George Crump

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Organizations, from large retail chains to global entertainment brands, are starting to develop a multi-site VMware alternative strategy that can simplify operations, lower costs, and prepare for future workloads. Recent VMware licensing changes under Broadcom have driven many IT leaders to re-evaluate their entire infrastructure strategy, particularly for remote office/branch office (ROBO) and edge environments.

This post outlines how to build a sustainable multi-site VMware alternative strategy, the risks of replacing VMware with a point hypervisor, and what to look for in a platform that serves both edge and core data centers.

What is Multi-Site IT?

Multi-site IT refers to technology infrastructure that supports operations across multiple distinct locations under a single organization. These locations typically fall into three categories—branches, edge sites, and venues—each with unique requirements.

  • Branches are often smaller office locations or retail outlets that rely on centralized systems but still need local services for productivity.
  • Edge sites process data closer to where it’s generated, often to support real-time analytics or reduce latency, making them critical for workloads like AI inference, manufacturing control, or IoT.
  • Venues are specialized locations—such as entertainment centers, stadiums, or casinos—where local IT must support high volumes of customer interaction and transaction processing.
multi-site VMware alternative strategy

Across all three, core IT requirements include operational independence during WAN or cloud outages, centralized visibility and management, local performance for critical workloads, and integrated capabilities for networking, storage, and data protection.

Define Multi-Site VMware Alternative Requirements

Multi-site environments differ from centralized data centers. Before selecting a VMware alternative, define the following:

multi-site VMware alternative strategy
  • Operational Independence: Each site must operate without WAN or cloud connectivity. This protects mission-critical services like POS, manufacturing controls, and local databases during outages.
  • Remote Management: Centralized administration is vital. Choose a platform that allows monitoring, updates, and troubleshooting without on-site staff.
  • Consistent Architecture: The same software stack should work for both a two-node edge site and a 50-node core data center.
  • Hardware Flexibility: Avoid proprietary hardware requirements. Standard x86 support keeps sourcing flexible.
  • Built-in Resilience: Integrated backup, replication, and recovery eliminate the need for separate tools.

Is the Cloud a Multi-Site VMware Alternative?

Some will look to the cloud as a multi-site VMware alternative strategy. While attractive for scalability, it still depends on continuous connectivity. WAN disruptions can cut off site operations, leaving staff idle and customers frustrated. Over time, “renting” cloud infrastructure often costs more than owning on-premises systems, especially when you factor in ongoing bandwidth charges.

Evaluate Total Cost Impact

When creating a multi-site VMware alternative strategy, look beyond hypervisor licensing.

  • Software Licensing: Favor predictable per-node pricing that doesn’t penalize dense hardware.
  • Hardware Costs: Watch for enforced minimum node counts. Many sites operate well on two or three nodes.
  • Third-Party Tool Elimination: The right platform replaces backup, DR, and monitoring tools.
  • Operational Expenses: Fewer platforms mean less training and less time spent on maintenance.

What to Look For in a Multi-Site VMware Alternative

A practical multi-site VMware alternative strategy should deliver more than just virtualization:

  • Collapsed Stack: Integrate storage, virtualization, networking, and even client-consumable AI into one software platform.
  • Full Edge-to-Core Functionality: The same feature set should be available at small and large sites.
  • Centralized Visibility: A single-pane-of-glass interface for monitoring all sites.
  • Fleet Management: Automated, non-disruptive upgrades during limited maintenance windows; high-level GUI overview of the entire estate.
  • Advanced Networking: Integrated SDN for secure site-to-site connectivity, segmentation, and traffic optimization.
  • Integrated Data Protection: Built-in snapshots, replication, and backup workflows without third-party software.
  • AI Readiness: Support GPU workloads for AI at both the edge and the core.
  • Automation and Integration: Terraform and API-first design for IaC and DevOps workflows.
  • Migration Capabilities: Native tools for smooth VMware workload migration with minimal downtime.

Test the Multi-Site VMware Alternative in Real-World Conditions

Lab results can be misleading. Your evaluation should include:

  • Multi-Site Simulation: Replicate site configurations and WAN conditions.
  • Migration Testing: Validate performance, compatibility, and ease of workload migration.
  • Failure Testing: Confirm operations continue during outages.
  • Centralized Management Validation: Ensure remote monitoring and updates work across all sites.
  • Operational Workflow Testing: Verify backup, restore, and replication without additional tools.

