VMware Migration – Server Virtualization Compatibility: How to Achieve Smooth Transition and Ecosystem Adaptation

In the current wave of digital transformation, enterprises’ demand for cloud infrastructure is growing, and migration from VMware to other platforms has become a focus for many companies. With Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and subsequent strategic changes, many enterprises face urgent needs to migrate from VMware.

So, what should be considered when migrating from VMware to other platforms? What server adaptation brands are available for VMware migration? What storage adaptation brands are available for VMware migration? What operating system adaptation brands are available for VMware migration? What network adaptation brands are available for VMware migration? How to migrate from VMware to other platforms? How should the compatibility of migrating from VMware to other platforms be evaluated? Is there a practical VMware migration operation guide to help us transition smoothly? Additionally, what VMware migration tools are available on the market? These questions trouble many enterprises. Today, we will explore these issues in depth.

After Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, the market landscape is undergoing significant changes. Media reports indicate that Broadcom is aggressively promoting a new subscription bundle model, particularly targeting medium and large user groups.

Recently, to promote subscription services, Broadcom even sent “cease and desist” letters to VMware perpetual license holders with expired support contracts, warning them that continuing to install updates and patches without signing new contracts constitutes infringement and must stop immediately, with relevant content uninstalled. The letters also mentioned that if customers fail to fulfill relevant reporting obligations, VMware has the right to conduct audits and pursue legal liabilities.

These measures have led many enterprises to seek VMware to ZStack. For example, according to CRN, Toshiba decided to migrate 2,200 virtual machines from the VMware-Broadcom platform to other platforms after VMware product costs soared to 10 times the original price.

A co-founder of a European cloud infrastructure provider also stated that Broadcom has clearly indicated that small and medium-sized enterprises no longer align with its strategic direction, so they are actively advising clients to consider other alternatives.

Gartner’s “Global Server Virtualization Market Guide” points out that the server virtualization market is facing the most significant disruptive changes in over a decade. This judgment stems from Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and the subsequent change in product sales models—from terminating perpetual licenses to subscription sales—leading to increased enterprise operational expenses (OPEX). Additionally, the restructuring of standalone products into four major subscription bundles has also increased user costs. Gartner predicts that by 2028, cost issues will drive 70% of enterprise-level VMware customers to migrate 50% of their virtual workloads. Currently, in multiple countries and regions across finance, healthcare, education, manufacturing, research, and over ten other industries, a movement from VMware to ZStack is underway.

Technical Ecosystem Compatibility: Key Elements for Achieving Smooth VMware Transition

For enterprises looking to maintain business continuity, reduce costs, and minimize risks, ZStack is becoming an attractive option. We previously introduced three paths to VMware to ZStack with ZStack ZSphere products; now, we will focus on interpreting ZStack ZSphere’s technical ecosystem compatibility information.

ZStack ZSphere provides a user experience consistent with VMware virtualization.

Hardware Compatibility

• Chip Level: ZStack is compatible with Intel and AMD processors.
• Full-generation support for Intel processors:
  • ✓ Xeon Scalable Processors (Skylake/Cascade Lake/Ice Lake/Sapphire Rapids)
  • ✓ Xeon E3/E5/E7 Series (v3-v6 generations)
  • ✓ Core i3/i5/i7/i9 consumer processors (8th generation and above)
• Complete adaptation for AMD processors:

• • ✓ EPYC 7002/7003/9004 Series (Zen2/Zen3/Zen4 architectures)
  • ✓ Ryzen PRO Series (enterprise-grade security feature support)
  • ✓ Exclusive optimization for AMD Infinity Guard security technology integration

• Infrastructure Level: ZStack adapts to mainstream brands of servers, storage, and network equipment from HP, DELL, Lenovo, Supermicro, Cisco, NetApp, H3C, HUAWEI, etc.

