Considerations for Replacing VMware Tanzu with a Container Platform

In the wave of digital transformation, container technology, with its lightweight and rapid deployment characteristics, has become a key force supporting microservices architecture and accelerating business iteration. However, for many enterprises, choosing and managing a container cloud platform is not easy, especially in terms of cost control. VMware Tanzu, as a well-known container product in the market, is driving more and more enterprises to seek more economical and flexible solutions due to the high costs and strict restrictions brought by its licensing model. Among them, transitioning container products from VMware Tanzu and achieving cost optimization has become an important part of enterprise IT strategy. This article will delve into this trend and focus on comparing the significant advantages of the ZStack Zaku container platform in terms of cost-effectiveness.

VMware Tanzu Licensing Model: High Cost and Strong Constraints

VMware Tanzu has some inherent limitations in its licensing model, causing enterprises to face high costs and strong constraints during deployment and operation.

Cost and Resource Binding Too Tight:

VMware Tanzu is typically billed based on the overall CPU capacity of the cluster. This means that even if there are idle resources in the cluster, enterprises still need to pay the full fee. When business requires expansion, costs increase linearly with the number of CPUs, which runs counter to the core concept of “on-demand elasticity” pursued by cloud-native.

Feature Bundling Drives Up Costs:

If enterprises choose to use NSX-T as the network stack, even if only basic network functions are needed, they may be forced to purchase higher-level licenses, thereby paying for unnecessary redundant functions and increasing additional expenses.

Costs Easily Get Out of Control in Microservices Scenarios:

Tanzu Application Service is billed per application instance. In a microservices architecture, the frequent splitting, starting, and stopping of application instances (especially in development and test environments) can easily lead to soaring costs that are difficult to control effectively.

Long-term Concerns Brought by Subscription Model:

VMware has completely shifted from the traditional perpetual license model to a subscription model. This change means that subscription fees accumulate over the long term, may eventually exceed the original perpetual license costs, and carry the risk of future price increases. The issue of bundling redundant functions in packages further increases the total cost of ownership (TCO).

These challenges force enterprises to prioritize cost optimization when evaluating container cloud solutions and actively seek alternative solutions that can provide a more transparent and controllable cost model.

ZStack Zaku Licensing Advantages: Cost Transparency and Flexible Control

Facing the cost challenges of VMware Tanzu, the ZStack Zaku container platform offers a more attractive solution. Its licensing model, centered on “pay-as-you-go, perpetual ownership, no hidden costs,” aims to build a licensing system that better fits the actual needs of enterprises.

Accurate Billing Adapted to Scenarios:

ZStack Zaku supports billing based on the number of vCPUs of cluster nodes (virtual machine nodes) or the number of physical CPUs (physical machine nodes). This refined billing method ensures that resource usage is directly linked to cost expenditure, effectively avoiding waste caused by idle resources, and perfectly meets the elastic scaling needs of cloud-native businesses.

All Modules at One Inclusive Price:

Zaku’s licensing model avoids forced bundling of advanced functions, allowing enterprises to choose the components they need based on their actual requirements, thereby avoiding payment for redundant functions. Through a more flexible billing method and resource management mechanism, ZStack Zaku helps enterprises better control and predict costs under a microservices architecture, especially in frequent development and testing scenarios.

Perpetual Usage Rights Guarantee:

The “perpetual ownership” option provided by Zaku offers enterprises additional flexibility and long-term cost-effectiveness guarantees in a market dominated by subscription models, reducing concerns about future price increases.

The ZStack Zaku container cloud platform not only excels in cost optimization but, as part of the new generation of cloud infrastructure, is committed to providing a high-performance, stable, and reliable containerized deployment environment.

Comprehensive Transition Path from VMware to ZStack

Currently, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and its subsequent business model adjustments (from traditional perpetual licensing to subscription) have not only brought challenges of rising costs for virtualization users but also accelerated the need for enterprises to seek a transition from VMware to ZStack to achieve infrastructure upgrades.

When planning a transition from a VMware environment to a new platform, enterprises can choose multiple paths based on their dependence on existing VMware infrastructure and IT technology development direction:

Virtualization Platform Transition:

For small and medium-sized enterprises with limited budgets, strong dependence on existing infrastructure, and need for rapid transition, the ZStack ZSphere virtualization platform provides an alternative solution with functionality and operational experience similar to VMware, ensuring business continuity while reducing costs and risks. The ZStack ZSphere virtualization platform covers over 95% of VMware’s virtual machine lifecycle management functions and provides a seamless user experience, high stability, and localized advantages that adapt to user operation and maintenance habits.

Hyper-Converged Architecture Transition:

Enterprises wishing to simplify data center management, improve resource utilization, and flexibility can choose the ZStack Cube hyper-converged appliance. This solution integrates computing, storage, and network resources through software-defined methods, providing highly integrated and simplified IT infrastructure. ZStack Cube integrates VMware management and V2V migration functions, supporting one-click management or migration of existing VMware virtual machines.

