Last week VMware sent out a communication to its partners confirming their agreement to be acquired by Broadcom. The transaction is expected to close sometime in 2023. While VMware has been through significant acquisitions before, this time it’s different.
If you lived through Broadcom buying CA or Symantec, you may have seen changes in sales and technical support that made it hard to love keeping those products in your portfolio. You may be thinking the same thing could soon happen with VMware, and it might. But VMware occupies a different part of the Broadcom portfolio than Symantec. While both solutions met critical needs, Symantec’s products bolted on to the side of your portfolio; changing it out for any other competing product – whether for anti-virus or archiving – but it didn’t affect the core of your infrastructure. VMware sits in the heart of your infrastructure, and pumps blood to your business constantly. So, where you might have dumped Symantec AV relatively quickly, it’s worth taking a more considered approach as VMware sales and technical support goes through inevitable changes. With the VMware sale coming in 2023, it’s time to get a plan in place for your data center.
Just as data centers have been changing with the cloud, VMware’s role in the data center is changing too. You’ve undoubtedly spent a lot of time thinking about how to deliver data center services to your business over the last few years. If you thought you were done making those plans, VMware’s sale to Broadcom should give you reason to keep thinking about it.
So for all of you that expect to still be paying VMware support next year, let’s look at what you should be doing now to get ready:
1. Buy time. Convert to Subscription VMware licenses NOW. You can change your VMWare perpetual licenses to subscription at current pricing and avoid the risk of price increases under Broadcom. Check with your VMware partner and you’re likely to see both a financial benefit and some additional features you can get to help your operations. We’re happy to help here, and we’ve got plenty of experience helping other customers make this licensing transition.
2. Develop patterns for applications. You’ve got options: alternative hypervisors, cloud, serverless, containers, SaaS. Identify which of those make sense for each application, accounting for the criticality of each. Talk to other folks in your industry that have similar or the same applications and see what they’ve done, or what they’re thinking about. While you’re doing this, remember that VMware isn’t going away – it may still have an important role in your infrastructure.
3. Explore. Before you decide you’re starting a major cloud migration, dip your toe in. Whatever solutions you choose, it’s worth getting your hands dirty, testing, breaking stuff a little in a safe place. At a minimum, your team will get a little experience to see what they’re comfortable with and what they aren’t. Ideally, you’ll learn a little about which applications belong where. Get outside help with this – it’s worth having help getting over the inevitable bumps.
4. Plan for Staffing Changes. If you’re not doing cloud or Kubernetes today, you probably didn’t hire people that know these technologies. Understand which of your staff will be able to adapt and where you’ll need to hire skills. Also remember that as your infrastructure changes, so do some of the operational activities to support it. You might need different roles than you have today. Moving to the cloud? You probably need less Systems Engineers and more Automation Engineers.
5. Start now. If you decide to move to the cloud, it takes time to do that right. And engaging a SaaS provider in a rush is a recipe for over-spending and missed expectations. Start your planning and testing now to get as much runway as possible.
One complexity to keep in mind as you consider your new reality is that modern application infrastructure offers features that weren’t available in traditional hypervisors. Even in 2022, we’re still seeing clients move their virtual machines into the cloud without refactoring the applications. That’s like hitching your new car behind a team of horses.
VMware’s acquisition aside, the reality is, technology is continuously evolving, and data centers are changing more than ever. With that in mind, my advice is to tighten your relationship with a partner that can support your VMware environment, but also knows Cloud, Nutanix and other modern infrastructure options. iShift’s highly versatile and knowledgeable professionals can provide expert guidance so companies can best meet their digital business transformation goals.
Yes, change is coming, but the future doesn’t need to be scary. Want to know more? Let’s talk.
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About Pete Kinkead
As Vice President of Services, Pete is at the helm of the iShift team of consultants responsible for delivering projects that make companies become more efficient, more competitive, and more innovative in a rapidly evolving environment. Following uncompromisingly his guiding principle of “Getting it right the first time” Pete often plays the role of an agent of change for his clients by directing them in their transformational undertakings. Follow Pete on LinkedIn.
About iShift
iShift is a multi-cloud technology solutions company that provides cloud engineering, cloud migration, cloud management and specialized IT staffing services. Our mission is to help businesses to simplify and accelerate growth while enabling digital transformation and IT modernization. No matter where organizations are in their cloud journey, iShift can design, build, optimize and manage a future-ready multi-cloud environment, resulting in significant cost savings, increased workforce productivity, operational resilience, continuity of services, and business agility. For more information on how our offerings empower businesses through their adoption of cloud and modern technology, visit www.ishift.net.
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