The hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) market is changing. Many businesses are moving away from popular solutions like VMware vSphere. Changing licensing, costs, concerns about vendor lock-in, and the need for greater flexibility drive this shift.
Businesses are increasingly seeking alternatives offering performance, flexibility, and more cost-effective pricing models. These options empower companies to build IT environments that better align with their evolving business needs.
Discovering the ideal alternative to VMware vSphere presents a great opportunity, but it’s not just a matter of making a simple switch. Especially if you’re managing small/medium business (SMB) or edge environment.
It’s crucial to select a solution that’s specifically tailored to meet your unique business requirements. Let’s explore the key considerations for this decision.
Today’s Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market
Many businesses choose HCI solutions that don’t fit exactly what they need, leading to overpriced or overprovisioned setups.
This happens when companies feel stuck picking big-name vendors that might include extra features or demand more resources than necessary. As a result, they pay for features they don’t even use, and even can end up overspending on IT budgets.
However, many settle with a big-name vendor because it’s a trusted, well-known, and easy option – despite the solution not being as flexible and scalable as they might hope. This is a common occurrence for SMBs and edge environments, where businesses might end up spending more than they intended. Or buy-in the extra functionality they might not need.
Broadcom, VMware, and the Shifting HCI Landscape
One notable change in today’s HCI market is Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. It has caused businesses to rethink their reliance on VMware’s HCI software, due to concerns over changes in pricing, support, and product direction.
Companies want to find alternative vendors that offer more flexibility over their IT environments, especially if a new solution can fulfil their exact needs, more than vSphere and vSAN ever could.
There is now a greater interest in alternative solutions, offering ample opportunities for vendors and SMB/edge customers alike. HCI vendors are challenged to improve their offerings, while customers now have the opportunity to find a new and purpose-built hyperconverged infrastructure solution that suits their exact needs. It’s almost a win-win!
What to Look for in a vSphere Alternative
It’s wise to focus on the core capabilities of good HCI software. We recommend ensuring your chosen vendor displays core competencies for the following features:
Virtualization
Storage virtualization enables you to remove the boundaries of physical storage. Virtualization creates a virtual version of a physical resource, such as a server, storage device, or network. Learn more about how it works here.
In HCI software, virtualization lets you consolidate computing, storage, and networking into one platform, so that everything runs together, smoothly. This setup not only makes the best use of your hardware. It also simplifies managing and expanding your infrastructure, as your business grows.
Additionally, IT teams get increased flexibility to handle changing needs with less effort. Your HCI becomes flexible, scalable, and efficient, so you can always respond to changes easily.
High Availability
High Availability (HA) refers to a system’s ability to ensure uninterrupted operation and accessibility. This is typically measured as a percentage of uptime. To ensure high availability, you need to decrease downtime, eliminate single points of failure, and distribute data across multiple locations. You can learn more about how HA works here.
In HCI software, HA ensures that your IT systems remain operational even if components fail. The system automatically shifts from a failed node to another functioning node. This prevents downtime – which is crucial for any business as it minimizes disruption to your day-to-day functioning.
Ease of Use and Management
Ease of use and management is crucial for businesses with limited staff. A HCI should be easy to deploy, configure, and manage. This significantly reduces the operational burden on IT teams. Additionally, features such as centralized management, remote access, and automated updates are highly beneficial.
Performance and Scalability
The ideal HCI software will help businesses achieve the necessary performance while minimizing resource consumption within the integrated system. Scalability is equally vital, as businesses require the capability to expand their HCI as their virtual infrastructure needs grow.
Compatibility and Integration
Compatibility with existing hardware and software can help businesses to avoid costly migrations or hardware replacements. An ideal HCI is compatible with your operating systems and applications. It should also integrate seamlessly with existing IT infrastructure. For example, for SMBs, the ability to run legacy applications could be a deciding factor in choosing the right HCI.
Support
Any IT investment requires good support. This is especially true if you don’t have extensive in-house IT expertise. The availability of vendor support, as well as an active user community, can make a significant difference in troubleshooting and resolving issues quickly.
5 VMware vSphere Alternatives
When looking for a vSphere alternative, a handful of solutions stand out due to their features and capabilities in today’s HCI market. With reliability and performance, they seem to be the go-to choices for businesses looking for new HCI software that fits their needs.
We recommend evaluating based on your specific business requirements. Assess your VMware software to your prospective solution based on:
- The VMware software features you use
- How broadly the features are used across your business
- How the alternative vendor and its capabilities compare
For example, not all of the below solutions will be ideal for a small or medium business (SMB) with tighter budgets. Or edge or edge-like environments that need HA and reliability at reduced costs. And today’s shift in the HCI market and the surplus of alternatives offer the perfect opportunity to avoid compromising on cost.
1. Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
Microsoft Azure Stack HCI blends on-premises hardware with Microsoft’s cloud services. This solution is a unified platform for all of your virtualized workloads, enabling high performance and easy integration with other Microsoft products, like Azure for easier management and other cloud features.
2. Nutanix NCI-Edge
Nutanix NCI-Edge is built for edge environments. It simplifies management and scales efficiently, providing better performance and reliability for remote and distributed locations, with seamless integration into Nutanix’s cloud ecosystem.
3. Red Hat OpenShift
Red Hat OpenShift uses Kubernetes to manage containerized applications. It combines infrastructure and application management into a single solution, making it easier to deploy, scale, and secure applications in both hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
4. Scale Computing Platform
Scale Computing Platform delivers HCI by integrating storage, computing, and virtualization into one system. It offers a scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solution, ideal for SMBs looking for a straightforward IT setup.
5. StorMagic SvHCI
StorMagic SvHCI is a cost-effective full-stack HCI solution, designed for 100% uptime, with 24/7 Platinum StorMagic support included. This means you get more value from your HCI, without compromising on important capabilities, reliability, or support features. Additionally, it’s purpose-built for SMB and edge environments, helping you avoid HCI that’s ‘too big’ for your exact needs.
Find the Ideal vSphere Alternative
There’s no doubt that VMware’s new software licensing model has fewer benefits for SMB and edge customers. You might not be able to use all the features you’re looking for, and there are more limitations to obtaining other standalone products, like vSAN. This is because the perpetual and subscription-based VMware vSAN license no longer exists.
It’s an apt time to look for a new full-stack HCI software that fulfills your organization’s unique needs. To help make your decision, or simply to learn more about what’s out there, we recommend the new ‘2024-25 DCIG Top 5 VMware vSphere Alternatives SMB/Edge Edition’ report. It’s packed with insights from DCIG, the leading research and analyst firm within the IT industry.
