The VMware cost hike is a modernisation opportunity

As Australian organisations rush to understand their hypervisor options, they should think strategically about how to best serve their needs both now and into the future.

VMware is a mainstay of infrastructure setups. Its ubiquitous adoption and entrenchment is no accident: for the longest time, it's been an efficient way to package and host workloads either on-premises or in the cloud. No one was really thinking of doing anything differently, nor did they have to.

But Broadcom's 2023 buyout of VMware changed all of that, and has become synonymous with steep licensing price increases for customers, in the order of 3x to 10x the cost of previous renewals. As recent research shows, the trend is continuing unabated.

For many organisations, VMware is now a 'burning platform', leading them to draw up plans to migrate away to an alternative virtualisation technology.

For impacted organisations, the initial goal is often to find a 'like' replacement that they can migrate their virtual machines to for continuity as well as cost benefits.

But there is a bigger opportunity: not just to source a 'like-for-like' replacement, but also to use this as an opportunity to pursue infrastructure modernisation.

Not every VMware alternative is created equal. Some platforms, like those based on Red Hat OpenShift, are capable of not only re-hosting virtual machines, but also becoming a hosting destination for containerised applications, such as newer AI workloads and more. 

This multi-use capability means a platform engaged initially for virtual machine migration can go on to become the backbone of a fully modernised infrastructure that can support the organisation's needs now and into the future. Importantly, the cost of this kind of whole infrastructure transformation is often comparable to the raised VMware licensing renewal. 

We're observing more and more Australian organisations that are either impacted by - or planning for potential impact from - the licensing change to be driving more expansive thinking into their strategic approach and decision-making around the challenge.

By adopting a flexible alternative platform, with assistance from an experienced partner, organisations can use the VMware price change to their advantage: finding a new way to operate as they do today, while also supporting the infrastructure demands of tomorrow.

Creating an effective transition strategy

How VMware customers should approach this will depend very much on the status of their licensing arrangement.

For some customers, their notice of an impending change of licensing costs will arrive too late to arrange a migration. Given the technology's entrenchment and lingering uncertainty of what the quantum of any cost increase will look like for their specific configuration or circumstances, some organisations will wait for their renewal notice, leaving too little time to do much if the price is unexpectedly high. 

The next best course of action for these organisations will depend on their ability to negotiate acceptable terms. In this circumstance, acceptable terms could be a one-year option rather than the usual multi-year arrangement, buying just enough of a time window to plan and execute a change of platform. 

Other VMware customers that have been watching the market may have adopted a different stance - starting to research their options and plan ahead of their next renewal to avoid stress and cost.

Either way, the goal is ultimately to locate a suitable platform that enables a transition away from VMware in the first instance. 

When moving to an entirely new platform - such as Red Hat OpenShift -  having a six-to-12 month window of lead-time will provide ample time to stand up the platform, use included tools to migrate virtual machines from VMware to KVM [Kernel-based VM], and to train the organisation's technology team in administering the new platform. By working with an experienced partner like Atturra, organisations can have the platform overseen while they get up to speed and insource this over time as they gain experience and comfort with the new technology.

Although one of the key advantages of moving to a Red Hat OpenShift platform is that it can do more than rehost virtual machines, any expansion is recommended to occur in a staged manner over time. Given the circumstances driving the move, and the likely requirement to minimise change and cost, it makes sense to limit work to a hypervisor swap initially before potentially branching out to other uses of OpenShift such as for containerisation of workloads (which may require some code refactoring), application transformation and as a host for AI models and workloads. Once the hypervisor swap is completed and bedded down, there will be opportunity to get more from the OpenShift platform. 

This approach ensures the project is more likely to deliver on its immediate requirement - enabling cost-effective continuity for VM-based workloads - and also makes troubleshooting simpler during the migration, in what is already potentially a stressful time. 

Of course, there may be organisations that do not want to do more than a hypervisor swap for the foreseeable future, and this is fine as well. The way Atturra approaches an OpenShift platform is to stand it up initially as a like-for-like replacement for an organisation's current virtualisation setup. The platform then remains ready over time to be expanded and to assist them should their needs or requirements change.

To whatever extent it is used - for virtual machine hosting or more - a Red Hat OpenShift platform will save organisations costs, which is why it should be evaluated as an option by all current Australian VMware users.