As changes accelerate in the VMware ecosystem, more enterprises are actively seeking full-stack VMware alternatives — solutions that can replace not only virtualization, but also the entire software-defined infrastructure layer, including compute, storage, networking, management, security, Kubernetes management, etc.
To help enterprises navigate this landscape, we highlight the top 9 VMware enterprise alternatives in 2026 — Arcfra, Azure Local, Nutanix, Oxide Computer, Proxmox, Sangfor, Scale Computing, StarWind and StorMagic — followed by a comparison table to support decision-making.
What is Gartner’s Advice on VMware Full-Stack Replacement?
According to Gartner‘s report published in late 2025 Which VMware Alternatives Are Enterprises Evaluating?, organizations using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) should prioritize HCI alternatives that provide comprehensive capabilities:
“Customers already using a vSAN-based HCI are the most likely to switch to a different hyperconverged solution. For those clients using the full VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack, HCI can be the closest alternative. But, it can also be used as a general-purpose virtualization alternative.”
Based on this suggestion, we now examine the nine most representative HCI solutions for full-stack VMware replacement, along with a detailed comparison table to help organizations choose the optimal path forward.
Top 9 VMware Enterprise Alternatives in 2026
*The following vendors are listed in alphabetical order, with no ranking implied.
Mainstream Commercial Vendors
Arcfra offers Arcfra Enterprise Cloud Platform (AECP) — a full-stack, software-defined infrastructure solution targeting enterprise cloud needs. It converges compute, storage, networking, virtualization, container orchestration (Kubernetes), security and disaster-recovery capabilities into one unified software stack, and supports deployment across on-premises data centres, edge sites, co-location facilities or distributed clouds.
The platform is engineered to simplify operations via a modular and scalable architecture; it optimizes hardware utilization, and Arcfra claims it can reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by over 50% compared to the VMware VCF solution.
Azure Local
Azure Local is Microsoft’s hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution designed to bring Azure cloud capabilities to customer-owned infrastructure. It combines Hyper-V-based compute, Storage Spaces Direct software-defined storage, Azure Arc for unified management, and supports Windows and Linux VMs, containers, and select Azure services. It offers a subscription model aligned with Azure.
According to the above-mentioned Gartner report, clients tend to be concerned about product maturity and scale (inclined toward small-scale lift-and-shift deployments).
Nutanix
Nutanix delivers Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure — a unified “Enterprise Cloud Platform” which converges compute, storage, networking, virtualization and management into a single software-defined infrastructure layer — simplifying traditional three-tier datacenter architectures. The platform enables deployment across on-premises private cloud, hybrid cloud and multicloud environments.
According to the above-mentioned Gartner report, clients tend to be concerned about costs that are similar to those of VCF.
Sangfor
Sangfor is a global vendor specializing in cloud computing and network security solutions. Sangfor HCI addresses both legacy infrastructure modernization (on-premises data centres) and emerging digital enterprise needs (private, hybrid, multi-cloud, edge). It converges compute, storage, networking, and security on a single software stack.
In cybersecurity, Sangfor integrates AI, threat intelligence, and unified management to deliver end-to-end protection — from perimeter and network through endpoints to full operational visibility.
Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a company that specialises in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). Its flagship offering, the SC//Platform (and underlying HyperCore™ software), integrates compute, storage, virtualization and server management into a unified infrastructure, supporting both distributed/edge sites and central datacenter deployments.
According to the above-mentioned Gartner report, Scale Computing is evaluated for smaller data center deployments with fewer VCF-class requirements. Concerns tend to be about dependence on a smaller vendor and the company’s recent acquisition by Acumera.
Starwind
StarWind is a vendor specialising in hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage (SDS) solutions. Their offering spans turnkey hardware-software HCI appliances as well as purely software-defined stacks that can run on existing commodity servers. The key capability lies in converging compute, storage, networking, virtualization software and management into a unified platform — replacing the traditional architecture of separate servers, storage networks and dedicated storage arrays.
StorMagic
StorMagic is a company specializing in virtualization storage and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software tailored for edge sites, branch offices (ROBO), and small/medium enterprises (SMBs). Its flagship solutions include SvSAN (software-defined storage), SvHCI (full-stack hyper-converged infrastructure), and Edge Control (centralised management platform).
According to the above-mentioned Gartner report, it is evaluated for widely distributed small systems with strong requirements for resilience and data protection (e.g., retail stores). Concerns tend to be about fit for requirements and a relatively new hypervisor offering (announced June 2024).
Mainstream Open-source Vendors
Oxide Computer Company
Oxide Computer Company delivers an on-premises “Cloud Computer” — a rack-scale, fully integrated hardware-and-software system built to bring the elasticity, self-service APIs and developer speed of public cloud to private data centres.
The system is co-designed end-to-end — from server sleds, networking switches, power shelf to control-plane software — and supports elastic compute (VMs, containers), elastic block storage, programmable networking, and secure multi-tenancy. The architecture claims ~55% improved power efficiency and up to 12× cooling efficiency compared to traditional racks.
