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Virtualization

The Four Don’ts of a VMware Exit

March 22, 2023 by George Crump Leave a Comment

Don’t Make these VMware Exit Mistakes

The industry is full of advice on things you should do when considering a VMware alternative, but did you know there are four don’ts of a VMware exit? Accepting a vendor’s excuse for why you must do these “don’ts” can lead to higher costs, unsuccessful conversion, and a premature infrastructure refresh.

The Four Don’ts of a VMware Exit are:

  1. Don’t Focus on the Price
  2. Don’t Buy or Borrow Hardware
  3. Don’t Run a Proof of Concept
  4. Don’t Validate with Creampuff Use Cases

1. Don’t Focus on the Price of a VMware Exit

Of course, you should look at the price of the potential VMware alternative. Our suggestion, though, is don’t look solely at the price but also to ensure the product will take you forward in terms of capabilities. The solution should be less expensive than VMware and deliver measurably better efficiency, performance, scalability, and data protection capabilities. Make sure you look at both the return on investment and the total cost of ownership as part of your VMware Exit.

2. Don’t Buy New Hardware when you Exit VMware

The Four Don'ts of a VMware Exit. Don't buy new hardware!
Buying New Hardware Increases
the Cost of a VMware Exit

The second don’t of a VMware exit relates to hardware. If the VMware alternative you are considering can’t run on your existing hardware, stop looking and move to the next candidate. You bought into the software-defined data center (SDDC) for this exact scenario, so you can switch software solutions while continuing to use your current hardware assets. Forcing you to buy new hardware means the potential new vendor takes shortcuts and depends on specific hardware features or capabilities. Not only does this mean a higher upfront cost it also means you are guaranteed to face future infrastructure refreshes.

3. Don’t Run a Proof of Concept when you Exit VMware

Not running a proof of concept (POC) may sound a little crazy, and we do not suggest you skip testing the potential VMware alternative. A proof of concept is not enough. The third don’t of a VMware exit acknowledges you can’t, in 30 days, test every aspect of a new platform that you hope will replace a platform you have been running for over a decade!

Run a proof of concept but then look for a use case where you can use the product for months and stress the potential solution through its paces. And look for a vendor that is patient enough for you to run just this use case for a few months.

4. Don’t Validate with a Creampuff Use Case

The workloads you will run in the environment after the proof of concept begin the validation phase of the potential VMware alternative. The fourth and final don’ts of a VMware exit is not to validate with “creampuff” use cases. These are use cases that won’t stress the new environment. Nobody cares if they fail, and creampuff use cases won’t force you to test the quality of technical support. Indeed, it is OK to have a few creampuff use cases when you start the validation phase, but as you progress into the heat of the phase, look to run a process or workload critical to the enterprise without impacting day-to-day operations.

An ideal use case is disaster recovery (DR). It is critical to the organization, but if something goes wrong, it won’t impact day-to-day operations. DR also puts a significant load on the potential alternative. It has to receive all the data from your VMware environment continuously. Then when you perform DR tests, you are running entire instances of your workloads with the latest copies of data. DR stresses each element of a potential VMware alternative, including storage and networking. If the solution can pass the DR test both in terms of functionality and usability, you’ve gone a long way toward validating it for replacing VMware in production.

VergeOS Does Enable a Seamless VMware Exit

VergeOS is less expensive than VMware and other VMware Alternatives. Most of our customers find it reduces their licensing costs by more than 50%. These cost savings do not come at the expense of capabilities. VergeOS delivers better performance and capabilities than VMware while also being more resilient and easier to manage.

VergeOS runs on your existing hardware and breathes new life into your existing hardware, enabling you to consolidate more workloads on fewer nodes. Running more workloads on the same hardware significantly reduces total ownership costs. VergeOS’ hardware flexibility makes VergeOS easy to run through a proof of concept, enabling you to move quickly into the validation phase. Provide VergeIO with two or three spare servers, install the software, migrate a few workloads, and begin testing. Most customers can start their POCs within an hour of downloading the software.

