Continent 8 Technologies’ Transition Away from VMware
As an infrastructure provider, some decisions affect far more than our internal technology roadmap. They influence the long-term economics, flexibility and stability of the services our customers depend on every day.
Our decision to migrate our infrastructure away from VMware is one of those decisions.
Given the considerable industry discussion following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, we believe it is important to explain our position directly and transparently.
What Changed
Broadcom acquired VMware in November 2023. Since then, the commercial model surrounding VMware has changed fundamentally.
Several developments influenced our evaluation:
- Perpetual licences have been replaced with subscription-based licensing.
- Existing perpetual licences remain tied to current hardware lifecycles, meaning organisations face subscription pricing as infrastructure is refreshed.
- Core virtualisation capabilities are now delivered through broader bundled offerings that often include functionality many customers do not require.
- Pricing is based on processor cores, with minimum commitments that can significantly increase costs for some environments.
- The VMware partner ecosystem has become more selective, with fewer authorised providers operating under revised commercial terms.
When we modelled the long-term impact of these changes, we identified potential cost increases ranging from 200% to 500% in certain scenarios, with limited ability to mitigate future increases through traditional procurement approaches.
Our Decision
Faced with these changes, we had two options.
We could absorb the increased costs and ultimately pass them through to customers, or we could invest in an alternative platform strategy designed to deliver greater long-term stability.
We chose to change platforms.
That decision was guided by two priorities.
Cost Predictability
Our responsibility is to build a sustainable platform that allows customers to plan with confidence.
Under a subscription-only model, costs become recurring and subject to renewal cycles. Significant increases today do not necessarily guarantee stability tomorrow.
By transitioning away from VMware, we have positioned ourselves more strongly to maintain predictable pricing and reduce exposure to future commercial uncertainty.
Flexibility
Technology choices should expand options, not restrict them.
The evolving VMware model places increased emphasis on bundled products, fixed commitments and a single-vendor roadmap.
Our platform strategy provides greater flexibility to scale, adapt and evolve in line with customer requirements, without introducing unnecessary vendor lock-in.
How We Are Executing the Transition
Infrastructure transitions of this nature are ultimately our responsibility, not our customers’.
Our approach is built around three principles:
- We are undertaking the platform transition on behalf of our customers rather than asking them to absorb the operational burden.
- The migration programme is owned and managed by our engineering teams through a structured process of planning, testing and controlled execution.
- Service continuity remains our highest priority, with all customer-impacting activities coordinated and communicated in advance.
A Long-Term Decision
Every infrastructure provider has responded differently to the changes introduced over the past two years.
Our view is straightforward: when market conditions change, providers should reassess whether existing technology choices continue to serve customers’ best interests.
After extensive review, we concluded that remaining on VMware would make it more difficult to deliver the predictability, flexibility and long-term value our customers expect from us.
We made this decision with those priorities at the centre of our thinking, and we remain confident it is the right path forward.
Continent 8 Technologies Executive Leadership Team