Lancaster Central School District’s Transition to VergeIO
Replacing VMware for Lower Costs and Greater Efficiency
Summary
After more than 15 years on VMware, Lancaster Central School District faced sharply higher licensing costs for both ESXi and vSAN after the Broadcom acquisition. The District replaced both with VergeOS, saving about $150,000 per year. Snapshots became instantaneous with no performance impact, deduplication improved, and the environment stayed up through an ISP failure that would have disrupted the old stretched cluster.
A VMware replacement that turned out to be an improvement.
About Lancaster Central School District
Lancaster Central School District had been a VMware customer for more than 15 years, running a highly virtualized infrastructure that supported critical IT operations. The District had also begun modernizing its storage strategy, moving from traditional NAS to VMware vSAN.
When Broadcom acquired VMware, proposed licensing costs rose dramatically, and Broadcom was raising the cost of vSAN licenses too. Pricing became unpredictable and created budget challenges for the District. Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services, and Tim Johnson, Senior Systems Administrator, led a significant effort to evaluate alternatives. After extensive evaluation, the District chose VergeOS to replace both the ESXi hypervisor and vSAN.
“We needed a solution that wasn’t just a replacement for VMware but an improvement. VergeIO delivered exactly that.”
Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services, Lancaster Central School District
Challenges with VMware and vSAN
vSAN had served its purpose, but it required additional licensing and added complexity to the District’s environment. Performance was also a problem, especially with snapshots. Persistent degradation of snapshot performance limited their value as part of the District’s data protection strategy.
Deduplication under vSAN did not meet expectations. As data volumes grew, storage efficiency became a major concern, and Lancaster needed better deduplication rates with no performance penalty.
The District also ran a VMware stretched cluster. The model provided some redundancy, but it relied heavily on continuous network availability. A network failure could cause significant disruption, a potential point of failure in the architecture.
Evaluating Alternatives
As licensing costs rose and storage inefficiencies became clear, Lancaster considered Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix and Proxmox. The evaluation focused on five criteria:
- Cost
- Support quality
- Performance
- Storage integration
- Ease of management
VergeIO quickly became the leading candidate. Other options ran storage as a separate virtual machine. VergeFS is integrated into VergeOS as a native service, which removed the need for a bolt-on storage product like vSAN and reduced complexity.
Support was another key factor. The IT team expected to need vendor help during the transition, and VergeIO provides 100% US-based support. Lancaster had direct access to engineers who understood its infrastructure and provided immediate, knowledgeable help.
“VergeIO was head and shoulders above the competition in support. That’s what we expect and demand.”
Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services
A Phased Move from VMware
The transition ran in phases. It started with a proof of concept in May 2024, following discussions with VergeIO, Dell and DTG. Over two months the District tested VergeOS performance, storage capabilities and management tools.
The results confirmed that VergeFS was significantly more efficient than vSAN. In July 2024 the District began moving production workloads, and the migration finished smoothly in November 2024 with no significant disruptions. The VergeIO team worked closely with Lancaster and helped the IT staff adapt to the differences between VMware and VergeOS.
Replacing vSAN with VergeFS
Replacing vSAN with VergeFS delivered immediate benefits:
- No additional licensing fees
- Simpler administration
- Better deduplication
- Better snapshot performance
Snapshots were the biggest change. Under VMware, frequent snapshots caused severe performance degradation. With VergeFS, snapshots are instantaneous with no performance impact, so the IT team now uses them as its primary recovery method.
“We can take snapshots of VMs without worrying about performance hits. That alone is a huge win.”
Tim Johnson, Senior Systems Administrator
Storage efficiency also improved with VergeOS global inline deduplication, which reduces storage use with no performance cost. VMware deduplicates at the cluster level. VergeFS deduplicates at the core of the operating system, which improves the efficiency of RAM cache, network throughput and overall storage usage.
Staying Up Through an ISP Failure
VergeOS also proved more resilient. During an ISP failure, the VergeIO-powered infrastructure remained fully operational. Under the old stretched cluster model, the same failure would have caused disruptions.
“If we were still on VMware’s stretched cluster, our VMs would have had nowhere to go. With VergeIO, we stayed up so well we wouldn’t have even known there was an outage.”
Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services
Cost Savings and Operational Benefits
Lancaster saves about $150,000 per year, mainly by removing VMware licensing costs. More savings come from more efficient storage use, lower hardware requirements and less administrative overhead.
| Area | Before | After: VergeOS |
|---|---|---|
| Hypervisor | VMware ESXi | VergeOS |
| Storage | VMware vSAN, licensed separately | VergeFS, built in |
| Snapshots | Severe performance degradation | Instant, no performance impact |
| Deduplication | Cluster level, below expectations | Global inline, at the core OS level |
| Network outage | Stretched cluster at risk | Stayed fully operational |
| Annual cost | Rising VMware licensing | About $150,000 saved per year |
VergeOS also needs less day-to-day management, so the IT team can focus on strategic initiatives instead of routine maintenance.
“We wanted a system that did not require constant monitoring. VergeIO is so good at handling things behind the scenes that we can concentrate on improving and developing new solutions for our District leveraging the Verge platform.”
Tim Johnson, Senior Administrator
Future Plans and Expansion
The District’s next major initiative is a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure deployment on dedicated VergeOS clusters. The IT team expects more cost savings and performance gains from efficient resource management in VergeOS.
Lessons Learned and Recommendations
Lancaster’s transition offers key takeaways for organizations evaluating VMware alternatives:
- Fully integrated storage reduces complexity. VergeOS removed the need for separate storage licensing and configuration.
- Deduplication and snapshots matter. VergeFS delivered better storage efficiency and snapshot performance than vSAN.
- Support is critical during migration. The 100% US-based VergeIO team made for a smooth transition.
- Savings go beyond licensing. More efficient storage use reduced hardware costs.
Conclusion
Cost savings, performance improvements and simpler infrastructure management drove Lancaster’s move to VergeIO. By replacing vSAN with VergeFS, the District gained scalability, stronger data protection and operational efficiency, and proved that an integrated approach to virtualization and storage can simplify IT operations and deliver lasting value.
“Go with VergeIO. Don’t waste time looking at anything else.”
Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services
See What VergeOS Does for Your District
Lancaster replaced ESXi and vSAN with one platform and saves about $150,000 a year. Talk with a VergeIO engineer about what that looks like for your environment.