The Four Don'ts of a VMware Exit
IOmigrate provides a Seamless VMware Exit to VergeOS

The cost-effectiveness of VergeOS makes it realistic to run the validation phase for months before committing fully to it. And you don’t have to run creampuff use cases! VergeOS has integrated capabilities to enable you to use the solution as a disaster recovery site for your VMware environment. Not only does this give you the ability to run the software in a stressful environment it also enables you to experience the VergeOS cost savings almost immediately. Most of our customers find they can reduce the licensing costs of their DR site by more than 60% and include more workloads in the DR process, all without requiring additional hardware.

Next Steps

  • Watch: One-Slide Webinar and Demonstration of a VMware Migration
  • Read: Our Digital Learning Guide, “How to Develop a VMware Strategy”
  • Schedule: A technical whiteboard session personalized for your environment

Filed Under: Blog, Virtualization Tagged With: Alternative, ROI, VMware

How to Create a VMware Migration Test

March 15, 2023 by George Crump Leave a Comment

Replacing infrastructure is a serious project, and if you are looking for alternatives to VMware, you may be looking for advice on how to create a VMware migration test plan. You want to ensure that whatever platform you transition to can deliver the enterprise capabilities your organization needs, can scale to meet your future requirements and has the highest quality of technical support.

Creating a VMware Migration Test Environment

Because of the project’s seriousness, you’ll want to set up a test environment to ensure that whatever you convert to will be compatible with your applications, performs well, and is easy to operate. One of the more challenging aspects of creating a test environment is finding or acquiring hardware to load the software for the new platform. Suppose the vendor insists on a specific hardware type or configuration or insists on selling you new hardware. In that case, creating a test environment is even more challenging because you now have to wait for the vendor to send you the hardware and get it installed and configured.

If the potential new vendor offers to install everything for you or offers to have you test your software in their labs, turn it down. You are going to live with this investment for a long time. You need to have the confidence that you can install it.

VergeOS Makes Testing Easy

Creating an environment to test your VMware Migration Plan is easy with VergeOS. The software integrates the hypervisor, storage, and network into a common code base. Storage and networking are not standalone components, nor are they virtual machines of the hypervisor. They are equal citizens. The integration is critical because it allows you to run VergeOS on almost any combination of hardware as long as it meets our modest minimum requirements. The integration also means that on your existing production hardware, you will experience better overall performance, enabling you to increase virtual machine density and potentially forgo the next round of server upgrades.

Once you create the physical test environment, the next step is creating something that looks like your production environment. Our advice here is not to use test simulators. While those simulators make VergeOS look spectacular, your workload is not FIO and ioMeter. The best way to understand how the new platform will work with your workloads is to load the latest copy of your workloads on them. Restoring data that is a few weeks old won’t do the job.

VergeOS Enables Production Data Testing

VergeOS’ IOmigrate solution lets you move copies of your VMware virtual machines (VM) in near real-time. You can also update those copies with the latest changes almost instantly. The solution is so seamless that you can even move a group of users to a specific workload and let them run on VergeOS for a few hours or days to see how it works under real-world conditions. In most cases, because of the efficiency of the integration, they will experience better performance, even with less powerful hardware.

VMware Migration Test is easy with IOmigrate

We’ll show you a live demonstration of IOmigrate during our one-slide webinar, “Break Free from VMware.”

Scaling VMware Migration Test

Most data centers will continue to see growth in the number of applications they support and ever-increasing demands for more storage IO performance and capacity. Testing scale can be challenging, and many customers resort to using load testing tools to place additional load on the system while applications are running.

VergeOS Solves Scaling VMware Migration Test

VergeOS has two capabilities that enable you to test how the environment will scale in the future accurately; virtual data centers and snapshots. In the same way that a virtual machine is an encapsulation of a server, a virtual data center is an encapsulation of an entire data center. It virtualizes all the aspects of a data center, including all the VMs, network settings, and storage configuration. Customers use these virtual data centers to segregate specific workloads and create tenants for customers or instances like testing, quality assurance, and development. You can read more about the power of Virtual Data Centers in our blog, “Beyond HCI.”

