each with extra licensing, hardware, and management overhead. This added cost and complexity for ROBO and venue sites which typically have little or no IT staff. Backup servers and storage arrays also consumed precious rack space that edge and ROBO locations rarely had. This is why it is time to upgrade Edge data protection.

Replication challenges
Replication was never native. Organizations turned to SRM or external tools, which were complex, expensive, and impractical for small sites. Many locations simply went unprotected.

Snapshot limitations
VMware snapshots were tied to VMFS or vSAN, resulting in degraded performance and increased capacity consumption. Many customers avoided them or used them as a temporary staging copy for backup before deleting. VMware’s own documentation warns that snapshots should not be considered a form of protection.

Recovery gaps
Recovering workloads was a complex process that required the use of runbooks. These were manually created, brittle, and often untested until a crisis. Testing DR was especially hard for venues and edge sites with limited or no maintenance windows. The first “test” was usually a real outage, with predictable failures.

Scale mismatch
VMware’s protection stack was designed for four to sixteen node clusters, not two- or three-node sites. vSAN requires at least three nodes or two plus a witness, adding cost and complexity. VxRail requires four or five nodes—well beyond the needs and budgets of edge or ROBO locations.

Why VMware Data Protection Falls Short

VMware’s protection model was never designed for distributed sites. It layered point products on top of the hypervisor and left IT to tie them together, resulting in tool sprawl, increased overhead, and higher costs—another reason why it’s time to upgrade Edge data protection.

Tool sprawl
Even with central management, IT had to juggle separate logins, passwords, and consoles across dozens or hundreds of sites. Context switching became exponential overhead.

Fragile protection
RPOs were measured in hours or days, with even longer RTOs. Every restore relied on backup servers and brittle runbooks. Secondary backup steps added delays and new failure points.

No cyber recovery
VMware snapshots—whether standard or vSAN—were not immutable, and replicas usually lived in the same location. A ransomware attack or corruption could wipe out both production and “protected” copies.

Inconsistent coverage
Some sites were protected, others were not. It could take weeks to notice, and even longer to diagnose. Without a shared telemetry stream, IT had to log in and out of multiple systems, making correlation across sites nearly impossible.

Testing and validation gap
DR testing was rare. Venues and edge sites have little or no downtime, so runbooks went untested. The first recovery attempt usually came during an outage, with poor results.

The Modern Model: Integrated Data Protection

upgrade Edge data protection

VergeOS eliminates the sprawl of point products by integrating protection directly into the same stack that delivers virtualization and storage. This changes protection from an add-on to a native capability and is clearly a way to upgrade Edge data protection.

Site virtualization
VMware virtualized servers. VergeOS virtualizes entire sites. Its Virtual Data Center (VDC) technology captures workloads, storage, and networking as one logical entity. A VDC can be migrated to the core, another site, or a new facility, enabling protection and mobility beyond VM portability. It also allows patch testing by cloning an entire site into a safe environment for updates and validation before production.

Built-in snapshots
Snapshots in VergeOS are instant, immutable, and policy-driven. They can be taken at the site, VDC, or VM level, with recovery just as granular. They impose no performance hit and avoid capacity sprawl, so they can be kept long enough to provide real protection.

Native replication
Replication is built in. It is lightweight, policy-based, and supports site-to-site, hub-and-spoke, or paired topologies—removing the need for SRM or third-party tools. Policies can be defined once and applied everywhere. Combined with VDC virtualization, recovery works the first time, bringing an entire site back online in a few clicks.

Policy-driven tiers
Different site types can be assigned different protection profiles. A ROBO might use nightly replication, a venue may require aggressive POS and video protection, and edge sites can run short-interval snapshots. Policies are defined centrally and enforced locally.

Cyber recovery isolation
VergeOS snapshots are read-only, and replicas can live in independent locations, giving IT true isolation. Clean copies can be launched for testing without impacting production, making cyber recovery a routine process.

Centralized fleet management
Policies, snapshots, replication, and compliance are visible in a single console. Upgrades can be staged regionally and rolled out live, even across hundreds of sites.

AI-aware protection
With VergeIQ GPU workloads at the edge can be protected just like VMs. VergeOS snapshots and replication cover models, embeddings, and inference data, allowing rollbacks, recovery, or moves alongside the rest of the site.

VMware vs. VergeOS Data Protection

CapabilityVMware / Legacy ApproachVergeOS Integrated Model
SnapshotsTied to vSAN/VMFS, performance hitInstant, immutable, no impact
ReplicationSRM or 3rd party, costly/complexNative, lightweight, policy-driven
BackupRequires separate appliancesBuilt-in to core platform
RecoveryManual runbooks, brittleConsistent object recovery, few clicks
Cyber RecoveryNot immutable, no isolationImmutable snapshots, isolated replicas
Fleet ManagementMany consoles, siloed telemetryOne pane across all sites

Edge Data Protection’s Impact on the Core

upgrade Edge data protection

Running the same software stack at the edge and in the core delivers consistency VMware never offered. VergeOS runs everywhere, so IT doesn’t need different tools for small sites and large clusters. Operations are predictable, upgrades are faster, and risk is reduced.

Replication from the edge to the core is straightforward. Sites arrive as complete Virtual Data Centers, making recovery as simple as starting a consistent object instead of piecing workloads together.

The core can host tenants by geography or business unit, define protection policies once, and push them everywhere. Fleet-level upgrades and policies can be staged regionally and applied without downtime.

Observability is unified. VergeOS provides a single telemetry stream, eliminating the need to chase logs across multiple products. IT sees protection status and compliance in one console.

The core becomes the foundation for AI. Models can be trained centrally, distributed to sites, and protected with the same snapshots and replication used for VMs.

With VergeOS, the edge and core operate as one system, running the same software with the same protection capabilities.

Conclusion

The Broadcom acquisition of VMware forces a choice. IT can either repeat the old model with another hypervisor and bolt-on tools, or take the opportunity to build something better.

Exiting VMware should not be a lateral move. It should be an upgrade. By integrating snapshots, replication, site virtualization, and fleet visibility, VergeOS replaces fragile point products with one platform. Protection becomes routine, recovery becomes reliable, and AI readiness is built in.

The VMware exit is more than just a cost issue—it is the chance to reset edge data protection and lay the foundation for the next decade.

The Network Standardization Myth

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The network standardization myth convinces IT leaders that choosing one networking hardware vendor and deploying identical hardware everywhere creates operational simplicity. The theory sounds logical: manage everything through a single interface and reduce complexity through uniformity, but in reality, deployments at scale tell a different story. Single-Vendor Networking adds cost and delay, and it limits the ability to adapt when sites, budgets, and timelines vary.

The network standardization myth

Where Single-Vendor Networking Breaks Down

Cost exposes the network standardization myth first. A single name-brand adds a premium at every site, as licenses, feature tiers, and “smart” subscriptions stacked onto the price and support contracts, raise the run rate each year. Edge locations rarely need every feature on a datasheet, and off-the-shelf switches and routers with basic L2/L3, VLANs, ACLs, and QoS meet the need at a lower cost when networking policy can be applied across hardware.

Pricing varies by region and quarter, and big brands tie discounts to volume and ELAs that small sites seldom reach, resulting in higher costs. Freight, currency, and local channel margins widen the gap, while commodity gear from local resellers keeps costs down and ships faster. The feature set may be smaller, but SDN supports advanced policies, so operations remain consistent.

Refresh and lifecycle add more cost. End-of-sale notices prompt fleet swaps to maintain support, and feature reshuffles necessitate new SKUs even when ports and speeds remain the same. Working gear leaves the rack to preserve a logo, but with SDN above the hardware, teams keep simpler devices longer and replace them based on price and availability, not branding.

Mergers add more drift. Acquired sites run other brands that work, and ripping them out raises risk and cost. Retrofits also hit space and power limits that a “standard” chassis cannot meet, and compliance rules may require features a niche model provides while the chosen vendor does not.

SDN: The Alternative to Single Vendor Networking

Software-defined networking addresses the network standardization myth by moving control into software, allowing switches and routers to focus on transport while maintaining consistent policy and visibility across different brands. Teams learn one model and apply it everywhere, training drops and rollouts speed up, and purchasing shifts from “the” box to “a” fit-for-purpose box that is available now.

