The companies that, in the back of their minds, had a desire to migrate to the cloud or become more cloud-native but were not able to justify this decision until now are in luck.
Now that the VMWare (and subsequently VMC on AWS) contracts are changing, customers are considering making a change themselves to better adapt to industry demands and get some cost benefits.
The move from a perpetual licensing model to a subscription-based model as well as the update in packaging policies have driven the cost curve up significantly. Companies mention the dramatic rise in their VMWare bills, with some reporting a couple of times the difference in yearly spending. Other strategic changes, like the end of many reseller contracts, also play a role when considering migration from VMWare. The research and advisory company Forrester predicted that in 2024, 20% of VMware enterprise customers would start to move away from the platform. Many other sources also confirm that this is truly happening.
One of the decisions VMWare, by Broadcom, has made was to stop the renewal of VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS. Starting April 30, 2024, VMware Cloud on AWS will no longer be available for direct purchase through AWS. The purchase of new subscriptions, additions of new services, or renewal of existing subscriptions is not available for existing customers.
All of these strategic changes force clients to reevaluate and readjust their virtualized infrastructure, which, consequently, creates room for improved efficiency and innovation. Clients need to make a strategic decision on whether to stay or migrate their workloads off of VMWare to other solutions or even from on-prem to the cloud. When it comes to workloads that are already on VMC on AWS, their owners also need to reassess their options, the easiest one of them would be to rehost directly to EC2 instances on the AWS with the help of AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN).
In other circumstances, the ideal approach would be to review each workload and decide which migration strategy would be the best fit. In reality, the change in the licensing approach enforces tight deadlines for the migration efforts and creates few opportunities to start the workload modernizations that come with re-architecting and re-platforming migration strategies. Customers need to make a quick and smart decision before the time to renew their licenses comes.
VMWare clients have quite a few options to choose from. The questions they should be asking themselves are the following:
3.1 If the license renewal is not too close on the horizon, there is an opportunity to migrate to the cloud “the right way.” This means that each workload will be assessed for possibilities to not only right-size but also modernize along the way, choosing an appropriate migration strategy for each case.
As always, the ideal solution will be different for each customer, and it needs to be examined and benchmarked per use case. Overall, the workload should end up in a secure environment (as this should be a top priority), ready to handle production workloads, cost-effective, and reliable (that would not create a need to move workloads again soon).
Those who want to stay on-prem might go for another hypervisor or some other VMware product alternative. Those who have decided that this VMware change was the last straw that made the move to the cloud inevitable will need to choose a target cloud.
The main factors to take into consideration when making this decision will be:
AWS offers a complimentary VMware Migration Assessment of the current state of VMware workloads that will help companies make data-driven decisions. It will also help them see the right-sizing and cost-savings opportunities, as well as evaluate licensing options.
Another good point to mention is that until December 31, 2024, VMware Cloud on AWS customers can use the AWS VMware Migration Accelerator, which allows them to earn AWS promotional credits for migrating virtual machines (VMs) to Amazon EC2.
As mentioned earlier, each company’s use case and ideal outcome in this situation are different.
However, it is absolutely a good idea to proactively assess VMware's overall use, especially when it comes to license consumption. It is worth reviewing the alternatives well before the contracts are up for renewal or pricing increases are imminent. Having a strategic view of the next steps and understanding potential bottlenecks and ways to overcome them is the key to success in the long run. Ippon is here to help you make the right decisions based on the facts and data and also walk you through this transition.
Ippon is an AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) Partner, meaning that we have the skills and knowledge to help VMWare customers migrate their workloads to AWS. Ippon is there for our clients from start to finish of their migration journey. With the help of current state assessments, precise planning, and many other supporting activities, we ensure that the workloads get to their target platform quickly and with as little downtime as possible. It does not matter if the VMWare environment that needs to be moved is on-prem or on VMC on AWS; Ippon has the expertise to migrate it using proven frameworks. Ippon has helped to migrate workloads for companies in Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, and other industries. When it comes to the migration process, the same tested frameworks work great for all business domains. However, the individual client’s compliance requirements with industry standards are always regarded as the highest priority.
Feel free to contact us for any cloud migration-related questions. Ippon is a trusted migration partner who is here to help you! To learn more about cloud migrations, read our latest eBook, “Assessing the Maturity of Your Cloud Strategy,” or check out our Cloud Migration On-Demand Webinar Series, where we discuss how to prepare an organization for a seamless transition to the cloud.