Mirantis Adds Service to Facilitate Migrations Off VMware Platforms

Mirantis has launched a new service to help companies migrate workloads from VMware platforms to Kubernetes clusters running on OpenStack. Cristian Klein, a Mirantis product manager, explained that while the company previously offered tools for such migrations, the new service provides Mirantis IT teams to manage the process. Mirantis has also improved open source software to match VMware's Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK), which Broadcom is no longer providing.

Rival vendors have been relying on the discontinued VDDK to facilitate migrations away from VMware. Klein noted that the number of organizations moving workloads off VMware platforms is unclear. Broadcom is promoting a move to a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 platform, which integrates hypervisors and virtual storage and networking services, offering more value for higher licensing fees.

However, some organizations are choosing to move entirely to new platforms or limit workloads in a VCF 9 environment. Mirantis aims to bridge the gap by offering expertise and a free assessment for the migration process. On average, the migration to MOSK can be completed in about five weeks, depending on the data volume. The decision of whether to continue running legacy monolithic workloads on virtual machines or rewrite them for true cloud-native applications depends on each organization.

Most still deploy applications on hypervisors to ensure workload isolation. As more IT teams adopt Kubernetes clusters due to Broadcom's licensing changes, the skill gap in deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters at scale remains. However, with the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, the expertise required for Kubernetes cluster deployment is expected to decrease.

Despite the growing complexity of IT environments, the number of IT teams managing these platforms has not increased proportionally.