What's included
- Platform choice and design: clusters, storage, networking, high availability
- Hyperconverged infrastructure design and deployment
- Live migration, resource balancing, templates
- Moving between platforms, for example away from VMware after licensing changes (see Migration)
- Private cloud with self-service, quotas and chargeback (OpenStack)
- Health checks, upgrades, licence reviews, administration
A virtualized cluster
Text version of this diagram
- Host 1 → Host 2
- Host 2 → Host 3
- Virtual machines → Cluster
- Cluster → Shared or hyperconverged storage
- Management and backup → Cluster
Who it's for
- Companies running many physical servers
- VMware customers reviewing their licence costs
- Teams wanting self-service virtual machines
What you get
- Platform comparison with three-year costs
- Built and tested cluster with high availability
- Migrated virtual machines with sign-off per wave
- Runbook and administrator training
Questions
Should we leave VMware?
It depends on your size, features used and skills; we compare costs and risks before recommending anything.
Can we try the new platform first?
Yes: a pilot with a few non-critical machines comes before any wave.
Which hypervisor is cheapest?
It depends on your licences, size and skills; Hyper-V suits estates already licensed for Windows Server Datacenter, Proxmox is cost-effective for many others.