VMware - the name that earned trust in Virtualization. I still remember the day in 2004 ESX version 2.1 when I installed the first VMware hypervisor and was able to run multiple servers and workstations on the same physical server. The excitement was out of bounds and I was a big fan of the product. The product evolved in the last 22 years and kept adding features, more stable and reliable, optimized for the underlying hardware. During this period VMware as a company changed hands multiple times EMC, Dell and finally Broadcom in 2023.
Broadcom after acquiring Vmware decided to shut the doors for its Small and Medium segment customers. These customers mostly use 2-3 physical hosts and shared storage to run 10, 20 or 30 VMs. The most popular among this segment were the VMware vSphere Essential or Essential Plus editions. These editions provided all the features that catered to the SMB requirements vCentre, vMotion, HA, thin provisioning etc. Now Broadcom has decided to discontinue these 2 editions and stick with Enterprise and Standard editions only on a yearly subscription model. So the cost has gone through the roof. So what are the alternatives to VMware?
There are a few options available if someone wants to replace VMware hypervisor. I will discuss a few prominent options.
1. Microsoft Hyper-V
2. Citrix Hypervisor or XenServer
3. Proxmox Virtual Environment
4. Use IAAS cloud solutions like Azure or AWS
1. Microsoft Hyper-V – It is available as a feature with Windows Servers or in Windows 10 and 11 (Pro or Enterprise). There is no extra cost to enable the Hyper-V feature apart from the Windows License. It can run as a standalone host or in a cluster for HA. There are in-built management consoles Hyper-V Manager or Cluster Manager. The feature has evolved a lot in the last 16 years. The current version is more stable than its predecessors.
2. Citrix Hypervisor or XenServer as it was called earlier. It was developed based on the earlier open-source Xen platform. It has a Windows-based management tool called XenCenter and provides all the features to support multiple hosts in an HA environment. It’s been around since 2007 when Citrix acquired the Xen platform. There is a cost associated and is priced per CPU socket on the host. It comes in 2 editions Premium or Trial for 90 days. Feature Matrix - https://www.xenserver.com/content/dam/xenserver/documents/dates-sheet/xenserver-feature-matrix.pdf
3. Proxmox VE It is not a new product and has been around since 2005. The product is based on Debian Linux. It has evolved a lot and has comparable features to VMware ESXi. All the vCentre features are included with the hypervisor at no extra cost. The product has been around long time however it gained real popularity after Broadcom acquired VMware. Here is the link that shows all its features - https://www.proxmox.com/en/products/proxmox-virtual-environment/comparison
4. Cloud options like Azure or AWS. Microsoft and Amazon provide hosted cloud computing services. It has an IAAS offering where you can run your VMs and have full control of the running OS. You can choose from multiple VM instances (sizes) depending on your computing requirements. Or choose from the other SAAS-based services offered by these vendors like SharePoint as a replacement for the file server, or Office 365 for your emails. The cost for these offered services can easily go out of control if not monitored. See my other article on managing Azure cost - https://www.gravitonhub.com/blog/azure-7/manage-azure-cost-1
There are other Virtualization vendors like Redhat KVM, Nutanix AHV, and XCP-ng. It is not possible to talk about all the vendors, but will try and write a separate blog on them later.
In conclusion, there are options for SMB companies to save huge VMware costs and migrate their virtualized infrastructure to alternate solutions. Based on the requirement and budget you can choose a solution.
If not VMware, then what!!