Non-free alternatives to VMware vSphere
After VMware's acquisition by Broadcom, the revised licensing and pricing strategy has led to a significant shift in the market. Many existing VMware customers are now exploring alternative solutions that can meet their virtualization needs without breaking the bank. One strong alternative that has emerged is Nutanix, a company that offers a comprehensive hyperconverged infrastructure solution.
Nutanix's hyperconverged infrastructure integrates compute, storage, and networking into a single platform, providing a range of benefits including simplified management, increased scalability, and improved performance. Additionally, Nutanix offers features such as:
- High availability and redundancy
- Data compression and deduplication
- Advanced security and encryption
- Integration with public cloud services
- Support for a wide range of virtualization platforms, including VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM
In a strategic move, Nutanix offered special discounts to existing VMware customers following the announcement of Broadcom's acquisition. This move aimed to entice customers to migrate to Nutanix's platform, which is perceived as a more cost-effective and flexible solution. The pricing strategy is designed to be reasonable and accessible, making it an attractive option for smaller budget users.
Nutanix has a rich history dating back to the 2010s, and has been steadily expanding its presence in the market. The company has been particularly focused on growing its presence in Asia, where it has secured several major customers, including:
- Japan's largest telecommunications company, NTT DoCoMo
- India's largest private bank, ICICI Bank
- Singapore's largest healthcare provider, SingHealth
- China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group
Nutanix's success in Asia is a testament to its ability to meet the unique needs of customers in the region. With its flexible pricing strategy and comprehensive feature set, Nutanix is indeed a force to be reckoned with in the virtualization market. While the cost of Nutanix's solution depends on the size and requirements of the customer, it is clear that the company is committed to providing a cost-effective and scalable solution that meets the needs of existing customers.
Although I'm not a current user of Nutanix, industry friends have consistently praised its reliability and user-friendly platform. While the advantage of Nutanix lies in its ability to manage compute, storage, and networking resources through a single platform, this also presents a challenge. Applying patches to individual systems can be complex, as all resources are interconnected. This can lead to errors and warnings during downtime, which engineers must quickly resolve to apply patches before downtime expires. Moreover, ensuring data integrity remains a challenge, and a robust backup solution is still essential to guarantee data safety.
Open and Closed Source Alternatives to VMware vSphere after Broadcom
The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has significantly impacted the enterprise virtualisation ecosystem. This change has led to a shift in the market, with many customers re-evaluating their virtualisation strategies.
VMware's new pricing and licensing scheme for vSphere ESXi has left many existing customers feeling frustrated and disillusioned. The changes have resulted in increased costs for customers, leading to a sense of betrayal and disappointment. The sale of VMware EUC (Horizon) to Omnissa has further added to the uncertainty and discontent among customers.
Due to the high prices resulting from the revised licensing scheme, customers are actively seeking solutions that can meet their requirements within their previous budget for VMware. This has led to an increased interest in alternative virtualisation solutions that offer similar features and performance at a lower cost.
Closed Source Alternative - Hyper-V
There are several paid alternatives to VMware vSphere, including Hyper-V by Microsoft. While widely adopted, Hyper-V has some limitations compared to vSphere. Notably, it:
Lacks advanced features like VMware's Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS)
Has limited support for non-Windows workloads
Requires additional licenses for features like disaster recovery and high availability
Has a more complex management interface
Lacks seamless integration with other VMware tools like NSX and vSAN
Despite these limitations, Hyper-V remains a popular choice for many organizations, particularly those deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Other Closed Source Alternatives
Nutanix Acropolis
Citrix Hypervisor
Red Hat Virtualization / Red Hat OpenShift
Huawei FusionCompute
Open Source Virtualisation - Proxmox
One popular open-source virtualisation solution gaining traction is Proxmox. While there are some tradeoffs, the benefits of using Proxmox include:
- Zero cost (if no support is purchased)
- Relatively low cost compared to VMware
- Customisable and flexible
- Active community support
However, some challenges associated with using Proxmox include:
- Limited commercial support options
- Steeper learning curve compared to VMware
- Integration with existing infrastructure may require additional configuration
- Limited scalability compared to enterprise-level virtualisation solutions
Other Open Source Options
In addition to Proxmox, other open-source virtualisation options include:
- Linux KVM: Available on all Linux distributions, easy to install, and provides a simple UI for resource management. Stable and easy to use, but with reduced networking features compared to Proxmox.
- XCP-ng: An open-source virtualisation platform based on the Xen hypervisor, offering features like live migration and high availability. However, user feedback suggests it may lag behind Proxmox in terms of usability and feature set.
- Xen: A mature and widely-used open-source hypervisor offering advanced features like live migration and resource pooling. However, user feedback suggests it may be less user-friendly and have a steeper learning curve compared to Proxmox.
The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has led to a significant shift in the enterprise virtualisation ecosystem. Customers are now exploring alternative solutions to meet their virtualisation needs within their budget. Open-source virtualisation solutions like Proxmox, Linux KVM, XCP-ng, and Xen offer cost-effective alternatives, but it's essential to carefully evaluate the tradeoffs and challenges associated with their adoption.