Risks of Delaying or Choosing a Point Hypervisor

Delaying development of a multi-site VMware alternative strategy increases the risk of rising costs and unplanned disruptions. Simply swapping VMware for another hypervisor without rethinking the stack can lead to:

  • Ongoing dependence on multiple vendors
  • Complexity from integrating separate storage, networking, and backup solutions
  • Missed opportunities for cost savings and operational improvements

A Multi-Site VMware Alternative Example: VergeOS

VergeOS is one example of a platform built for distributed environments and can be the backbone of a multi-site VMware alternative strategy. It provides:

multi-site VMware alternative strategy
  • Single Software Stack: Virtualization, storage, networking, and data protection in one code base.
  • Sites Dashboard: Centralized, high-level management of hundreds of sites.
  • Integrated Migration (ioMigrate): VMware workload migration without separate tools.
  • Global Inline Deduplication: WAN-aware storage optimization.
  • Integrated AI (VergeIQ): AI-ready infrastructure for both edge and core.
  • Hardware Agnostic: Runs on standard x86 servers from multiple vendors.

For a real-world example, see Topgolf is Choosing VergeOS, where over 100 venues transitioned from VMware to VergeOS, reducing node counts, cutting costs, and simplifying operations.

Next Steps

If you’re creating a multi-site VMware alternative strategy:

  • Document current and future requirements
  • Identify opportunities to collapse and simplify your stack
  • Select a platform that delivers consistent capability from edge to core
  • Test under realistic operating conditions
  • Download our white paper: “A Comprehensive Guide to a VMware Exit for Multi-Site Organizations”

To hear directly from IT leaders who have done it, register for the Infrastructure Tee-Off Webinar, where Topgolf’s infrastructure team will discuss their migration from VMware to VergeOS. For more insights, read Rethinking ROBO and Edge from StorageSwiss.

Filed Under: Edge Computing Tagged With: ,

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In his recent blog, “Edge AI and IoT: AI’s Hidden Infrastructure Problem”, Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor) explains why edge AI fails. The low success rate is not due to the models themselves. It is due to the fragmented layers of firmware, drivers, and operating environments that underlie them. As Townsend points out, this infrastructure stack creates complexity, spread across diverse hardware at multiple sites. It leads to an operational environment where drift is inevitable, upgrades are inconsistent, and performance is unpredictable. Without a disciplined approach to managing these stacks, edge AI pilot projects rarely transition into stable, scalable production deployments.

VergeIQ, Private AI for Core Data Centers and the Edge

That’s the exact problem VergeIQ is built to solve. VergeIQ is a private, enterprise-class service that provides a complete AI pipeline. It delivers everything from data ingestion and preparation to model training, inference, and lifecycle management.

VergeIQ is embedded directly into VergeOS. It benefits from an infrastructure platform that integrates virtualization, storage, networking, and now AI into a single, cohesive operating environment. It eliminates the multiple, disconnected layers that create drift and operational friction. This unified design allows AI workloads to operate in the same secure, version-controlled environment as other critical enterprise applications.

Edge AI Requires Centralized, Integrated Infrastructure

In VergeOS, AI is a service, like file services: you simply turn it on. There’s no need to provision VMs, deploy containers, or manage separate orchestration layers.

Because AI capabilities are native to VergeOS, IT can provision Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) as siloed AI environments. Each VDC operates with its own isolated compute, storage, and networking resources. The AI “service” can be assigned to whichever VDCs need it. VDCs enable predictable AI performance and security without interfering with other workloads.

Lack of single point of management is one reason why edge AI fails

At the recent Future of Memory and Storage (formerly Flash Memory Summit) event, the VergeOS architecture enabled us to set up three separate AI environments in under an hour. This install time included physical setup, power-on, and connectivity verification. These environments ran as private, self-contained edge AI deployments, without relying on the show’s network. The result is an operational model where AI deployments are as fast to launch as they are secure and repeatable.

