With the decision by UK-based Fintech cloud operator Beeks Group to switch from VMware to the open-source Open Nebula platform, Broadcom has suffered yet another major setback in the VMware market. This switch impacts the majority of Beeks’ 20,000 virtual machines (VMs) and reflects growing discontent with VMware under Broadcom’s leadership.
Read Also: The Best Landing Page Builders and WordPress Hosting Services from Elementor.
What motivated Beeks to move to Open Nebula
The Beeks Group manages over 3,000 bare-metal servers across 20+ data centers offering a range of virtual private servers and bare-metal solutions tailored for financial services.
The switch to OpenNebula was prompted by several factors, according to Matthew Cretney, Beeks’ Head of Production Management:
Rising Costs: Broadcom’s licensing fee was ten times more than previous costs.
Customer Feedback: Clients no longer viewed VMware as essential, citing alternative solutions with equivalent or superior value.
Declining Support and Innovation: Beeks’ tech team observed minimized quality in VMware’s support services and a lack of meaningful innovation.
Moreover, Beeks found VMware’s infrastructure burdensome, requiring excessive resources to manage VMs rather than run client operations.
Technical Challenges and Benefits of Beeks Migration
The migration to OpenNebula impersonated significant challenges, particularly because Beeks’ proprietary software relied heavily on VMware APIs. The development team had to rebuild these integrations to align with OpenNebula’s framework.
Metrics collection tools presented another difficulty. OpenNebula’s native capabilities for monitoring critical resources, i.e. CPU, disk, and memory, were insufficient for Beeks’ high-performance trading environment. Conversely, the open-source nature of OpenNebula enabled Beeks to customize and optimize these tools to meet its needs.
Despite the challenges, the results were impressive. Beeks achieved a 200% increase in VM efficiency, enabling more VMs per server and reducing operational costs for both the company and its clients.
Notable VMware migrations
Beeks’ decision aligns with a broader industry trend, as other notable companies like Geico, Computershare, Boyd Gaming, and John Deere have also migrated away from VMware. Common themes in these transitions include disappointment with Broadcom’s post-acquisition licensing terms and cost structures.
OpenNebula, which is more flexible and cost-effective than VMware’s Cloud Foundation (VCF), continues to attract IT professionals despite Broadcom’s positioning of VCF as a comprehensive solution for large networks.
Wrap-up:
Beeks now runs most of its operations on Open Nebula, but it still provides VMware services for customers who want them. For businesses assessing their virtualization plans as VMware contracts are up for renewal, this move can be used as a case study. In an increasingly competitive virtualization market, Broadcom faces two challenges: cost and innovation.
- Architecting Secure and Scalable Storage with Amazon S3 - December 18, 2024
- Broadcom LosesVMware Client: Beeks Group’s Shift to Open Nebula - December 12, 2024
Informative Article.. Excellent work by the publisher. 👍🏻
Cloud research is so important for understanding weather and climate. It helps scientists study how clouds form, how they affect temperatures, and how they play a role in climate change. Amazing work! Shiza Latif
Good job 👍
🙌
Your work really inspire me.keep it up👍
Good work 👍