Who’s Driving Virtualization? Kicking Off the Road Trip
Over the years, VMware vSphere has been the gold-standard — the reliable luxury sedan of the datacenter. It’s delivered a smooth ride with powerful features, a robust ecosystem, and enough polish to keep your operations humming. Many of us have built entire practices, architectures, and skill sets around that platform. But with the Broadcom acquisition, the road has changed. New licensing structures, evolving product bundles, and operational shifts have created uncertainty — the equivalent of finding out that your well-loved sedan suddenly takes only premium-priced fuel and requires a new maintenance shop. So what are your options? Stick with VMware? That’s still a perfectly valid choice, especially if you double down on modernizing how you run it. Enhancing vSphere with Pure’s FlashArray, FlashBlade, and Fusion gives you ways to simplify, automate, and reduce costs, while maintaining that familiar driving experience. Look for an alternative? That’s where things get interesting. Because changing hypervisors isn’t like changing lanes on the highway — it’s more like switching to a whole different vehicle, with a new dashboard, new handling, new maintenance, and a different driving style. Framing the Conversation: The Virtualization Vehicle Metaphor In our session, we used a driving metaphor to illustrate these choices: 🚛 Hyper-V — The Municipal Fleet Pickup Reliable, widely available, low-cost. If you know Windows, you know Hyper-V, and the licenses may already be in your toolbox. 🚙 Nutanix AHV — The Retro-Modern Concept Car Streamlined, integrated, designed for simplicity. An HCI approach that reimagines what virtualization can look like. 🚐 Azure Local — The Electric Sprinter Van Hybrid-ready, with a familiar dashboard if you live in the Microsoft ecosystem. Built for flexible, modern routes. 🚗 AWS Outposts — The Off-Road Luxury SUV The same AWS powertrain, but adapted to handle rugged hybrid terrain on-premises. 🏎️ KVM — The EV Sports Car That’s Actually a Customized Japanese Compact (or maybe a well-used Ranger) Flexible, open-source, highly modifiable — but definitely for drivers who are ready to get their hands dirty and do their own tuning. Each of these “vehicles” comes with a different mix of: ✅ migration effort ✅ operational changes ✅ skill requirements ✅ and data protection needs Key Takeaways from Accelerate Here’s what stood out during our live session and the conversations that followed: ✅ There is no drop-in replacement for VMware. Each platform brings its own challenges and benefits. ✅ Migration is not just technical — it’s cultural, operational, and often requires reskilling your team. ✅ Modernizing with vSphere is still a strong path — with storage, automation, and security improvements, you can get more from what you already own. ✅ Pure is built to be your co-pilot — no matter which hypervisor you choose, we’re there to help you protect, manage, and move data seamlessly. One theme that resonated was that the driver matters as much as the car. Your organization’s skills, processes, and risk tolerance all shape which road makes sense. You can’t pick a new hypervisor in a vacuum — you have to look at what you can maintain, what you can train for, and what you can support. Where We’re Going with This Series We had a ton of material packed into Accelerate — far more than fits in a single session recap. So here on Pure Community, I’ll be breaking down each of these hypervisors in detail, one at a time. Here’s what you can expect: 🚛 Hyper-V We’ll dig into its Windows ecosystem strengths, where it works well, and what trade-offs come with a move from VMware. 🚙 Nutanix AHV Here we will take a look at how a platform that once was a integrated HCI. Can offer simplicity when it meets enterprise-grade capabilities on Pure Storage — and where it may leave gaps. 🚐 Azure Local Let's explore the strength is a hybrid-ready strategy. The native integrations, and what to watch out for when moving workloads from traditional hypervisors. 🚗 AWS Outposts Together we’ll break down why Outposts is not just a “VMware replacement,” but really an AWS extension, with its own Day 2 and migration realities. 🏎️ KVM We’ll explore the open-source options, why so many see it as a cost-saver, and the skills you’ll need to manage it at scale. So, Who’s Driving? My biggest takeaway from Accelerate is this: Your hypervisor journey is less about the technology, and more about the people and processes behind it. Every route — modernize VMware, switch to a new platform, or blend hybrid options — has trade-offs. But with the right planning, the right skills, and the right partners, you can make the journey smoother. Pure is committed to being your co-pilot, whichever path you choose. Whether you’re rolling out Fusion, looking to modernize with FlashArray, or exploring migration options, our ecosystem and integrations are designed to keep your data resilient, performant, and simple to manage. Join the Discussion I’d love to hear from you: 🚗 Are you staying on VMware? 🚗 Modernizing your vSphere environment? 🚗 Kicking the tires on an alternative hypervisor? What worries you? What excites you? Drop a comment below — to keep the conversation going. Let’s keep mapping this road trip — together.