Real-Time Inventory and Observability

One of the reasons edge AI fails is that IT struggles to maintain accurate visibility into what is running where. Unknown infrastructure stacks are unmanageable, and without complete telemetry, infrastructure teams are blind to drift until it causes failures. VergeOS addresses this problem with ioMetrics. It captures real-time data about hardware configurations, firmware and driver versions, and operating system builds. This comprehensive view enables the immediate detection of deviations, ensuring that every edge environment remains in a known, validated state.

For organizations managing dozens—or even hundreds—of remote AI deployments, VergeOS’s Sites Dashboard extends that visibility into operational control. Sites Dashboard provides a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all VergeOS-powered edge locations in real-time. Platform teams can apply updates, adjust configurations, enforce security policies, and spin up or tear down environments across the entire deployment footprint without needing to send personnel on-site.

Edge AI Requires Secure, Unified Deployment

Security is another reason why edge AI fails. At the edge, physical access to devices and diverse deployment locations create an expanded attack surface. VergeIQ enforces secure boot processes, validates firmware integrity, and uses signed binaries for all components in the infrastructure stack. Each VDC is treated as an immutable artifact that has been validated in staging before being rolled out to production. If an update introduces instability, built-in rollback capabilities allow teams to revert to a known good state with minimal disruption. Because VergeOS integrates AI, it eliminates the need for separate orchestration layers or container clusters. The result is faster time-to-value and a reduced operational burden for platform teams.

Edge AI Requires Vendor-Neutral Acceleration

A common trade-off in edge AI is the choice between predictability and portability. Vendor-integrated stacks, such as those tied to a specific GPU vendor, can simplify lifecycle management. However, they introduce long-term lock-in, creating another reason why edge AI fails. VergeIQ supports heterogeneous accelerators, including NVIDIA, AMD, and other specialized processors—without compromising the ability to manage them consistently. Resource orchestration, clustering, and pooling are handled by VergeOS, allowing AI workloads to run optimally across almost any hardware mix. VergeOS flexibility enables organizations to design hardware strategies that align with business needs, rather than adhering to the vendor’s roadmap.

Abstraction Without Losing Control

Hardware standardization is not always possible in edge environments. The edge must adapt to local constraints, legacy equipment, or specific workload requirements. VergeIQ provides a uniform abstraction layer over diverse hardware, ensuring that AI behaves predictably regardless of the underlying platform. This is not an abstraction for its own sake. It is grounded in a lifecycle-managed infrastructure stack that is versioned, tested, and enforced across the entire deployment footprint. By controlling the infrastructure stack while abstracting its differences, VergeIQ enables both operational consistency and hardware flexibility. StorageSwiss explores the value of this kind of integrated approach to infrastructure in its article, “Why Hyperconverged Infrastructure Needs More Than Just Compute and Storage.”

Why VergeIQ Delivers Where Others Struggle

VergeIQ embodies the principle that infrastructure discipline must come before orchestration. By unifying AI workloads with the same Infrastructure Platform that runs enterprise applications, IT:

  • Standardizes and collapses the infrastructure stack
  • Maintains real-time observability
  • Secures the entire lifecycle
  • Enables portable acceleration strategies

These outcomes transform edge AI from a fragile, site-by-site experiment into a predictable, centrally managed platform that can scale without operational chaos.

See VergeIQ in action.
Join our webinar, “Introducing VergeIQ – Enterprise AI Infrastructure”, to learn how you can simplify, secure, and scale your AI deployments from edge to core.
Register here.

Filed Under: AI Tagged With: , ,

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ANN ARBOR, MI – August 5, 2025 – VergeIO, the Ultraconverged Infrastructure company, today announced that Topgolf, the global sports entertainment leader, has standardized on VergeOS to modernize its IT infrastructure across all Topgolf offices, data centers, and  venue edge data centers. The selection followed a rigorous evaluation process triggered by escalating costs and complexity from VMware’s licensing model under Broadcom ownership.

Topgolf is a global sports entertainment company and a subsidiary of Topgolf Callaway Brands (NYSE: MODG), operating over 100 high-tech venues across the United States and worldwide, including locations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Each venue offers an interactive golf gaming experience that blends physical gameplay with digital analytics. Players use real golf clubs and balls embedded with RFID, aiming at a field of electronically monitored targets. Toptracer technology visually tracks every shot in real-time, while advanced analytics systems power extended reality games and provide performance insights. These venues are social destinations, offering climate-controlled hitting bays, a full-service bar, dining options, and private event spaces.

