First and foremost, users should validate the stability of existing VMware products in their production environment while rigorously evaluating alternatives to vSphere, the core hypervisor. Alternative vendors should be capable of delivering a full-stack solution — covering virtualization, distributed storage, networking and security, container management, cluster management, disaster recovery, and VM migration — that matches VMware’s original SDDC solution. This reduces the complexity of integrating multiple vendors and accelerates the replacement process. During evaluation, users should pay particular attention to the core components — hypervisor, distributed storage, and virtualized network and security — ensuring they meet the functionality, stability, and performance required for production-grade operations.

Next, based on the potential alternative, users should deploy a test cluster (or use it as a backup cluster) for the production environment. On this platform, users can migrate application system, VMs, and data copies from the production environment to create a complete IT system, which can be achieved through methods such as VM migration, storage migration, or application reconfiguration. Subsequently, users need to conduct long-term and comprehensive testing (including stress tests) of product performance and stability to validate the platform’s stability, reliability, and ability to maintain business continuity at the production grade. Only after the IT team is familiar with the O&M of the new system can the user consider replacing the original VMware system with the new one.

To ensure the smooth implementation of VMware replacement, meticulous and rigorous preparation is essential. Without sufficient validation, rushing the new system into operation may lead to frequent failures, which could affect business operations and subsequent replacement work.

For more FAQ regarding VMware alternatives, please refer to  https://www.arcfra.com/vmware-alternative/.