Disaster recovery is simplified because the organization no longer needs to build for separate scenarios for each hardware mix at remote sites. As a result, one runbook covers failover, testing, and return to service across locations.

The promise of standardization is consistent operations, and SDN delivers that consistency through abstraction, not uniform metal.

Why didn’t SDN bust the single-vendor networking myth?

Early SDN shipped as a separate software stack. Teams had to deploy and run a second platform next to existing networks. Installation was complex, with custom designs, hardware matrices, and site-by-site tuning. Licensing and services were expensive, so many stayed with one hardware brand to keep risk predictable.

What is needed now is SDN integrated into a data center operating system. Integration enables automatic installation, simplifies learning and daily operations, and reduces costs.

VergeOS: One Platform For Core And Edge

VergeOS is the Data Center Operating System. It combines four integrated components:

Debunking The network standardization myth with VergeOS
  • VergeHV for virtual machines and containers with low overhead
  • VergeFS for a global file system with inline, always-on deduplication across the cluster so data does not rehydrate when it moves across hosts or tiers
  • VergeFabric for secure, segmented connectivity across sites and clouds
  • VergeIQ for private AI pipelines, GPU pooling, and model hosting. These parts share a single control plane, so policies span compute, storage, and networking. A change in one layer is immediately visible to the others without requiring bolt-on tools.

Eliminate Single Vendor Networking and Exit VMware

VergeOS runs on standard x86 servers. Many customers reuse existing hosts and storage while they phase out VMware licensing at their pace. VergeHV supports all workloads and maintains a simple operational model. VergeFS absorbs current datasets with global deduplication to reduce footprint and accelerate protection jobs. VergeFabric maps existing VLANs and segments into software, allowing teams to avoid large switch swaps on day one.

Procurement Flexibility Without Chaos

With VergeFabric in place, switching and routing brands become choices, not constraints, and sites buy what is available and supported locally. Operations still look the same because policy resides in software, and VergeFS breaks storage lock-in by supporting mixed media and tiers across nodes, allowing capacity to be added based on what the region stocks and what the budget allows.

Ready For Private AI At The Edge And The Core

VergeIQ consolidates scattered GPUs into a pooled resource, allowing teams to assign GPUs to jobs across clusters without incurring vendor-specific vGPU taxes. Training runs in the core, where power and scale are key, inference runs at the edge, where latency is crucial, and data remains under corporate control. VergeFS feeds AI pipelines from a single namespace with high dedupe ratios to reduce read and write pressure, and VergeFabric carries encrypted, segmented traffic for data sync and model updates. There are no unexpected cloud costs associated with token utilization.

One Design, All Footprints, No Single Vendor Networking

Enterprises need scale in the core and small footprints at the edge, and VergeOS supports both with the same software. In the enterprise core, large clusters host many workloads with multi-tenant isolation and high throughput, VergeHV schedules compute densely, VergeFS spreads data with balanced placement and fast rebuilds, and VergeFabric segments production, management, and replication traffic. At the compact edge, clusters run on a few nodes with tight power and space; the same policies apply. VergeFabric builds site-to-site tunnels and prefers the least-cost paths, and VergeFS keeps datasets small through global deduplication to help across slower WAN links, ensuring consistent operations between sites.

Field Proof

Topgolf runs more than 100 venues with different local realities, and their VergeOS deployment delivers the same network and storage behavior across mixed gear. The team buys what ships in each region, keeps the schedule, and avoids forklift work during expansions and acquisitions because control lives in software, not in a label on a faceplate. Retail, manufacturing, and entertainment groups report the same pattern as they source by region, integrate legacy lines, and still operate from a single playbook.

Why This Model Beats Single Vendor Networking

The network standardization myth promises simplicity but adds risk and cost at scale, while SDN returns control to software and opens hardware choice. Teams can also rethink the edge for ROBO sites and keep a central operational model that spans sites and vendors. VergeOS extends the benefits of SDN to compute and storage, enabling teams to exit VMware, retain more of the hardware they own, align purchases with local supply and pricing, and follow a ready path to private AI from the core to the edge under one platform.

Next Steps to Eliminating Single Vendor Networking