Proxmox
Proxmox VE is an open-source enterprise virtualization and container management platform built on Debian Linux. It combines KVM for full (hardware-virtualized) virtual machines and LXC for lightweight containers, allowing users to run both types of workloads on a single host.
The solution supports software-defined storage (such as ZFS and Ceph), flexible networking (bridges, VLANs, bonding), a unified web-based management UI and a REST API, enabling organizations to reduce licensing fees and streamline deployment of compute/storage/network resources.
Other Vendors
SoftIron, SUSE Harvester
Comparisons of Nine VMware Enterprise Alternatives
| Features | Arcfra | Nutanix | Proxmox VE | Azure Local | Oxide Computer Company |
| Core Technology | Full-stack HCI software (distributed compute, storage, network & security, management, Kubernetes services, backup & DR, etc.) | Software-defined infrastructure converging compute, storage and networking into a unified pool across datacenter, edge and cloud. | Integrates KVM hypervisor with LXC containers. | Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) cluster solution running on-premises (formerly Azure Stack HCI) as part of Azure distributed infrastructure. | Rack-scale cloud computer delivering a unified hardware–software system for on-premises hyperscale cloud. |
| Virtualization | Core component of the full-stack platform. KVM-based virtualization (AVE) with advanced features and robust performance. | Native hypervisor AHV (KVM-based) with support for other hypervisors and container runtimes. | Use KVM for virtualization. Lacks some advanced virtualization features. | Hyper-V-based compute resources for Windows and Linux VMs on-premises. | Rack-scale virtualized infrastructure with on-demand VMs, elastic compute, storage, and network isolation built into the hardware-software design. |
| Storage | Offers best-in-class and fully-integrated storage solution with better performance than VMware vSAN. | Software-defined storage (AOS) integrating distributed storage services, self-healing and data services. | Integrates with Ceph (open-source distributed storage). Also supports network shared storage and local storage devices. | Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) provides software-defined storage under HCI model. | Elastic NVMe block-storage service with OpenZFS-backed redundancy and on-demand scaling across the rack. |
| Networking | Provides software-defined networking and security services via ANS. Features include distributed firewall (micro-segmentation), load balancer, and VPC networking. | Software-defined virtual networking integrated in the HCI stack, delivering centralized network management and application-centric security (Flow). | Supports Software-Defined Network (SDN) and iptables-based distributed firewall. | Hybrid-network integration via Azure Arc-enabled resource bridge, with on-prem network controller and Azure-managed connectivity. | Programmable rack‑scale network fabric with API-enabled VPC, routing, and tenant isolation. |
| Management | Single-pane-of-glass for the entire stack with fine-grained observability (e.g. network traffic visualization) | Unified management through Prism/Cloud Manager for full-stack lifecycle, automation & single-pane operations. | Primarily through a user-friendly web-based management interface. | Managed via Azure Portal + Windows Admin Center + Azure Arc integration. | Full‑stack control‑plane software with a REST API, self‑service provision model, and multitenant governance. |
| Containerization | Integrated Kubernetes Engine (AKE) solution provides an end-to-end enterprise Kubernetes solution with storage, network, and security as well as management. | Supports containers alongside VMs, enabling cloud-native apps and services. | Native support for LXC containers. | Supports container workloads (e.g., AKS on-prem, Azure Kubernetes Service) via Azure Local. | Support for cloud‑native Kubernetes workloads alongside on‑demand VMs, with elastic resource allocation and developer‑friendly API provisioning. |
| Availability | Native agent-less backup, disaster-recovery support, stretched active-active clusters, async replication, multi-level data availability mechanism. | Integrated disaster recovery, data protection, and cluster-level resiliency with snapshot-based replication and synchronous Metro Availability. | HA clustering with automated failover, integrated backup tools, and support for high-availability deployments. | Hybrid-cloud availability via integrated Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery for Azure Local (HCI) workloads. | Redundant rack-scale infrastructure with high-availability networking and storage, multi-tenant isolation, and snapshot-based recovery. |
| Open Source | No (proprietary tech stack) | A primarily proprietary commercial software stack incorporating open-source components, but not delivered as a fully open-source platform. | Yes (open-source platform with no licensing costs for the core software). | Primarily a proprietary Microsoft cloud platform, though it supports and runs extensive open-source software. | Open‑source software stack with proprietary rack‑scale hardware. |
| Ecosystem | Widely compatible with mainstream servers and hardware devices. | Extensive hybrid-multicloud ecosystem encompassing hardware OEM partnerships, cloud service integrations, and broad technology-alliance support. | Large and active open-source community. | Extensive Microsoft Azure ecosystem comprising validated hardware partners, service providers, and cloud-tool partners. | A nascent, rack‑centric ecosystem focused on colocation and research partners, with limited legacy hardware vendor relationships. |
| Ease of Migration | