13. Considering migration from VMware vSphere (Part 1)

In recent years, there has been a growing movement away from VMware. Until now, VMware has held an overwhelming position as a corporate server virtualization platform. However, the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom from 2023 to 2024 and the announcement of a new licensing system with a significant price increase had a major impact on existing users. In this article, we will look back on the VMware issues and consider the possibility of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager as a migration destination.

What is the VMware issue?

The trigger was Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware at the end of 2023. Until now, VMware has boasted an overwhelming share in the server virtualization field due to its rich functionality, stability, sophisticated usability, large number of engineers, and large amount of certified hardware.

However, following the acquisition of Broadcom, a new license system with significant changes was announced. In addition, the grace period for existing users was short, and existing contracts expiring after February 5, 2024 could not be renewed and had to be repurchased under the new license system. As a result, it was predicted that the cost burden would increase from 1.5 times to 20 times, which developed into a major problem.

VMware’s new licensing model

The main changes to the licensing system are as follows. The degree of impact will vary depending on the company and system used, but many companies are concerned that it will result in a significant increase in costs. VMware calls the entire pricing system, including support, a portfolio.

1. Change from one-time purchase to subscription model
   Previously, it was a one-time purchase “Perpetual License + Maintenance Support”, but from now on it will change to a “Subscription License” that includes the license and maintenance support. Previously, it was enough to renew the support contract periodically, but from now on you can choose the license edition and the usage period from 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years.
2. Change from CPU socket to CPU core unitCharging
   has been changed from physical CPU socket unit to CPU core unit. Previously, it was possible to reduce license costs by using high-performance CPUs with many cores, but this will no longer be possible with core charging. In recent years, high-performance CPUs with 50 or more cores have also appeared, so it is necessary to select a server that optimizes appropriate performance and license costs while considering cost-effectiveness.
3. Consolidation from sales by function to four editions
   Previously, VMware’s product system was so complicated that it caused headaches for sales representatives. However, the new system has been simplified by consolidating it into the following four editions. However, VMware vSAN and VMware NSX, which were previously available separately, are now bundled with higher editions, so you may need an edition with more features than you need. In addition to the editions, some functions are provided as add-ons.
   • VMware vSphere Standard (VVS)
   • VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus (VEP)
   • VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF)
   • VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
4. Limited edition selection
   Customers are not free to choose the edition they want. Broadcom defines customer segments as having restrictions on which editions they can purchase. As a result, some companies may be forced to purchase more editions than they need, which could result in overinvestment.

Lessons from the VMware issue

There are several lessons to be learned from this VMware issue. A typical example is the danger of proprietary software with an overwhelming market share. Until now, proprietary software with a large market share has sometimes adopted aggressive pricing policies, but such drastic changes are rare.

In addition, this major change in the licensing system was triggered by a corporate acquisition. One of the major reasons was that VMware had a high risk of being acquired, having been acquired by EMC and DELL in the past.

And VMware’s functions as a server virtualization platform were mature, and it had many superior features to its competitors, making it difficult for competitive principles other than cost to apply, and it had many users. Some market research suggests that it had a market share of nearly 80%.

Considering VMware Migration

Cost is the biggest factor when considering a VMware migration, but careful consideration is needed as to whether it is really a good idea to migrate and what the best destination is.

Is moving away from VMware the right choice?

The increased costs associated with the new licensing system are a motivation for moving away from VMware, but a decision to switch based on a simple comparison of running costs should be made hastily. A comprehensive decision needs to be made after considering functionality, operation, and migration aspects.

Here is an example of something to consider when migrating to another Vipervisor.

• function
• Is there an equivalent function?
• If there is no equivalent function, can the problem be covered by redesigning the system or changing operations?
• Construction and operation
• Re-designing and building the server
• Re-implementing network design and construction
• Re-creating runbooks
• Skill development and operations teams
• transfer
• Can I use an existing guest OS?
• Does the existing system work or have vendor support?
• Is system downtime during migration acceptable?
• Is there an efficient migration path?
• Can existing backup and operational monitoring tools be used?
• Do the servers and storage you are using support the hypervisor you are migrating to?

In particular, VMware excels in the following points. For use by a company of a certain size, it is important that it is officially supported, so careful consideration is required.

• Many hardware and software platforms are compatible with VMware.
• It has many features not found in other virtualization products

You will need to evaluate these options and compare them with potential hypervisors, and in some cases, you may need to conduct validation tests. If you decide not to migrate after the final evaluation, that is also a good decision.

In addition, the above considerations assume a simple migration; when application modernization or other such initiatives allow for in-depth updates to the application, more fundamental considerations will be required.

VMware migration destination

The first choice for migration destination is public cloud or on-premise. There is a lot of talk about public cloud, so here we will focus on on-premise.

Moving to the public cloud

There are two main migration paths to the cloud:

Destination	Features
Virtual machine services such as Amazon EC2	While running costs tend to be cheaper, the migration work becomes more difficult as the number of virtual machines to be migrated increases. This requires not only redesigning the network but also redesigning the entire infrastructure.
VMware services delivered by cloud	VMware solutions such as VMware Cloud on AWS, Azure VMware Solution, and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. Since it is the same VMware, migration is easy, but the software costs may not be the same as on-premise (pricing structures vary greatly depending on the vendor).

On-Premises Migration

Possible on-premises migration destinations include server virtualization products such as the following:

• Oracle Linux Virtualization
• Microsoft Hyper-V
• Nutanix
• Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
• Proxmox VE
• XCP-ng

I have introduced some of them in my previous column , “Server Virtualization Software Comparison No. 12,” so I will introduce them briefly here. The following Figure 01 shows the differences between them. The implementation costs and functions are relative comparisons with each other, not with VMware.

Table 01: Server Virtualization Platform Comparison

In addition, the following items are examples of the considerations that you will actually evaluate. Although it is better to have everything, the most important thing is whether it meets your requirements.

• Stability as a vendor: Are the development vendors and development community continuing to invest and develop the software?
• Functions and performance: Can the currently used functions and performance be achieved?
• Construction and migration costs: Initial construction costs, migration costs to existing environments, costs incurred due to downtime, etc.
• Running costs: License (purchased type only) and support costs
• Support status: Can you get the level of support you want? How much hardware and software are supported?
• Amount of information : The larger the vendor’s product and the more users there are, the more information there is.

Conclusion

This time we considered migrating to VMware, but Extended Support for Oracle’s server virtualization product, Oracle VM Server, will end in June 2024. Some users may have already migrated, but there will also be users who will migrate in the future. Please use this as a reference for those users as well.

Next time we will explain the migration method.