Madhura Maskasky (@madhuramaskasky, Chief Product Officer at @Platform9Sys) talks about the current state of the VMware virtualization market, thoughts on migrations, and factors to consider to speed migrations.

SHOW: 899

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #899 Transcript

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SHOW NOTES:

Topic 1 - Welcome back to the show. For those that don’t know, you are a long time returning guest. It’s been about 7 years since the last time we spoke, and this is also the third time we’ve talked to you and the folks over at Platform9. Before we jump in, tell us about your background…

Topic 2 - Our topic today is VMware Migrations. As we’ve documented many times on the podcast, VMware and its customers are in flux. Many are evaluating whether they should stay or they should go. When you speak to customers considering this, what should they consider?

Topic 3 - In general we keep hearing things like VMWare ELA’s that are no only on 3 year renewal and a price hike of 3x, 5x, even 10x. What are you seeing? Is this a limited window of opportunity as customers make that decision to move off or lock in for another 3 years?

Topic 4 - I see two sides to this: the business side and the tech side. I see this potentially being much harder on the technical side. While it might be possible to build a business case, the technical lock-in to the hypervisor technology tends to be a factor in conversions. Rebuilding years worth of virtual networking, storage links, etc. How do you advise customers on this today?

Topic 5 - These migrations take time. Sometimes we are talking about installations in the tens of thousands of vms and and the migrations taking months to years to complete. Why would an organization go to the cost and the trouble to switch platforms?

Topic 6 - Let’s say an organization decides to pull the trigger. My immediate thought goes to Day1+ actions and operations. New platforms, new tools, new constructs. VMware installs tend to be very sticky because careers have been built on their product portfolio and expertise around that. Some engineers carry a large number of certifications and have a lot of money and time invested. How do you talk customers through this and help them?

Topic 7 - Let’s close out there. Where can our listeners go for more information?

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