Topgolf is replacing a sprawling VMware deployment on Dell VxRail with a leaner, more efficient three-node architecture per site, thanks to VergeOS’ increased efficiency. The company is eliminating third-party backup software and hardware after validating VergeOS’ built-in data protection capabilities, including ioClone, ioGuardian, and ioReplicate. Read the detailed case study here.

“At Topgolf, technology is the heart of our player experience, that’s how we deliver value,” said Scott Forehand, Manager of Global Infrastructure at Topgolf. “VergeOS gives us the control, flexibility, and resilience we need at every venue—and in VergeIO, we found a partner that understands how we operate and what we need to move fast.”

Topgolf is managing its entire environment—venues and data center alike—using VergeOS Site Manager and Virtual Data Centers (VDCs). The architecture supports tenant-level isolation, real-time observability, and rapid upgrades across time zones without impacting venue operations. VergeOS’ API-first design has enabled Topgolf to automate infrastructure tasks, including deployment, maintenance, and power-loss recovery processes that previously required 30–45 minutes of manual effort per site.

“This is what we built VergeOS for,” said Greg Campbell, Founder and CTO of VergeIO. “When you’re managing hundreds of locations, each with real-time workloads and high uptime requirements, you can’t rely on legacy stacks that were designed for centralized enterprise IT. VergeOS gives organizations like Topgolf a unified, automated, and resilient platform from core to edge—without compromise.”

By consolidating hypervisor, storage, networking, data protection, and management into a single platform, VergeOS is helping Topgolf reduce infrastructure costs. Topgolf will realize significant annualized savings by moving to VergeOS, while increasing operational agility and preparing for future AI-driven experiences with VergeIQ.

To learn more, register here for the VergeIO/Topgolf webinar on 8/14 at 1:00 pm ET.

For more information, visit www.verge.io or contact [email protected].

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

Filed Under: Press Release

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To exit VMware, Topgolf is choosing VergeOS across more than 100 venues and its central data center. The company is replacing a mix of VMware software, vxRail hardware, and third-party backup with a single, integrated platform.

Each venue now runs a three-node VergeOS cluster. The infrastructure supports Kubernetes-based services, camera systems, real-time analytics, and venue-specific compliance workloads. VergeOS provides Topgolf with a repeatable design that runs consistently at every site, eliminating the need for multiple point products.

Why Topgolf Moved Away from VMware

The decision started with licensing. After Broadcom acquired VMware, Topgolf saw projected costs increase by 400%. Even with negotiation, the savings weren’t enough to rebuild trust in the platform. Changes to licensing terms, feature bundling, and support made future planning unpredictable.

Instead of waiting for more confusion, the team evaluated alternatives. VergeIO stood out for its simplicity and control. The team needed software they could operate without licensing constraints or hardware lock-in. VergeOS delivered that.

Migration Experience

Topgolf executes the migration to VergeOS with minimal disruption using ioMigrate. Each site follows a repeatable process that allows the team to move from VMware to VergeOS, perform upgrades, and validate functionality within a few hours.

One venue was scheduled for migration the night before an unplanned board visit. The site went live on VergeOS ahead of schedule. The following morning, the board meeting took place as planned—with no awareness that a complete platform transition had occurred the night before.

Topgolf is Choosing VergeOS

This confirmed that VergeOS could meet operational demands without requiring venue downtime. Based on this result, the team is proceeding confidently with phased rollouts across all other sites.

Every Topgolf venue runs independently. VergeOS handles all core infrastructure functions—virtualization, storage, networking, snapshots, replication, and more. Topgolf doesn’t rely on a WAN link or central controller to keep a location online. That matters when the business runs from 9 a.m. to midnight and can’t afford downtime.

Venue Deployment at Scale

The VergeOS deployment strategy includes more than 100 three-node clusters. Topgolf is replacing 6-node vxRail appliances and separate backup infrastructure with leaner 3-node configurations, utilizing standard Dell servers that offer improved performance and lower costs. VergeOS’s deduplication and resource efficiency allowed them to downsize nodes without sacrificing performance.