VDCs also have value in the testing process, thanks to our snapshots. You can snapshot an entire VDC. Imagine making instant copies of running workloads and assigning each instance to different users or automation. It is an accurate way to see how far you can scale the VergeOS environment.

A VMware Migration Test as Disaster Recovery

Most test environments are just that, test environments. You set them up, you run your tests, and you make your evaluation. But what if your test environment could do more?

VergeOS’ IOmigrate is so powerful that it can be a disaster recovery solution for your VMware environment. You can copy all your VMware virtual machines to VergeOS, even VMs you are not testing. The VMs you will test use our snapshot capabilities, so you can test those without interfering with your DR copy. IOmigrate is so powerful that you can make multiple copies of your VMs throughout the day to ensure you are always prepared.

In most cases, your test environment is not off-site, so that the test environment will be more suitable for protection against storage or server failure. Thanks to our immutable snapshot technology, it also makes an excellent ransomware protection and recovery solution. If you want to take that next step and replicate the test environment off-site, that is easy to set up with VergeOS.

Moving Your VMware Migration Test to Production

What if it all works? What if the test shows you can extend the life of existing hardware by another three or four years while also reducing software licensing costs? That is the fast ROI and low TCO promise of VergeOS. How do you cut over? If you’ve been following the steps above, you already have the latest version of your VMs on VergeOS, but they might need to be on the production hardware.

Our VDCs encapsulate the entire data center, and we can do a live migration of the entire data center in the same way VMware can migrate a VM. You can decommission one VMware server, join it to VergeOS, and shift VMs to that server freeing up other servers, which you can then decommission and join to VergeOS. Most of our customers can complete the conversion in less than a day, and if you want, VergeOS-certified IOintegrators can help you complete the task in record time.

Next Steps

  1. Demonstration: Join us live for a one-slide webinar and in-depth demonstration of a VMware to VergeOS migration.
  2. Read: About our VMware Exit Strategy program.
  3. Learn: How to Develop a VMware Exit Strategy. Build a complete plan using our tutorial series.

Filed Under: Blog, Virtualization Tagged With: VMware

The ROI of a VMware Exit

March 8, 2023 by George Crump Leave a Comment

The impending Broadcom acquisition, ever-increasing prices, and stalled innovation have many customers wondering how to calculate the ROI of a VMware Exit. There are several factors to consider when calculating the return on investment of a VMware Exit:

the ROI of a VMware Exit
  • What is the cost difference in software?
  • What additional hardware is required?
  • How much effort is there in conversion?
  • Are there any other residual savings?

The Software ROI of a VMware Exit

The primary motivation for looking for a VMware alternative is saving money, and the software license cost is at the top of the list. VMware pricing is both expensive and is increasing. Many VMware customers indicate that their renewal price will increase, and they fear that the renewal rate will increase further once the Broadcom acquisition is complete.

VMware pricing is also complex. There are multiple modules to purchase, and there are classifications within those modules based on the number of CPUs and cores in each node within the cluster. The documentation on the VMware site about licensing is rather lengthy, and each separate module (VSAN, NSX, etc…) needs a separate license. Determining the exact price of a VMware license is a challenge partly because of this complexity and partly because it seems each customer gets a different price.

VergeOS, an Affordable VMware Alternative

Even before the price increases and uncertainty of the Broadcom acquisition, customers were flocking to VergeOS because of its efficiency and simplicity. The VergeOS pricing model is simple. It is per node, regardless of each node’s number of processors, cores, RAM, or storage capacity. It typically is less than half the price of VMware. VergeIO also has a five-year price lock option, so not only is there a fast ROI, but there is also the added benefit of pricing stability.

The Hardware Required for a VMware Exit

Many vendors require you to buy new hardware as you make your VMware exit, even if the servers supporting the current environment are more than up to the task. They may need more powerful hardware to run their hypervisor, or they may not support the hardware you are using today, especially if it is more than a few years old. Buying new hardware significantly increases the time it takes to realize an ROI.