Private Cloud Platform Transition:

For large enterprises with high requirements for data security and compliance, complex existing infrastructure, and need for high control and autonomous management, the ZStack Cloud platform is an ideal alternative route. ZStack Cloud provides advanced functions such as multi-architecture CPU support, encryption compliance, elastic bare metal, and heterogeneous management.

Container Cloud Platform Transition:

Suitable for enterprises pursuing application modernization, cloud-native needs, efficient resource utilization, and automated operations, the ZStack Zaku container cloud platform and ZStack Edge cloud-native hyper-convergence provide efficient deployment and management methods based on containerization technology.

ZStack’s product matrix comprehensively covers data center cloud infrastructure, including virtualization, cloud platform, container cloud platform, distributed storage, hyper-converged appliances, cloud-native hyper-convergence, multi-cloud management platform, and database cloud platform. This comprehensive product line can help enterprises calmly cope with the transition from VMware to ZStack and achieve a comprehensive upgrade of the data center towards cloudification and intelligence.

ZStack: Let Every Company Have Its Own Cloud

ZStack was founded in 2015, committed to becoming a leading global provider of basic software in the intelligent computing era, with its core vision being “Let Every Company Have Its Own Cloud”. The company ranks among the TOP 5 in the IDC cloud system software market report and is rated as the number one independent cloud vendor.

ZStack’s product matrix comprehensively covers data center cloud infrastructure, providing complete solutions including the ZStack ZSphere virtualization platform, ZStack Cloud cloud platform, ZStack Zaku container cloud platform, ZStack SDS distributed storage, ZStack Cube hyper-converged appliance, ZStack Edge cloud-native hyper-convergence, ZStack CMP multi-cloud management platform, and ZStack RDS database cloud platform.

Entering the era of intelligent computing, ZStack has gone further by launching a new generation of AI software infrastructure——the ZStack AIOS platform. This platform is centered on AI and helps AI innovation land through three major dimensions: computing power layer, model layer, and operations layer. It aims to decouple heterogeneous computing silos, reduce AI application costs, deconstruct model ecosystem silos, optimize AI application performance, and achieve AI self-service through global metering and billing, thereby accelerating the penetration of enterprise AI applications. The ZStack AIOS platform can support flexible scheduling of GPU computing power and server resources, adapt to a wide range of hardware and GPUs, and is equipped with complete storage network services, providing real-time monitoring and fault self-healing capabilities. Through these innovations, ZStack not only provides solid support for traditional IT infrastructure but also lays an intelligent foundation for enterprise development in the AI era.

Through its comprehensive products and solutions, ZStack has helped over 4000 enterprises worldwide achieve digital transformation, covering more than ten important industries and fields including government, communications, finance, energy, transportation, education, healthcare, and manufacturing.

In terms of VMware transition, it has served 1000+ customers globally, covering 30+ countries and regions.

FAQs

Q: Why would enterprises consider transitioning container products from VMware Tanzu to the ZStack Zaku container platform?

A: Enterprises mainly focus on cost optimization and flexibility. VMware Tanzu’s billing model may lead to high costs for idle resources, increased unnecessary expenses due to feature bundling, and difficulty in controlling costs in microservices scenarios. ZStack Zaku, with its “pay-as-you-go, perpetual ownership, no hidden costs” model, provides more transparent and controllable cost-effectiveness.

Q: How does the billing model of the ZStack Zaku container platform differ from VMware Tanzu, and how does it achieve cost optimization?

A: VMware Tanzu is usually billed based on the overall CPU capacity of the cluster, requiring full payment even for idle resources. In contrast, ZStack Zaku supports billing based on the number of vCPUs or physical CPUs of cluster nodes. Resource usage is directly linked to cost expenditure, effectively avoiding waste and thus achieving significant cost optimization.

Q: How does ZStack Zaku help enterprises better control the cost of container products under a microservices architecture?

A: VMware Tanzu bills per application instance in microservices scenarios. The splitting of multiple instances and frequent starts and stops can easily lead to soaring costs. ZStack Zaku, through more precise billing methods and resource management, enables enterprises to manage and scale microservices more flexibly, thereby better controlling the overall operating costs of container products and achieving cost optimization.

Q: Besides cost optimization, what other advantages can transitioning container products from VMware Tanzu to ZStack Zaku bring?

A: In addition to excellent cost optimization capabilities, ZStack Zaku also provides a highly self-developed cloud infrastructure software technology route, high stability, and high-performance characteristics. It can easily handle complex application scenarios such as cloud-native, big data, and IoT, and improve overall IT operational efficiency and business response speed through automated operations and fault self-healing.