Operational Simplicity and Resilience

The IT team uses VergeOS Site Manager to control operations across all venues and their central data center. They organized deployments into three tenets—East, Central, and West—corresponding to the respective time zones. This design supports regional upgrades, backups, and disaster recovery without overlapping maintenance windows.

Topgolf is choosing VergeOS

For data protection, the company replaced Rubrik with VergeOS’s built-in data protection. VergeOS uses ioClone for snapshots, ioGuardian for data repair and enhanced resiliency, and ioReplicate for near real-time DR across tenants. These features are integrated into the core platform and do not require add-ons or separate licenses.

Topgolf leveraged ioMetrics and its Terraform provider to build automated recovery workflows using VergeOS’s API. If a venue loses power, the system shuts down workloads within 15 minutes. That entire sequence used to take up to 45 minutes of manual intervention per site. When power returns, VergeOS automatically restarts operations and posts a Slack notification to the operations team.

VergeOS Deduplication: A Fundamentally Different Approach

VergeOS’ Global Inline Deduplication is a stand-out capability for Topgolf, demonstrating unique capabilities versus competing solutions. It is fundamentally different from traditional solutions because deduplication is not an afterthought but a foundational component of the entire infrastructure. Rather than being a bolt-on feature, deduplication is an integral part of the storage fabric itself, utilizing the same metadata for both deduplication and file system management, resulting in negligible overhead. This integration enables customers to use it without impacting performance while enjoying one of the industry’s best deduplication ratios.

VergeOS’s Global Deduplication is set apart by its global scope and infrastructure awareness. The hypervisor and networking are fully aware of deduplication, allowing data across all components to be deduplicated once for the entire infrastructure, unlike traditional solutions that work at the storage layer. The global capabilities ensure that no data is sent over the WAN more than once, making it ideal for multi-site deployments while achieving 4:1 or greater deduplication ratios and providing unique benefits, such as ransomware detection through data pattern analysis.

Improvements to the Player Experience

Players don’t see infrastructure, but they notice when it fails. VergeOS has enabled Topgolf to reduce recovery times, eliminate disruptions during upgrades, and keep local applications online even when a fiber cut occurs.

Faster restarts and uninterrupted venue availability directly support a smoother guest experience. This becomes particularly critical when venues host events, run tournaments, or handle high guest volumes.

The team plans to use VergeIQ, VergeIO’s integrated AI platform, for real-time player analytics and swing classification. The infrastructure is in place with GPU-equipped nodes at the central data center. These capabilities will enable Topgolf to build new guest features without requiring data to be moved to the cloud.

Cost, Scale, and Control

Topgolf expects to achieve significant annual savings by eliminating VMware, Rubrik, and vXrail. But cost wasn’t the only goal. The VergeOS deployment provides them with better operational control, a consistent platform across locations, and the flexibility to run future workloads where they make the most sense—either on-site or in the core.

VergeOS provides Topgolf with a platform that aligns with their business model: repeatable, efficient, and capable of running anywhere.

Filed Under: VMwareExit Tagged With: , ,

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Advanced Data Resilience

An advanced data resilience strategy is crucial when evaluating alternatives to VMware. As organizations begin their research, they encounter many hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. However, legitimate HCI performance and resilience concerns arise, leading many to hesitate about leaving familiar All-Flash Arrays (AFAs) and traditional three-tier architectures.

The VergeOS white paper, “Solving the HCI High-Performance Problem,” addresses these performance issues. This article focuses on advanced data resilience, detailing how VergeOS resolves common HCI resiliency limitations, enabling organizations to confidently transition away from traditional architectures and AFAs.

Executive Summary – Advanced Data Resilience

VergeOS provides a sophisticated and comprehensive advanced data resilience architecture designed to outperform traditional All-Flash Array (AFA) and Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions. Its multi-layered design includes synchronous replication, High Availability (HA) clustering, ioGuardian fault tolerance, and ioClone snapshot technology, ensuring continuous operations and superior resilience even during severe hardware failures. This technical brief details how VergeOS’s integrated solutions deliver exceptional reliability, backed by compelling real-world use cases and measurable customer outcomes.

Attend our upcoming webinar, How to Replace Your AFA, where we will cover all aspects of VMware and AFA replacement, including migration, performance, and data resiliency.