Most infrastructure software (hypervisor, storage, and network) is inefficient. These solutions convert the stacks to software but layer them on top of each other instead of integrating them into a singular code base. The layering only increases their inefficiency and complexity.

VergeOS, A Model of Efficiency

VergeOS completely integrates the infrastructure rotating it 90° into a single linear plane. The tight, efficient code base can abstract more performance and capacity from the existing server hardware. Once switching to VergeOS, most organizations can, using the same hardware, increase the number of workloads and even virtualize workloads previously deemed bare-metal-only.

the ROI of a VMware Exit

Leveraging the existing server hardware delivers a positive return on investment much faster than solutions that must replace the server hardware. Extending the life of the existing server hardware also means that the customer can delay the next round of server upgrades, further accelerating ROI.

The Effort of a VMware Exit

One of the most significant considerations when calculating the ROI of a VMware exit is how difficult it is to switch from VMware to the new platform. Also critical is determining what resources are required to do so with minimal time and disruption. While some alternative hypervisors have some form of VMware import, they require that you pause the VMware environment as you convert one VM at a time. Then you must keep VMware “paused” while testing the converted VMs and workloads. The process is slow and requires far too lengthy application outages.

VergeOS, Seamless Migration

VergeOS enables you to migrate your VMs from VMware while they are still running. Our IOmigrate capability leverages change block tracking (CBT) to update the Verge OS VMs incrementally. You can use this method to extensively test your VMs in the VergeIO environment until you are satisfied that everything will work as planned. Many customers will first use VergeIO as a disaster recovery option until they are ready to cut over to VergeOS completely.

the ROI of a VMware Exit

Please register for our one-slide webinar, which will include a live demonstration of a VMware to VergeOS migration. It is live on Thursday, March 16th, at 1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT.

The Post VMware Exit – Experience

Another consideration when calculating the ROI of a VMware exit is what is the experience of operating post-VMware exit? Does the new infrastructure software include capabilities not available before? The reality is that most infrastructure alternatives are sold primarily on price rather than capabilities. These vendors scramble to market using unoptimized open-source code. As a result, the customer gains little in switching to the new platform.

VergeOS, A Superior Experience

VergeOS not only provides a dramatic reduction in costs, but it also provides superior value infrastructure capabilities. As stated above, the VergeOS can run more workloads on less hardware. It also can support mixed nodes, so you can support the needs of a variety of different workloads and can scale from one to one hundred nodes.

VergeOS also delivers a superior storage services portfolio, including:

  • Global Inline Deduplication
  • Silent Corruption Detection & Correction
  • WAN Optimized Remote Synchronization
  • Storage Multi-Tiering
  • High Performance – up to one million IOPS per node
  • AES 256-bit encryption
  • Instant, Immutable, Unlimited Snapshots & Cloning

VMware, without the introduction of NSX, provides little networking functionality beyond a virtual switch. VergeOS includes a full complement of networking capabilities, including:

  • Layer 2 and 3 networking
  • Firewall and DNS servers
  • Network Address Translation & Port Address Translation (NAT/ PAT)
  • Quality of Service (QOS)
  • Static Routing
  • DHCP (Client and Server)
  • Authoritative DNS
  • Port Mirroring (North/South) & (East/West)

An Exit Worth Taking

VergeOS is not only a way out of the uncertainty of VMware. It is a superior platform for your data center. It will dramatically lower today’s costs, extend the life of existing hardware for years, and better position you to adopt and adapt to future technology. At the same time, you will experience a massively simplified IT operations experience that is even superior to the public cloud. With VergeOS the ROI of a VMware exit is quick and long-lasting.

Next Steps

  • Register for our webinar to see a live migration of a VMware environment into VergeOS.
  • Subscribe to our tutorial on developing a VMware Exit Strategy.
  • Schedule a technical whiteboard session
  • Download a copy of VergeOS

Filed Under: Virtualization Tagged With: HCI, VMware

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