Specialized Optimization for Storage Devices:

• NetApp AFF/FAS Series (ONTAP 9.7+)
• H3C UniStor X10000 (distributed storage protocol support)
• Full support for NVMe over Fabric architecture

Network Device Interconnection:

• Cisco Nexus 9000 Series (VXLAN hardware offloading)
• Huawei CE6800/CE8800 Switches (EVPN protocol stack optimization)
• White-box switches (automated deployment based on ONIE)

Software Compatibility

• Virtual Machine Operating Systems

Click to view more ZStack compatible products

• Big Data and AI Frameworks: Adaptable to Hadoop, Spark, Kubernetes, TensorFlow, PyTorch, etc.
• Security and Management Tools: Integrated with VERITAS backup solutions, Nginx load balancing. ZStack has achieved Level 3 cybersecurity classification certification and provides east-west firewalls and sensitive data detection features.
• Operating System Layer: Compatible with mainstream operating systems such as CentOS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, OpenEuler, OpenAnolis, etc.

Open Design

• Developer-friendly Interfaces: ZStack provides RESTful APIs, Java/Python SDKs, and visual API Inspector tools to support rapid third-party system integration.

API Ecosystem

• RESTful API:

• • ✓ 300+ standardized interfaces (Swagger 3.0 documentation)
  • ✓ Typical application: Automatic synchronization with ServiceNow’s CMDB

• SDK Extension Capabilities:

• • ✓ Java SDK (Spring Boot Starter encapsulation)
  • ✓ Python SDK (Jupyter Notebook example library)
  • ✓ Customer case: An operator’s automated expansion script development cycle shortened by 70%

• API Inspector:

• • ✓ Real-time traffic analysis (supports OpenTelemetry)
  • ✓ Intelligent parameter suggestions (based on historical call patterns)

Success Practice Case: Analysis of Typical Scenarios for VMware Migration

Below is a successful case of VMware to ZStack:

User Business Status

• A UK-based operator headquartered in London, providing personalized ICT services to global multinational enterprises.
• Original services were primarily deployed on VMware virtualization platforms.

Customer Pain Points

• Outdated virtualization hardware and difficulty replacing obsolete physical servers.
• Rising costs and declining delivery efficiency as business systems increased, unable to quickly respond to new business system deployment demands.

Transformation Solution Results

(Solution topology diagram)

• The enterprise abandoned upgrading VMware virtualization and adopted ZStack Cloud deployment to build a new cloud platform supporting core business operations.
• Using V2V migration technology, nearly 100 virtual machines (such as order systems, customer service systems, and official website systems) from the original virtualization environment were migrated to the new cloud platform.
• ZStack’s lightweight and easy-to-use product architecture, with high availability and minimal virtual machine performance loss, provided a solid and reliable foundation for VMware to ZStack architecture.
• The new platform met the cloud requirements for critical business and data.
• The ZStack Cloud platform’s automated operation and maintenance capabilities reduced manual intervention and significantly improved operational efficiency.

Click to view more ZStack compatible products

ZStack: Cloud and AI Infrastructure Provider

ZStack is not only a leading cloud infrastructure provider but also a pioneer in AI infrastructure. The ZStack Cloud Platform offers comprehensive data center infrastructure solutions, including private cloud platforms with 4S characteristics. The ZStack ZSphere Virtualization Platform aims to provide a user experience consistent with VMware. Additionally, ZStack offers products such as ZStack HCI, software-defined storage (ZStack SDS), and more. In broader fields, ZStack also provides data center management platform ZStack ZCenter and ZStack CMP, edge orchestration platform ZStack Edge, cloud-native platform ZStack Zaku, and database management platform ZStack RDS.

Particularly noteworthy is ZStack AIOS, a privatized AI infrastructure platform. AIOS fully supports enterprise AI applications in three key areas: “computing power scheduling, AI large model training and inference, and AI application service development.” AIOS aims to provide enterprises with a privatized AI infrastructure platform supporting enterprise-level AI applications.