Advanced Data Resilience Foundation: Drive Protection

Architecture Overview

VergeOS implements synchronous replication to ensure immediate redundancy of data across all cluster nodes. Write operations are confirmed only after successfully synchronizing with all replicas, maintaining strict data consistency and preventing data loss, a significant advancement over traditional RAID systems. This replication occurs in real-time and utilizes global inline deduplication, minimizing storage overhead and network bandwidth requirements. Unlike traditional RAID controllers and external arrays, VergeOS’s replication mechanism efficiently mirrors only unique data segments, enhancing performance and simplifying storage management.

Operational Mechanics of Advanced Data Resilience

When a drive failure occurs, virtual machines (VMs) continue running without interruption on their original hosts. VergeOS employs advanced network protocols that transparently retrieve mirrored data from healthy cluster nodes, ensuring uninterrupted operations without performance degradation.

Advanced Data Resilience: Continuity

Failover Architecture

VergeOS’s HA clustering ensures that complete server node failures do not lead to service interruptions. In the event of a full node outage, affected virtual machines automatically migrate to healthy cluster nodes. This migration leverages already synchronized data replicas, ensuring immediate data availability and continuous service operation.

Advanced Data Resilience AND Rapid Recovery

Rigorous production environment testing demonstrates VergeOS’s capability to recover from a full server node failure within approximately 90 seconds, including a complete VM restart. Rapid recovery is achievable due to pre-existing data mirrors and streamlined failover mechanisms, outperforming traditional SAN and AFA systems, which typically experience longer downtime periods.

Intelligent Resource Orchestration

HA clustering in VergeOS features intelligent orchestration that selects the optimal target host based on current resource availability. This automated and dynamic resource allocation prevents contention, maintains high performance levels, and guarantees consistent service delivery during and after failover events.

Advanced Data Resilience: N+X Protection

Superior Multi-Fault Protection

ioGuardian technology sets VergeOS apart by maintaining continuous data access even when experiencing simultaneous failures across multiple drives and nodes. This advanced fault-tolerant mechanism surpasses the redundancy provided by traditional AFAs and competitive hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platforms, ensuring superior reliability in catastrophic failure scenarios.

Continuous Operation in Extreme Scenarios Delivers Advanced Data Resilience

ioGuardian ensures continuous VM operation even during severe hardware failures. It creates an independent, third copy of data stored on a separate VergeOS server(s), external to the primary production environment. When the production environment experiences multiple simultaneous node or drive failures, the ioGuardian server provides data fragments to instantly reconstruct any required data in real-time. This capability enables uninterrupted VM access, eliminating downtime or noticeable degradation during extreme failure conditions.

Technical Implementation

The ioGuardian architecture includes an external VergeOS instance that stores an independent third-party data replica. Advanced algorithms within the primary VergeOS environment dynamically leverage this external copy. As long as at least one node remains active in the production cluster, ioGuardian reconstructs and delivers necessary data fragments instantly and transparently. This design ensures continuous VM availability and operational integrity, exceeding the fault tolerance capabilities of traditional AFAs or HCI solutions.

Advanced Data Resilience: Recovery

Storage-Layer Snapshots

VergeOS’s ioClone technology provides instant snapshot capabilities directly at the storage layer without impacting the performance of running applications. Unlike traditional snapshot approaches that rely on incremental data chains or external backup systems, ioClone provides immediate, independent, and reliable recovery points.

Space-Efficient Retention

Global inline deduplication enables ioClone to store snapshots efficiently, using minimal storage resources. This efficiency allows organizations to maintain unlimited snapshots over extended periods, addressing the retention challenges and storage constraints commonly associated with traditional snapshot technologies.

Granular and Rapid Recovery

ioClone facilitates recovery at multiple granular levels—individual files, full virtual machines, or entire Virtual Data Centers (VDCs). Recovery operations complete in seconds, dramatically enhancing operational agility and ensuring compliance with rigorous data protection and recovery requirements.

Advanced Data Resilience: Networking

Eliminating Data Locality Limitations

VergeOS uses an optimized internode networking protocol designed to accelerate data transfer between cluster nodes. Unlike traditional architectures dependent on data locality, VergeOS retrieves data across nodes rapidly and efficiently. VergeOS’s deduplication engine, as it is available to the entire infrastructure, reduces network traffic by 60-80%, thereby lowering bandwidth demands and maintaining optimal performance even during fault conditions. The combination of the network protocol and data efficiency is critical in high-performance and data-intensive environments.

