Automation and [SvHCI’s VMware] VM Import Utility were absolutely vital to scaling this migration. Operating in a 24/7/365 retail environment meant that minimizing business disruption was critical. It required meticulous planning and heavy automation to ensure our store operations ran as smoothly as possible throughout the entire transition.
SvHCI product maturity in relation to APIs meant it was a small amount of extra work, and the main challenge of the migration was [finding] the time available to do it, for the scale of the environment. They were having to simultaneously plan, develop, and implement.
For many companies, the idea of moving off VMware is daunting due to the money, time, and staff that it may require. Some also report challenges in finding alternatives with the same capabilities and compatibility as VMware. Total or even partial migrations can seem particularly implausible for organizations that depend on VMware technology.
As a result, there are many VMware customers interested in quitting or reducing their use of VMware products, but have yet to make the move or are still in the planning phases. In September, Gartner estimated that 35 percent of VMware workloads would migrate elsewhere by 2028.
StorMagic targets VMware’s larger customers
StorMagic has a reputation for serving small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), but today’s announcement highlights its interest in winning over the enterprise-sized firms that Broadcom’s VMware strategy targets, especially enterprises with numerous SMB-sized locations.
“In reality, we have always focused heavily on two distinct markets: SMB/mid-market datacenters and the ‘edge’ environments of large, highly distributed enterprises, like Sheetz. A distributed enterprise with hundreds or thousands of retail, grocery, or branch locations actually faces similar IT challenges at each site as a local SMB,” Scott Mann, StorMagic’s SVP of global sales, told Ars via email, pointing to these organizations having limited physical space, power, on-site technical staff, and budget.
The executive sees further opportunity among VMware’s current enterprise clients.
“Historically, large enterprises tolerated the ‘VMware tax’ at their edge locations because it was the status quo. However, with recent massive industry shifts, specifically Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, enterprises are facing massive budget increases just to keep their remote sites running,” Mann said.
Other enterprises recently revealed to be migrating off of VMware include Allstate, T-Mobile, and UK grocery chain Tesco.
For its part, Broadcom has argued that changes to VMware’s licensing model are in line with the rest of the industry, and its acquisition of VMware is considered financially successful.
