Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware caused quite a stir in the technology industry and continues to prompt VMware customers to consider alternatives. New data from research firm Gartner might give IT leaders pause, however, as analysts detail the long, costly, and risky road ahead for enterprise organizations considering a large-scale VMware migration.
A project to migrate from VMware’s server virtualization platform could require between seven and 10 full-time equivalents for one month and up to six FTEs for nine months, the firm estimates in its report, “Quick Answer: Estimating a Large-Scale VMware Migration.” External migration services would range from $300 to $3,000 per virtual machine, based on workload complexity, size of migration, and the type of migration (standard or live), according to Gartner. Add to all this personnel costs, and the expense might not be worth it.
“It is highly likely that other costs would be incurred in a large-scale migration. This includes acquisition of new software licenses and/or cloud expenses, hardware purchases (compute, storage), early termination costs related to the existing virtual environment, application testing/quality assurance and test equipment,” the report reads.
And the total duration of the project could run between 18 and 48 months, meaning that “for most enterprises, the investment and opportunity cost of a large-scale migration would prove challenging,” Gartner writes.
Part of the challenge lies in the fact that VMware’s server virtualization platform “has become the point of integration for its customers across server, storage, and network infrastructure in the data center,” Gartner explains in the paper. “The size and scope of large-scale migration will vary, but we expect a midsize enterprise would take at least two years to untangle much of its dependency upon VMware’s server virtualization platform.”
Beyond the time and cost to migrate, such a project could also negatively impact operational costs, according to Gartner. Organizations weighing the benefits of migrating must also consider the following potential outcomes as a result of a large-scale VMware migration:
- Reduced productivity due to change in processes and decreased automation
- Required funding for new management tools
- Additional operational skills investments
- Risk of decreased reliability, availability, security, and/or resilience
- Difficulty maintaining service-level agreements
A large-scale migration would also require expertise across IT domains and business units, according to Gartner. The research firm speculates that internal expertise in architecture, security, vendor management, and more would need to be involved to successfully migrate off the popular platform.
“Exploring potential alternatives for VMware’s server virtualization platform will, therefore, be challenging, and undertaking a full market scan is likely to take many months at a minimum. This is because there are many potential alternatives but no single or simple replacement across all enterprise requirements,” Gartner states in the report.
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Source:: Network World