Accelerating Synchronous Replication and ioGuardian

The optimized networking protocol powers VergeOS’s synchronous replication and ioGuardian technologies. Synchronous replication instantly mirrors data, thanks to fast communication between nodes. Similarly, ioGuardian leverages rapid cross-node data retrieval to reconstruct data fragments instantly, providing continuous access during severe failure scenarios.

Technical Advantages

The efficiency of VergeOS internode communication results in sub-millisecond latency during cross-node data access. Extensive testing demonstrates consistent performance that exceeds that of traditional SAN or HCI solutions. This capability enhances system responsiveness, reliability, and advanced data resilience, allowing IT teams to confidently eliminate data locality constraints from infrastructure design.

Conclusion

VergeOS’s integrated, multi-layered, advanced data resilience approach delivers superior data protection, operational resilience, and infrastructure simplification. By combining synchronous replication, High Availability clustering, ioGuardian fault tolerance, and ioClone snapshot capabilities, organizations can confidently transition from traditional AFA solutions, avoiding the AFA tax, to VergeOS. For a deeper dive into these topics, register for our “Data Availability Analysis” white paper.

Filed Under: Storage Tagged With: , , , ,

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The VergeIO + Solidigm AFA Replacement Kit is designed for IT teams looking for an AFA Alternative that doesn’t compromise on performance or data resiliency. It combines your existing servers with VergeOS and Solidigm’s NVMe SSDs to create a powerful, server-based storage fabric. The result is a simpler, faster, and more cost-effective solution than traditional SANs and hyperconverged stacks.

The Value of an AFA Alternative

The AFA Replacement Kit is available through VergeIO authorized resellers. It includes VergeOS and Solidigm SSDs packaged together to deliver better value than purchasing each component independently. More importantly, it’s designed to remove the guesswork from SAN replacement projects by providing the right software and hardware combination.

VergeOS—a unified platform for virtualization, storage, AI, and networking — is licensed per server. That means no variable pricing based on features, storage capacity, cores, or the number of virtual machines. The pricing model is easy to understand, easy to forecast, and built to scale.

An AFA Alternative with a VMware Exit

Many organizations considering an all-flash array refresh are also rethinking their hypervisor strategy. The Broadcom acquisition of VMware has disrupted licensing models, partner relationships, and confidence in the long-term roadmap. For IT teams planning a storage upgrade, this presents an opportunity to address two problems simultaneously.

The VergeIO + Solidigm AFA Replacement Kit offers a clear path to exit both the SAN and VMware platforms. VergeOS replaces the hypervisor, SAN, and backup layers with a single software-defined environment. There is no need to manage new licensing agreements, convert workloads to different file formats, or purchase additional software for storage functionality.

Organizations can shift away from VMware while upgrading storage at the same time. The combined result is a simplified architecture, predictable cost structure, and more control over future infrastructure decisions. Our customers consistently report a 5X to 10X cost savings.

An AFA Alternative with a VMware Exit

An AFA Alternative With a Unified Architecture

VergeOS eliminates the traditional boundaries between compute, storage, and networking. Each node in the cluster can be assigned to compute, storage, or both. The architecture adapts to the environment, whether it’s a compact edge deployment or a multi-rack data center.

Data is mirrored across nodes at the disk level. There’s no need for RAID controllers, external failover scripts, or layered cluster software. VergeOS handles availability natively, because it’s built into the core of the platform.

The system supports a variety of drive types and endurance levels. Administrators can use Solidigm TLC and QLC drives in the same environment, assign tiers, and migrate VMs between them without interruption. This flexibility enables easy alignment of storage costs with performance requirements.

Deployments scale without reconfiguration. A two-node edge cluster and a 200-node private cloud run on the same software, managed from the same interface. VergeIO’s integrated Site Manager enables the single-pane-of-glass management of hundreds of sites.

An AFA Alternative with Seamless Migration

Every AFA Replacement Kit includes ioMigrate, VergeIO’s built-in tool for moving workloads from VMware environments to VergeOS. The process is straightforward and does not require specialized migration services or complex conversions.

