Platform Licensing Structure
How VMware is licensed across clusters and environments can significantly impact overall cost.
VMware renewal costs have increased significantly following recent changes to licensing models. In many cases, organisations are seeing renewal pricing multiple times higher than previous agreements, fundamentally changing the cost of maintaining their existing infrastructure.
For organisations running virtualised environments, this creates a difficult decision point. Whether to renew, optimise, or consider alternative platforms is no longer just a technical choice, but a financial one.
We work with organisations to understand where these costs are coming from and what practical options exist. The goal is not to push a specific outcome, but to provide clarity on how to reduce cost without introducing unnecessary risk.
Explore Options to Reduce VMware Cost
VMware cost increases are forcing organisations to reassess long-standing infrastructure choices. Datapac helps you understand your current environment, identify where costs can be reduced, and evaluate alternatives in a controlled and informed way.
Understanding Your VMware Cost Drivers
Workload Distribution
Imbalanced workloads often result in over-licensed infrastructure capacity.
Cluster Design
The way clusters are structured can increase licensing requirements unnecessarily.
Feature Utilisation
Not all licensed features are actively used, creating opportunities for optimisation.
Platform Licensing Structure
How VMware is licensed across clusters and environments can significantly impact overall cost.
Workload Distribution
Imbalanced workloads often result in over-licensed infrastructure capacity.
Cluster Design
The way clusters are structured can increase licensing requirements unnecessarily.
Feature Utilisation
Not all licensed features are actively used, creating opportunities for optimisation.
Optimising the Existing Environment
In many cases, we’ve found that VMware costs can be reduced significantly through right-sizing and improved workload distribution. This allows organisations to reduce licensing requirements without changing platforms or impacting performance.
Introducing Alternative Hypervisors
Some organisations choose to move away from VMware licensing models while maintaining a similar operational approach. Platforms such as HPE VM Essentials can offer substantial cost savings while supporting familiar virtualisation capabilities.
Moving to Alternative Infrastructure Platforms
For organisations undertaking broader infrastructure change, platforms such as Nutanix provide an opportunity to move to a different architecture with more predictable long-term licensing and operational costs.
How We Reduce VMware Costs
Assessing the Current Environment
We analyse how VMware is deployed, identifying cost drivers, inefficiencies, and opportunities for optimisation.
Defining the Right Approach
Based on assessment data, we outline practical options, whether that involves optimisation, platform changes, or migration. We discuss the pros and cons of each option so that our customer is fully informed.
Preparing for Change
Where changes are required, we validate dependencies, define transition plans, and ensure the environment is ready for safe execution.
Implementing and Validating
Changes are introduced in controlled stages, with performance and stability verified throughout to ensure no disruption to critical workloads.
Questions about VMware Cost Reduction?
Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, changes in licensing models introduced new platform bundles that resulted in substantially inflated renewal costs for nearly all organisations.
No. In many cases, optimisation and right-sizing alone will significantly reduce VMware licensing requirements without requiring a platform migration.
For organisations that just want to move hypervisor, HPE VM Essentials is a good option. While it doesn’t yet have the same depth of functionality, in our experience it is more than robust enough for most small and medium sized organisations. For organisations looking for a more comprehensive overhaul of their overall estate, Nutanix is a very suitable choice for hyperconverged infrastructure.
We support customers with structured planning and assessment that helps them evaluate potential alternatives safely. We design and implement a phased migration roadmap, beginning with less critical workloads allowing performance to be properly measured and benchmarked before progressing.
This depends on the approach. Optimisation can deliver relatively quick savings, while platform changes or migrations typically take longer but may provide greater long-term reduction.
Not when properly planned. Any changes are designed to maintain or improve performance, with validation at each stage.
A structured assessment is the starting point, providing clarity on current licensing, workload distribution, and optimisation opportunities.
What Our Clients Say
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“Evolving Infrastructure...”We had worked with Datapac in the past, and knew that its skilled team was best placed to deliver on our key objectives as technologies continue to advance. Reliable access to Datapac’s experts is invaluable and gives us the peace of mind to focus on delivering value-adding projects for the centre.
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“Night and Day Difference...”Server infrastructure is such a vital part of our IT environment that we needed to go with a partner who would take the time to fully assess our requirements and schedule implementation in a way that supports our operations. Having worked with Datapac on a number of significant projects in the past, they were the obvious choice. The new infrastructure is a night-and-day difference; server downtime is a thing of the past for us
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“We Knew We Could Trust Them...”Having enlisted Datapac’s services in the past, we knew we could trust them to deliver on this next phase of our journey with an overhaul of our IT support processes. The enhanced service gives us the peace of mind and confidence to support and launch innovative new resources for families across Cork.
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“Strategic Partnership...”As our software solution has grown, so too has the amount of data that needs to be stored and secured. Datapac has been a long-time trusted advisor to Kefron, and the team worked closely with us to provide strategic road mapping and deliver this infrastructure upgrade with little to no downtime or interruptions to our business. We can continue to grow Kefron AP at pace with full peace of mind
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“Supported In Every Aspect...”Every aspect of the work we do is supported by the Datapac team. Datapac’s proactive support gives us the confidence to innovate and expand, and this evolution of our strategy will ensure that we can provide an enhanced service for our valued patrons. As an important economic generator for the region, we greatly appreciate Datapac’s commitment to our sustainable future. We look forward to continuing to work with the team over the next number of years.
