Today, VMware clients might be facing transformational decisions amidst an evolving landscape following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and in search of the best pathways to serve their business needs. However, this process can be complex and challenging, with the potential impacts of choosing the right offerings, adapting to licensing modifications and navigating the partnership impacts.

IBM Consulting® can support VMware clients in their transformational journey based on its vast experience of supporting clients through their hybrid cloud estate. IBM Consulting also acts as their trusted partners on the path to their Hybrid by Design leadership journey. IBM Consulting does this with not just the strong technology/product capabilities brought by Red Hat and IBM technology but with a strong ecosystem with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, IBM Cloud®, GCP and OCI. By understanding each company’s distinct position regarding its VMware footprint, IBM Consulting can create bespoke recommendations ranging from assessment, advisory, migration, modernization and managing applications, focused on minimizing risks and promoting sustainable growth.

This blog offers an in-depth look into all available options for enterprises when it comes to their VMware workloads. It will also explore how IBM® can empower clients on their journey, whether that be continuing on their path with VMware or looking at alternative options. Specific examples and best practices will be provided based on IBM Consulting’s experience working with a range of clients, as well as guidance on how to navigate the complex landscape of cloud migration and virtualization.

Decision criteria to determine future pathways

As organizations that use VMware explore the paths in front of them, IBM Consulting recommends using six specific criteria to evaluate their strategic direction:

1. Types of applications (for example, mission critical versus ephemeral)
2. Time frame of VMware license renewal
3. Technology refresh cycles
4. Risk profile of transformation efforts
5. Operating models and practices
6. Skills needed for transformation and for operations

Most organizations will take a phased approach to their transformations and a) end up clustering their applications into groups to drive operational strategy; b) continue modernization on VMware; c) move to another virtual environment; or d) containerize and select the right location for their applications on-premises, private cloud or public cloud.

Using years of experience accelerating clients’ journey to hybrid cloud, IBM Consulting brings a deep understanding of such pathways, enabling seamless integration and optimized implementations for enterprises. With its gen AI-asset driven migration factory approach, an innovative engagement model that is built on IBM Garage™ Methodology for app modernization. IBM Consulting offers a customized approach that is adapted to clients’ current situation, creating their pathway to their point of need. It is a squad-based, workstream-centric method that uses generative AI (gen AI) and automation to achieve such rapid transformations at scale. By using automated tools, best practices and a phased approach, it helps organizations minimize risks, reduce costs and accelerate their cloud migration journeys.

Exploring new strategic avenues:

1. Containerize:

What? Rearchitect applications to take advantage of cloud-native containers. Why? To move to the most agile and modern environment; future proof transformation; most risk of transition.

• Some solution options for on-premises location: Containerize current applications to overcome IT complexity and conquer competitive demand with platforms like Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Fusion HCI and IBM Cloud Pak® for Apps.
• Some solution options for Cloud: Rearchitect applications to take advantage of cloud-native containers like Red Hat OpenShift, AKS, EKS, IKS, ROSA, ROKS, ARO or IBM Cloud Pak for Apps.

Red Hat OpenShift is the leading hybrid cloud application platform, bringing together a comprehensive set of tools and services that streamline the entire application lifecycle. It helps clients reduce risk and drive productivity with consistency across environments, including on-premises data centers, the public cloud and the edge. Available in self-managed or fully managed editions, Red Hat OpenShift can help clients meet user demands for modern AI-enabled apps, essential legacy applications and everything in between.

Organizations looking for a fast on-ramp for existing VM workloads alongside containers, IBM Cloud Pak for Apps, built on the Red Hat OpenShift container platform, provides a unified platform with a significant advantage in recurring costs. 

2. Continue modernization with VMware

Why choose this option? Less time left for license renewal, criticality of applications, business continuity considerations, leverage considerable investment in VMware skills and tools.

• Solution options for Cloud: Migrate VMware workloads to public clouds like IBM Cloud, Azure, Google Cloud Platform or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Get flexibility and scale, with 1-year, 3-year or 5-year committed pricing.
• Solution options for on-premises location: Switch to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or VMware vSphere Foundation subscription (VVF). While adopting these, IBM Consulting can help organizations identify opportunities to optimize licensing of third-party technologies to reduce the total cost of ownership.

Organizations looking to invest in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on cloud can take advantage of IBM Cloud. It is the first Cloud partner to offer an automated and fully featured VCF solution bundle as a service and uniquely providing complete entitlement and control. Organizations can take advantage of thousands of customizable options, built-in security and controls, bring familiar best-of-breed tools and solutions from VMware ecosystem and get up to 201% ROI over three years* with IBM Cloud.

3. Rehost to other virtual platforms

This option comes with rehosting the current VMware environment on Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) or a new virtual environment. It helps clients keep the advantage of a virtual environment, optimize cost and prevent vendor lock-in and relatively has a medium risk of transition.

• Solution options for Cloud: Rehost applications on hyperscaler’s virtual machine instances, like AWS EC2, IBM Cloud Virtual Server VPC or Azure Virtual Machines.
• Solution options for on-premises location: Rehost applications to a new platform that takes advantage of a hypervisor such as Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, IBM Fusion HCI, IBM PowerVM®.

Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization can reduce the complexity involved in migrating and managing existing virtual machines (VMs) on a single unified, modern application platform. It offers organizations an efficient way to modernize their infrastructure. It minimizes operational overhead by providing a consistent platform that runs on-premises, in the public cloud, and out at the edge, with a single management interface and set of development and operations tools that bring the benefits of Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes to applications running in VMs.

• Organizations get flexibility to modernize applications and infrastructure with IBM Fusion HCI, which addresses the high costs of virtual machines. Using Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Fusion HCI enables clients to save costs on their journey to a cloud-native future. 

Optimize for efficiency with FinOps

Any transformation effort can take several months or even years to be fully complete. But are there any immediate steps that can be taken to lessen the impact? Technology solutions like an automated resource optimization solution, can help customers optimize their VMware environment to safely increase utilization across shared resources and streamline server utilization without impacting performance.

This enables customers to reduce their need for extra VMware licensing and hardware, reducing refresh costs while improving efficiency and performance. And when you combine IBM Turbonomic with IBM Cloudability, you can facilitate deeper cost analysis and partnership between engineering, business and finance teams in a FinOps solution that continuously optimizes your environment.

Evolve your application and hybrid cloud strategy

After the first phase of transformation, organizations should continue to evolve their application and hybrid cloud strategy. They can do this by relooking at business goals, application footprint and decision criteria to keep driving to their business transformation goals.

Register for a rapid VMware assessment with IBM Consulting to explore VMware future pathways to drive business success and mitigate risks.

*ROI is based on Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by IBM.