Step 1: Install Solidigm Drives
Install Solidigm NVMe SSDs into existing servers or newly added storage nodes. VergeOS recognizes and provisions the capacity immediately. Storage-dense nodes can be added where needed, and compute nodes or GPU nodes can access that storage across the cluster.

Step 2: Migrate with ioMigrate
ioMigrate uses VMware’s Backup API to extract virtual machines from the existing SAN through VMware. The data is written directly to VergeOS, now running on Solidigm flash. There is no conversion process or downtime during the initial migration. Virtual machines run natively on VergeOS once the data is in place.

Step 3: Final Sync and Cutover
Once workloads are validated on VergeOS, ioMigrate performs a final sync using VMware’s changed block tracking (CBT). CBT ensures that only modified data is transferred. The legacy SAN can then be decommissioned or repurposed for archival or backup use.

An AFA Alternative with Broad Workload Support

VergeOS is designed to run the types of workloads commonly found in data centers. This includes:

  • Windows Server and Linux
  • SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other databases
  • Domain services like Active Directory, DNS, and DHCP
  • File services and print servers
  • VDI platforms
  • AI and machine learning workloads running on GPU-enabled nodes

While VergeOS is not designed for bare-metal workloads, many organizations find that applications previously run on physical servers perform better once virtualized within VergeOS. The platform’s tight integration and high-performance storage eliminate many of the bottlenecks that previously limited virtualized performance.

An AFA Alternative: Built-In Data Protection

VergeOS includes a complete set of tools for availability, data protection, and disaster recovery—built into the platform, not bolted on afterward.

ioClone enables space-efficient snapshots at the virtual machine or disk level. Clones are created instantly and can be used for rollback, backup, or testing. There is no penalty for frequent snapshots.

An AFA Alternative with built in data protection

ioGuardian manages real-time data availability. When a node or drive fails, it triggers immediate failover using mirrored data from healthy nodes. If failures exceed mirror protection—such as multiple simultaneous node or drive failures—ioGuardian maintains availability using distributed object awareness. This capability exceeds what three- or four-way mirroring systems can typically recover from.

Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) enable administrators to logically and securely segment environments. VDCs contain their own compute, storage, and networking configurations, making them ideal for multi-tenant environments, departmental isolation, or testing and development.

ioReplicate enables asynchronous replication between VergeOS clusters. Replication can be scheduled, targeted by VM or VDC, and used for point-in-time recovery or to test failover without interrupting production.

Unified is Better Than HCI

Companies like Nutanix offer hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) as an alternative to AFA, but these platforms layer storage on top of an existing hypervisor as a separate virtual machine. This “stack” adds overhead and complexity—and leaves customers managing multiple control planes.

VergeOS does not create a stack; it flattens it. The hypervisor, storage system, and data protection services are all part of a single codebase. That means better performance, easier upgrades, and fewer moving parts.

An AFA Alternative that is efficient and performs as well as a dedicated AFA

To learn more about how VergeOS compares to other HCI architectures, watch our on-demand webinar “Comparing vSAN Alternatives.”

Ideal Use Cases for the AFA Replacement Kit

The AFA Replacement Kit fits best in organizations that:

  • Are replacing aging SAN infrastructure
  • Want to reduce cost (by 10X) without reducing availability
  • Are planning a VMware exit and need storage continuity
  • Want to simplify management and reduce dependency on multiple vendors
  • Prefer to extend the life of existing hardware instead of investing in new appliances

Not Another Storage Silo

This program is not a hardware launch. VergeIO is not entering the storage array market. The AFA Replacement Kit is designed to help customers utilize existing or off-the-shelf servers, eliminating the need for an external SAN without requiring the replacement of another standalone product.

There are no controllers, no shared chassis, and no fixed hardware configurations. Customers build the environment they need, using the servers they own.

Summary: A Purpose-Built Replacement

The VergeIO + Solidigm AFA Replacement Kit is a comprehensive AFA replacement that uses your existing servers to deliver enhanced control, improved performance, and a VMware exit, all while offering lower costs, with fewer hardware components and fewer moving parts.

It works because it’s built from the ground up to do what the modern data center requires—and nothing it doesn’t.

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