As Broadcom announced the acquisition of VMware back in May 2022, many companies that rely on VMware for their cloud computing and infrastructure are scrambling to reassess their enterprise cloud strategy for the future. There are several key factors at play, many of which have a long established history to provide context and set the stage for what this might mean for VMware customers. But the message is clear: the questions surrounding the future of the massive software provider are starting to cast some shadows of doubt.

Broadcom Entering the Frame Has Set off the Alarms

This increased apprehension of VMware customers over the future of the enterprise software has opened the floodgates for existing customers to explore viable alternatives in the marketplace. Much of that apprehension stems from the profile of Broadcom, and details about what recent history has shown about their experience with enterprise acquisitions. As an enterprise that gains is 74% of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) from the top 600 accounts (just 0.5% of its total account portfolio)—with even the President of the Broadcom Software Group, Tom Krause, stating in the Broadcom Investor Day session of 2021 that they are “totally focused on the priorities of these top 600 accounts”—the question becomes how does this fare for VMware, an organization with thousands of enterprise customers and hundreds of thousands of commercial clients that depend on their software platform? 

And previous experience has shown that as a result of Broadcom’s acquisition of other large companies (e.g. CA Technologies and Symantec), existing customers experienced soaring prices, reduced investment in broader Research and Development, wavering support, and increased vendor lock-in. Particularly now, at a time of rising global inflation, the pressure for organizations to ensure their long-term ICT strategies align with their economic budgeting and goals, is even more paramount.

OpenNebula: The Open Source Alternative to VMware

This is a perfect time to highlight how OpenNebula offers a hugely competitive alternative for VMware customers under the framework of an open source enterprise solution. As a result of OpenNebula’s long-held integration with VMware vCenter infrastructure, we have been established VMware Technology Partners, and consequently, have a deep-rooted experience with VMware and the needs and challenges faced by VMware customers. Similarly, we have a long-standing history and experience with working with organizations, not only in building OpenNebula cloud management solutions on top of their VMware vCenter infrastructure, but even more so in migrating completely off of their VMware platforms to OpenNebula. 

OpenNebula has built a simple and flexible end-to-end platform that meets the many demands of VMware customers, with several key differentiators to consider:

• Lower TCO:  Compared with VMware, OpenNebula delivers a lower TCO and helps to reduce OpEx budget pressure and concerns.
• No Vendor Lock-In:  Once you have built your cloud with OpenNebula, you can then add new resources based on open source hypervisors—like KVM, LXC, or Firecracker—and hence use OpenNebula as a migration framework to an open cloud.
• Simplicity: Very easy to install, upgrade, and maintain, with an easy-to-use graphical interface.
• Flexible: Completely open, customizable, and modular, so it can be adapted to your needs and components.
• Multi-site and Hybrid:  You can manage a distributed collection of clusters across multiple data centers with a single OpenNebula instance, federate OpenNebula instances, and connect your cloud to public cloud providers.

An Easy Way to Evaluate

Don’t forget: OpenNebula is open source, available right now for you to download and begin your evaluation. You can test OpenNebula out on your VMware vCenter environment and build a cloud front-end in only five minutes by downloading our evaluation tool vOneCloud  and then automate the deployment of KVM-based nodes on-premise or using AWS bare-metal resources. And as you get closer to deciding whether OpenNebula is right for you, we have Enterprise offerings designed to provide you with the support and resources to ensure your OpenNebula solution is ready for “prime-time”. Time to check out our OpenNebula versus VMware: Competitive Pricing Review to discover the many benefits of migrating from VMware to OpenNebula! ⬇️