What's happening with the VMware alternatives right now

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Following the acquisition of VMware, Broadcom completely overhauled its previous licensing model and significantly increased license prices, particularly for smaller editions of its products. As a result, many customers are currently on the lookout for alternatives to VMware.

They can be roughly divided into three classes: The first is hyperconverged infrastructure platforms (HCI), which provide storage services through the same server systems in addition to virtualization. The introduction of HCI requires approved and certified server hardware. The flagship VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) also falls into this category.

Classic hypervisors are also available – This category includes Microsoft's Hyper-V, KVM-based products such as Proxmox or HPE's Morpheus VM Essentials and the French company Vates, which offers XCP-ng, an open-source spin-off of XenServer.

The third category consists of products based on the open-source project KubeVirt initiated by Red Hat. It extends Kubernetes with a virtualization API and enables the execution and management of conventional VMs directly on Kubernetes.

The competitors: HCI

Nutanix has been active on the market since 2009 and can claim to have invented HCI technology for the x86 virtualization market. Until recently, a Nutanix implementation also required the purchase of HCI-capable hardware; Nutanix did not allow the connection of external storage systems until mid-2024 – and currently only two storage systems from Dell and PureStorage can be used here.

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Essentially, Nutanix can map the features of the VMware Cloud Foundation with its HCI storage platform, its hypervisor AHV and network services (with Nutanix Flow). The manufacturer also offers hosting for container-based Kubernetes applications and AI services, making it the most comprehensive offering. Despite the race to catch up, VMware is still slightly ahead in almost all areas. In terms of pricing, Nutanix appeals to the upper midmarket and large companies; for SMEs, the entry price of around 60,000 euros for software and hardware is too expensive.

Other manufacturers are currently trying to gain a foothold in the HCI market with more affordable offerings, such as the US manufacturer Verge.io, the British provider StorMagic with SvHCI and the Chinese provider Sangfor Technologies, which is currently working on entering the German market. Following the recent acquisition of StarWind, US storage specialist DataCore can now also offer a KVM-based HCI service for small environments. And let's not forget Microsoft: Azure Local, the further development of Azure Stack HCI, is aimed at customers who can live with management via the cloud.

Classic hypervisors

KVM now dominates here. The Austrian Proxmox is particularly popular with small customers. However, you are either dependent on in-house expertise or a good partner; the provider itself has no support structures that can meet the needs of enterprise customers. Proxmox itself is stable and has built up a good reputation.

The comparatively new offering HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software (MVME), which stems from the acquisition of Morpheus Data, looks promising. With its management tools (VM Essentials Manager, the counterpart to vCenter) and the cluster service (HVM Cluster), the product is based on the classic architecture of vSphere. HPE is currently offering the product at a competitive price, according to the price list for 600 US dollars per CPU socket (unlimited cores) and year. The administration of VMware and MVME can be integrated via an intuitive GUI.

The French company Vates offers something similar, based on the virtualization veteran XenServer. The price structure is particularly attractive (Pro version with at least three hosts for 1,000 dollars per host and year, Enterprise version with at least four hosts for 1,800 dollars per host and year, each including support).

Of course, Microsoft is also still active within the classic hypervisor world. As part of the manufacturer's focus on the Azure Cloud and services that are managed via Azure Arc, the classic Hyper-V and the associated management environment System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) no longer play a major role – even though both products have recently received a refresh with Windows Server 2025 and SCVMM 2025. The more modern, cloud-connected variant Azure Local belongs to the HCI category.

Path to the cloud

Those who want to get involved with a cloud-native architecture will find what they are looking for with Kube-Virt and Red Hat's commercial OpenShift Virtualization. Getting used to the Kubernetes approach is necessary; vSphere cannot be directly replaced. Red Hat has hit an attractive price point with the OpenShift Virtualization Engine (OVE), which is tailored to the management of VM-based workloads; the more comprehensive OpenShift variants (Kubernetes Engine, Container Platform and Platform Plus) are significantly pricier.

The ecosystem of compatible servers, storage systems and backup products is growing rapidly. However, storage provisioning in particular is a sticking point, as a container storage interface (CSI) must be provided – Kubernetes containers are inherently much more dynamic than virtual machines. However, the major storage providers are all following suit and are increasingly offering systems with the necessary interfaces. Anyone looking for more extensive protection mechanisms in the network area will find what they are looking for at partner company Isovalent (now part of Cisco) or can also rely on Cisco's SDN platform ACI. For customers looking for a fundamental renewal of their platform, a KubeVirt-based product can be a supplement and long-term alternative.

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