The great VM reset – Why organisations are rethinking virtualisation.

Many of the conversations I have with organisations tend to revolve around the same questions. How much capacity do we actually need? What impact will new hardware choices have on our licensing costs? And to what extent have we become dependent on a single vendor? This reassessment has become known as “The Great VM Reset”.

In this article, we explore why organisations are re-evaluating their virtualisation strategy, the role vendor lock-in plays in that process, and how to avoid unexpected costs when your next licence renewal comes around. We also look at HPE Morpheus VM Essentials as a potential way to gain greater flexibility and freedom of choice.

Applications are becoming increasingly resource-intensive. This is particularly true for VDI environments, data-heavy applications, and AI and machine learning solutions. Supporting these workloads often requires more powerful servers with higher core counts per host. However, that additional processing power can have financial consequences. Many hypervisor licensing models are based on the number of cores or sockets, meaning that increasing compute capacity can also drive up licensing costs.

For that reason, it no longer makes sense to evaluate hardware and software separately. If your servers are due for replacement or your licences are coming up for renewal, it’s worth looking at the bigger picture. How much capacity are you actually using? Which configuration best meets your requirements? And what impact will those decisions have on your licensing costs in the years ahead?

Another topic that comes up regularly in conversations with organisations is vendor lock-in. Over the years, many IT environments have become heavily centred around a single platform. Administrators have built up expertise around it, internal processes have been designed to support it, and other technology partners have aligned their services accordingly. As a result, switching to another vendor is rarely straightforward. Alternatives may exist, but migration is seldom as simple as installing a different hypervisor and carrying on as before. You also need to consider your applications, the skills available within the organisation, and the requirements of the partners and suppliers you work with.

I recently spoke to an organisation that was seriously considering an alternative platform. In practice, however, a key supplier only provided support for its existing virtualisation platform. Technically, the organisation wasn’t completely locked in, but making a change had become far more complicated. That’s why it pays to explore your options early, rather than waiting until a contract is due for renewal or costs unexpectedly begin to rise.

One solution attracting considerable attention at the moment is HPE Morpheus VM Essentials. The software enables organisations to manage both KVM- and VMware-based virtual machines from a single platform, making it easier to adopt a gradual approach. There is no need to replace your existing infrastructure all at once. Instead, you can first gain a clear understanding of your current environment, build experience with an alternative platform and identify which workloads are best suited to a phased migration.

For organisations operating more complex hybrid environments, HPE also offers Morpheus Enterprise. This solution provides centralised management across multiple environments, giving organisations greater control over how workloads are deployed and managed. The right approach will vary from one organisation to another, depending on factors such as the existing environment, the applications in use and the expertise available in-house.

To me, the Great VM Reset is first and foremost an opportunity to step back and ask some important questions. Does your current virtualisation strategy still support the direction your organisation is heading in? How do your hardware and licensing costs compare? What dependencies have developed over the years? And how much flexibility do you have to adapt if the market changes again?

There’s no reason to move away from an environment that continues to meet your needs However, if you are planning to invest in new hardware or renew your licences, it’s worth looking beyond the next contract cycle and taking a broader view of your long-term options.

A successful virtualisation strategy doesn’t begin with choosing a new platform. It starts with understanding the environment you already have. Which workloads are running today? How much capacity are you actually using? Where is capacity going unused? And what impact do your hardware choices have on the licences you need?

With ARP’s digital MOT, you gain a complete picture of your IT environment. The assessment provides insight into current usage, highlights potential bottlenecks and identifies opportunities to make more informed decisions, creating a stronger foundation for discussions about hardware, licensing and any future move to a different platform.