VMware exit: migrate from VMware to Proxmox, KVM or containers

We move your virtual machines off vSphere to Proxmox VE, plain KVM or containers, on your own hardware or on dedicated machines in Pilae Cloud, and run the result for you.

Start with one workload Book a 30-minute briefing

Targets: Proxmox VE, KVM, containers
Where: Your hardware, any of 10+ Pilae Cloud regions, or both
Migration: Wave by wave, with a rollback for each machine
Onboarding: Fixed price, agreed before we start

A VMware migration planned machine by machine

A VMware estate is often hundreds of machines nobody wants to touch. We inventory them, decide what each one becomes, and move them in small waves with the old host kept as the fallback.

Inventory first

Every virtual machine is listed with its operating system, disks, network, dependencies and owner, from your vCenter export.

Proxmox or KVM for what stays a VM

Machines that should stay virtual move to Proxmox VE or KVM on the same hardware or on new hosts. Disks are converted and drivers checked before cut-over.

Containers where it pays

Web apps, databases and services that fit are rebuilt as containers and operated by Pilae, with backups and updates handled.

Waves with a fallback

Machines move in small groups. The source stays on VMware, powered off, until the new one has run through an agreed period.

On premises or Pilae Cloud

Keep your racks, move to dedicated machines in any of 10+ Pilae Cloud regions, or split the estate across both over one private network.

Backups from day one

Each migrated workload is backed up daily, encrypted and stored offsite in your chosen country, with a restore tested every month.

Why organisations are leaving VMware

After Broadcom bought VMware in November 2023, it moved the product line to subscriptions sold in bundles and priced per CPU core, and it stopped selling perpetual licences. Organisations that bought vSphere for a handful of hosts now choose from a short list of bundles set by the vendor. Some find the new terms acceptable. Others use the renewal date to ask whether they still need VMware at all.

For most workloads, there is an open alternative. Proxmox VE and KVM cover virtualisation, clustering and live migration. Containers cover the web apps and services that never needed a full virtual machine. What stops teams is the migration itself: hundreds of machines, each with an owner and a window.

A migration with a price and a date

We read your vCenter inventory and decide, with you, what each machine becomes. You receive a fixed-price plan for the migration that lists every machine and the order of waves. Each wave moves with the source kept as the rollback, until its owner signs it off.

Where the workloads land

On your own hardware, with on-premises deployment. On dedicated machines in any of 10+ Pilae Cloud regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU. Or split across both as a hybrid estate, on one private network with one console.

After the move, we run the platform under managed operations. The Pilae Agent plans every host and guest update and waits for your approval. If an exit is part of a wider plan to reduce vendor dependence, see exit plans. To start, book a call.

How a VMware exit runs

Inventory
We read your vCenter inventory and map each machine, its dependencies and its maintenance windows.
Decide
For each machine: move as a VM, rebuild as a container, or retire. You receive a fixed-price plan with the order of waves.
Build the target
We install Proxmox VE or KVM hosts, storage and networking, on your hardware or in Pilae Cloud, and test a first machine end to end.
Migrate in waves
Each wave is converted, started, tested by its owner and switched over in an agreed window, with the source kept as the rollback.
Operate
We run the new platform under an SLA, with monitoring, backups and updates planned by the Pilae Agent and approved by you.

What your contract includes

Migration scope: Each machine we move, rebuild or retire, listed with its target and acceptance test.
Price: Onboarding at a fixed price agreed before work starts. Operations quoted with it, on request.
Rollback: The source machine kept intact until its owner signs off the migrated one.
Availability: A monthly availability commitment, with service credits if we miss it: 99.5% on Business, 99.9% on Enterprise.
Backups: Daily and encrypted, stored offsite in your chosen country, restore tested every month, RPO and RTO in the contract.

The apps behind it

PostgreSQL

Managed PostgreSQL on dedicated machines in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre, with backups you can restore to the minute and upgrades you approve.

Replaces Amazon RDS, Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Grafana

Dashboards and alerts over your metrics, logs and traces, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre so the telemetry stays with you.

Replaces Datadog dashboards, New Relic

Questions

What changed in VMware licensing after the Broadcom acquisition?

Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023. It then ended the sale of perpetual licences in favour of subscriptions, folded most products into a small number of bundles such as VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation, priced per CPU core, and reorganised its partner programme. Depending on the estate, a renewal can include products an organisation does not use, and the budget has to be planned again.

What can we migrate VMware virtual machines to?

Proxmox VE, an open-source virtualisation platform (AGPL-3.0) built on KVM, is the closest match to vSphere for most estates. Plain KVM with libvirt suits smaller or automated estates. Services that fit are better rebuilt as containers. We recommend a target per machine rather than one answer for the estate.

Can we keep our existing servers?

Usually yes. Proxmox VE and KVM run on the hardware most VMware estates already use. We check the hardware, storage and network during the inventory and name anything that needs replacing.

How much downtime does a migration cause?

Each machine is down while its final disk copy is converted and started, in a window agreed with its owner. The plan lists the expected downtime per wave before any work starts.

What about features like vMotion and high availability?

Proxmox VE offers live migration between hosts, clustering and high availability. Some VMware features have no direct equivalent, and we list those in the plan with the way we cover each one.

How much does a VMware exit cost?

Pricing is on request. The migration is quoted at a fixed price after the inventory, and operations are quoted with it. Proxmox VE and KVM carry no licence fee; Proxmox subscriptions for enterprise repositories and vendor support are optional.

Platform

Send us your vCenter inventory.

A call with an engineer: we look at your estate, name a target for each group of machines and quote the migration at a fixed price.