As you may have noticed, VMware has been acquired by Broadcom, which is having a significant impact on VMware customers. Major changes are already underway, such as the elimination of free ESXi and the discontinuation of perpetual licenses.
Some customers were fortunate enough to extend their contracts under the old terms, giving them time to consider their options. However, others weren’t as lucky and are now facing dramatic price increases, with reports of some customers seeing price hikes as high as 1200%.
Naturally, for many VMware customers, these changes are unacceptable and business-critical. So the question arises: Are there viable alternatives? And perhaps more importantly, alternatives that won’t put you in the same position again in a few years?
The short answer is: Yes, there are.
Transitioning to a new solution will require some time, and you’ll need to reevaluate and adapt the concepts and workflows you’ve relied on with VMware. But there are alternatives that can meet your needs.
Two of the most well-known alternatives in the open-source world are OpenStack and Proxmox VE.
- OpenStack has a different approach than VMware. It focuses on large-scale deployments and managing virtual machines (VMs) in massive environments. While it excels at fresh deployments and cloud infrastructure, it’s not as focused on ease of VM management or high availability (HA) for VMs. OpenStack is known for its complexity, which can make it a challenging solution to adopt for smaller or more traditional IT environments.
- Proxmox VE, on the other hand, is much more in line with VMware’s approach. It’s a complete, fully open-source solution, though enterprise-level support is available if needed. Proxmox VE leverages KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) technology, which is integrated into the Linux kernel, transforming any Linux host into a powerful hypervisor.
Proxmox VE supports clustering multiple KVM hosts (nodes) and adds an advanced management layer that simplifies the deployment, monitoring, and administration of your virtual machines. This management layer is accessible through a web interface as well as command-line tools, providing robust features that are very similar to VMware, including:
- Load balancing and rebalancing of VMs based on resource demand.
- High Availability (HA) for VMs, with the ability to set HA groups to ensure specific VMs run on particular nodes (important for licensing compliance).
- Software-defined networking and more advanced networking features.
- The ability to manage LXC containers, which can be much more resource-efficient than VMs.
While there isn’t a direct 1-to-1 feature comparison between Proxmox VE and VMware, Proxmox can accomplish everything that VMware does, with the added benefit of being open-source and cost-effective.
The scalability of Proxmox VE is also impressive. While typical deployments consist of up to 32 nodes, there’s no strict limit on cluster size. Larger clusters with up to 100 nodes and 16,000 VMs have been successfully deployed, although network latency must be taken into account.
Proxmox VE also supports automated deployment of VM groups through tools like Ansible or Terraform, offering even more flexibility for complex environments.
Lastly, backup management is a common challenge for many VMware users. Proxmox addresses this with its Proxmox Backup Server — an integrated, open-source backup solution designed to manage incremental, fully deduplicated backups for VMs, physical hosts, and containers. It also includes features like integrity checks and encryption.
Proxmox VE is not a new player on the market; it has been around for years and has proven itself as an enterprise-ready, reliable solution. The development of Proxmox VE continues at a steady pace, with new features being introduced regularly. The active community around Proxmox ensures that it remains a top choice for users who want to avoid VMware’s costly vendor lock-in and are looking for a more flexible, open-source alternative.
Given the recent changes in VMware’s business model, Proxmox VE is becoming an increasingly popular alternative for those seeking a stable, cost-effective solution for virtualization needs.