VMware licensing change

Broadcom and VMware were acquired in 2023. Subsequently, the licensing rules for vmware products changed. For end customers, this change means an increase in price, and at the same time such a rapid and significant change is an unexpected problem.

What's with the change? Support and licensing companies have had their contracts terminated at the end of April 2024. It will no longer be possible to buy permanent licences. Those who want a new license will have to switch to subscription licensing. In addition to the price change, the pricing method is also changing. For example, a significant change in terms of pricing is that it will be per CPU core and a minimum of 16 per CPU. In all ways this means an increase in price.

VMware is a proprietary solution, which means that one company controls everything: development, source code and licensing. As a result, the customer is at the mercy of the vendor and has no choice. The only solution is to migrate the infrastructure to a different solution and provide training for their people.

Another big risk is cloud solutions and licensing by subscription. In the case of a proprietary solution and a perpetual license, you were able to keep running the solution even if the company went out of business. Or, if the changes didn't suit you, you had the option to keep the product or solution running on the old solution and let it live. Having a cloud and subscription solution means you are forced to upgrade and accept new terms and conditions, including price. If the development company goes bust or just cancels the product, the service you relied on will stop working. See for example controllable light bulbs that required the cloud and now there's no way to control them.
There is then no small shock when licensing policies change as VMware has now demonstrated after its acquisition with Broadcom.

So now is the perfect time for users to think! Because there are two opportunities to migrate to Proxmox, a solution that builds on the opensource Linux kernel and KVM virtualization and LXC containers. Proxmox is an opensource solution and as a result you are not at risk if your vendor decides to change, you have no choice but to comply with the new situation. With Proxmox you have the option to hire another vendor or manage the solution yourself. There is also no risk that if development stops, no one can continue the development of the product.

Why switch from VMware to Proxmox

Moving from VMware to Proxmox can be beneficial for several reasons:

• Open Source: Proxmox is an open-source platform, which means you have access to its source code. Open source allows for vendor independence and the assurance that the solution will not disappear.
• Low Cost: Proxmox is free to use, which can be attractive to organizations on a budget or businesses, that can provide support themselves. In contrast, VMware requires paid licenses.
• Complete Solution: Proxmox combines virtualization (KVM for machine virtualization) with open storage (ZFS). This may be suitable for organizations looking for a complete virtualization and storage solution.
• Easy Integration: Proxmox offers easy integration with many open standards and protocols. This can facilitate integration with other tools and systems.
• Excellent support: Proxmox also has a strong community, so you can find support on forums and newsgroups or pay or company IT server management specialist.
• Scalability: With its open architecture and customizability, the Proxmox better suited for specific needs or advanced configurations.
• Backup: Proxmox allows you to set up automatic incremental backups, and with the Proxmox backup server makes backup configuration simple.
• Excellent performance: in moha cases Proxmox provides better performance than VMware.

Performance

When running a VPS in a Proxmox environment, especially if the VPS has a Linux OS installed, you will get better performance. Contrast VPS with linux. achieves better disk IO performance using Proxmox with KVM than when running in VMware.
The configuration of Proxmox and the technologies used can be optimized and again, better performance can be achieved accordingly. The entire visualization platform, can be custom designed to optimize performance.

Migration

There are several ways to migrate your servers from VMware to Proxmox. It also depends if you are running containers or full VPS in VMware.

In the case of VPS, one of the easiest methods is to shut down the server to export the disk and import it into the Proxmox environment. This is similar to how you can import a Windows VPS.

You will need one machine for these changes, where the original VMware will still run, and a machine that will now run Proxmox and network storage to pass the exported disks.

Analysis

Because each organization is unique it should consider its specific needs and requirements and design their infrastructure and migration plan accordingly. Mainly prepare a plan to export the VPS from VMware environment and import it into Proxmox environment.

Conclusion

To resolve VMware licensing changes and have more security, migrate to Proxmox! You'll also ensure better performance at the same time.

If you want help installing and running Proxmox VE and VPS migration please feel free to contact me

Other Resources

Root.cz: Broadcom has ended sales of VMware perpetual licenses
VMware: End Of Availability of Perpetual Licensing and SaaS Services