Choosing a VMware Competitor for Modern IT Needs

In today’s ever-evolving IT and business landscape, using the right vendor for enterprise virtualization and data center infrastructure is essential. While VMware has remained one of the leading names in the enterprise-level virtualization landscape, it’s getting constant competition from other capable brands.
Rising licensing costs, vendor lock-in period, and ever-evolving business requirements are making IT decision makers look beyond VMware. They are always on the lookout for better solutions for hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI) that offer:

1. Greater flexibility
2. More cost efficiency
3. And cloud readiness

VMware, being the most familiar name for IT needs, is often the go-to option for IT decision makers. However, multiple VMware Competitors such as Sangfor HCI, Nutanix, and Hyper-V by Microsoft are providing comprehensive solutions as well. If you’re considering VMware competitors for your IT needs, give this article a read to make a more informed decision.

Why Consider Alternatives to VMware?

The virtualization market has matured rapidly. Enterprises are moving on from standard virtualization requirements and shifting to:

• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Simplified management
• Cloud-native capabilities
• Enhanced security
• Vendor flexibility

While VMware has remained consistent with its service to a wide network of customers with standard services, its competitors have gone ahead with innovation. Additionally, constant concerns about growing licensing costs, the slow pace of innovation, and a lack of desired customer support have led many IT decision-makers to look for VMware alternatives.
The growing need for alternatives is forcing industry experts to scout VMware competitors to modernize infrastructure while mitigating risks associated with VMware’s acquisition. According to Gartner’s A Guide to Choosing a VMware Alternative in the Wake of Broadcom Acquisition, Sangfor Hyperconverged Infrastructure can be the most suitable VMware alternative.

Key Criteria for Evaluating VMware Competitors

Even with a growing need for alternatives, it’s easy to miscalculate options provided by different vendors, leading to disappointment. That’s why, before diving into any VMware alternative, clarify your business requirements and consider the following parameters:

1. Scalability: Consider if the business will grow without facing major disruption from VM (Virtual Machine) implementation. The platform must be scalable and should adapt to your organizational needs.
2. Security: Does the platform provide robust and integrated features as per your organizational needs?
3. Integration: Will this virtualization infrastructure work with your existing hardware and other third-party solutions?
4. Cloud Readiness: Can you easily extend to hybrid or public cloud environments?
5. Ease of Use: Is it intuitive, manageable, and come with hybrid or public cloud environments?
6. Cost Efficiency: Will you save on licensing, operations, and infrastructure by opting for this VMware competitor?

When choosing enterprise virtualization solutions, consider asking yourself the above questions. This must help you remove options that don’t fit your requirements.

Top VMware Alternatives that Help with Enterprise Virtualization

The following are the top recommendations for organizations seeking VMware alternatives that offer modern, enterprise-ready virtualization solutions –

Spotlight: Sangfor Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)

The hyperconverged infrastructure by Sangfor stands as a robust, next-generation solution helping organizations that want to modernize beyond VMware.
The following are the reasons why Sangfor Hyperconverged Infrastructure stays ahead among VMware competitors:

Unified & Software-Defined Platform

Compute, storage, network, and online security of an organization are integrated into a single software-defined stack under Sangfor HCI. Organizations benefit from this unified approach, getting rid of the siloed approach of the IT infrastructure of an organization in the process.

Cost Efficiency

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is reduced by 70% by consolidating legacy appliances and through streamlined data center operations. With Sangfor’s architectures, it’s easier to use commodity servers, lowering capital expenses further.

Built-In Security Features

Sangfor integrates security features directly into the Sangfor platform. This is unlike the security features that other modern HCI solutions follow.
It has a built-in security center, asset vulnerability identification, and Micro-segmentation for network isolation, and seamless integration with other Sangfor security solutions.

Reliability & High Performance

Here’s a fact: Sangfor HCI achieves up to 1 million IOPS with just three nodes (all-flash cluster). As a capable VMware competitor, Sangfor provides reliable features such as Native High Availability, integrated backup, and continuous data protection (CDP). Furthermore, this platform is optimized for business-critical applications and complete disaster recovery.

Easy Management

Sangfor boasts a Unified dashboard for all resources. The easy-to-use interface of the Sangfor dashboard makes it user-friendly for all users in the industry. With Sangfor, there’s a reduced need for manual intervention, which easily streamlines IT operations.

Other Notable VMware Competitors

The following are some modern options worth considering if you’re looking for the best virtualization platforms:

Nutanix

Organizations that seek a turnkey solution typically consider Nutanix their option after using VMware for a long time. Nutanix has a scalable infrastructure, and its platform supports multi-cloud deployments and allows the use of native management tools. Undoubtedly, Nutanix is well-suited for large enterprises.

Microsoft Hyper-V & Azure Stack

For organizations invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, Hyper-V and the Azure stack are great modern solutions to consider. It provides integration with the Windows server, Azure public cloud, and Active Directory. If hybrid capabilities and familiar management tools are your primary requirements, Hyper-V is a good VMware competitor to choose.

Red Hat Virtualization (oVirt/KVM)

Organizations that are fond of open-source hypervisors would love the modern solution that Red Hat Virtualization brings. It leverages KVM and oVirt for strong automation, flexibility, and container integration. This is undoubtedly a strong choice for DevOps environments. Additionally, organizations choosing to avoid vendor lock-in would prefer Red Hat Virtualization for the flexibility.

Citrix Hypervisor

Similar to Microsoft’s environment, organizations invested in Citrix Workspace would enjoy using Citrix Hypervisor. Organizations that have a strong virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) requirement would enjoy using Citrix as a modern solution to virtualization needs.

Choosing the Right Virtualization Solution

Choosing the right enterprise virtualization solution is a completely calculated and strategic decision. It impacts the overall IT operations, efficiency, security, agility, and long-term costs associated with enterprise IT tools.
IT decision makers have moved beyond the tendency to lock in for a single vendor virtualization. Instead, they are considering options that stick to value, security, and flexibility compared to the technology before.
That’s where solutions from Sangfor, Nutanix, Microsoft Hyper-V, and open source hypervisors focus on specific use cases. The best choice of virtualization platform comes from a thorough understanding of organizational needs. Users must also assess the strengths of a specific platform before subscribing and ensure successful IT strategies for years to come.