From VMware to ZStack: Three VMware Replacement Solutions and Two Migration Strategies to Ensure Business Continuity and Reduce Risks

According to Gartner’s Global Server Virtualization Market Guide, the server virtualization market is undergoing its most significant disruption in over a decade. This assessment stems from Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, which shifted the product sales model by discontinuing perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions, increasing enterprise operational expenditure (OPEX). Additionally, VMware’s standalone products have been consolidated into four subscription bundles, further driving up costs for users. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and education are now part of a growing movement to replace VMware. Gartner predicts that by 2028, cost concerns will drive 70% of enterprise VMware customers to migrate 50% of their virtual workloads. For businesses seeking to maintain continuity, reduce costs, and mitigate risks, ZStack emerges as a highly attractive option. This article explores how ZStack’s migration services enable enterprises to seamlessly transition from VMware, ensuring stable operations and delivering long-term benefits.

Recently, Broadcom has reportedly taken further steps to enforce its subscription model by issuing “cease-and-desist” letters to holders of expired VMware perpetual licenses. These letters warn that continuing to install updates or patches without a new contract constitutes infringement, requiring immediate cessation and uninstallation of the software. The letters also state that VMware reserves the right to audit non-compliant customers and pursue contractual or legal action if reporting obligations are not met.

Escalating Tensions and the Search for Alternatives

As reported by CRN, Toshiba, a 16-year VMware user, decided to explore alternatives after subscription costs surged to ten times their original amount. The company is now migrating 2,200 virtual machines from the VMware-Broadcom platform to other solutions. A co-founder of a European cloud infrastructure provider noted, “Broadcom has made it clear that small and medium-sized enterprises are no longer part of its strategic focus. We are actively advising clients to consider other options.”

Three ZStack Solutions to Replace VMware

ZStack offers three solutions—virtualization, cloud platform, and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)—to replace VMware, with over 600 successful replacement cases. Additionally, ZStack provides two migration services to transition from VMware to ZStack.

1. ZStack ZSphere Virtualization Platform as a VMware Alternative

ZSphere covers over 95% of VMware’s virtual machine lifecycle management functions while introducing unique features to enhance operational efficiency. Key features include:

• Compatibility and Reuse: Supports mainstream servers, enabling unified clusters across different CPU generations and models, multi-brand hardware reuse, and SAN storage compatibility.
• One-Click Upgrades: Supports online, cross-version hot upgrades and grayscale upgrades to ensure business reliability.
• Unified Management: Manages virtual machines and bare metal servers uniformly, supports bulk virtual machine creation, and provides a UI-based management interface without requiring out-of-band management.
• High Performance: Supports separated or converged storage-compute deployments, leveraging Vhost+RDMA technology for distributed storage, achieving 1 million IOPS for 4K random reads and over 840,000 IOPS for writes.

2. ZStack Cloud Platform as a VMware Alternative

For users relying on VMware vSphere, vSAN, networking, operations, or container components, ZStack Cloud offers a comprehensive replacement. Beyond virtualization, ZStack Cloud provides full cloud platform capabilities, suitable for critical business applications, databases, development/testing, backup/disaster recovery, AI, big data, private clouds, hybrid clouds, cloud-native environments, and high-performance computing (HPC). Key features include:

• Extended Functionality: Supports bare metal, containers, RDS, and object storage.
• Granular Operations: Offers intelligent analytics, metering and billing, and monitoring dashboards.
• Cloud-Native Management: Supports multi-tenancy, self-service, and workflow approvals.
• Broad Applications: Ideal for private and hybrid cloud deployments.

3. ZStack Cube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) as a VMware Alternative

For small and medium-sized enterprises using vSphere+vSAN or vSphere+vSAN+NSX+Aria, ZStack Cube HCI provides a rapid replacement solution. It is suitable for critical business applications, databases, development/testing, backup/disaster recovery, simulation/training, edge/branch applications, and secure resource pools. Key features include:

• Fast Deployment: Ready-to-use cloud infrastructure with rapid delivery, flexible configurations, and elastic scalability.
• Comprehensive Features: Software-defined compute, storage, and networking with full IaaS cloud capabilities.
• Reliability: Supports erasure coding, replicas, fault domains, stretched clusters, continuous data protection, and multi-layer hardware/software high availability.
• High Performance: Optimized integration of compute and storage for efficient resource utilization.

Migration Services: Two VMware-to-ZStack Migration Solutions

ZStack provides robust migration tools and services designed to minimize disruption during the transition from VMware. These solutions prioritize user-friendliness, efficiency, and flexibility, enabling enterprises to confidently migrate workloads.

1. V2V Migration Service

The V2V migration service supports both online and offline migration, with options for direct V2V migration or pre-integration followed by V2V migration. The process enables one-click, batch V2V migrations, monitored and managed through an intuitive, visualized UI. Key features include:

• One-Click Batch Migration: The V2V tool supports simultaneous migration of multiple virtual machines, accelerating the process and saving time.
• Online and Offline Options: Enterprises can choose online migration to keep virtual machines running during the process or offline migration to reduce resource usage.
• Visualized Monitoring Interface: A user-friendly interface displays real-time migration progress, allowing IT teams to track each step and resolve issues quickly.

By automating much of the migration process, the V2V tool minimizes manual intervention, reduces errors, and ensures a smooth transition.

2. Agentless Migration Solution

For enterprises prioritizing minimal disruption, ZStack’s agentless migration solution is ideal. This approach leverages VMware’s Virtual Appliance Data Protection (VADP) interface to replicate virtual machines without installing software on the source system. Key advantages include:

• Zero Business Disruption: The agentless approach ensures uninterrupted operations without requiring additional software in the VMware environment.
• Broad Compatibility: Through the VADP interface, ZStack supports various VMware configurations, making it suitable for diverse enterprise environments.
• Reliable Data Replication: The solution ensures secure and rapid data transfer, maintaining data integrity throughout the process.

This agentless option is particularly suited for enterprises with stringent uptime requirements, allowing migrations without impacting critical operations.

ZStack VMware Replacement Success Story

Dayou Futures Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Modern Investment Co., Ltd. (000900), is headquartered in Changsha, Hunan, China. It holds trading and settlement membership with the China Financial Futures Exchange and memberships with the Shanghai Futures Exchange, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, and Dalian Commodity Exchange.

Dayou Futures adopted ZStack ZSphere to build its data center, replacing VMware vSphere with ZSphere virtualization and integrating high-performance distributed storage to meet the stringent performance demands of financial business innovation. ZSphere’s seamless cloud upgrade capabilities have laid a solid foundation for Dayou Futures’ future technological transformation.

Conclusion

VMware’s new sales model has created an urgent need for enterprises to find cost-effective and reliable alternatives. ZStack offers robust solutions for businesses looking to migrate virtualized workloads, ensuring stable operations and reduced risks. With advanced migration tools, proven success stories, and professional support, ZStack enables enterprises to transition smoothly from VMware to a modern, scalable, and cost-efficient virtualization platform.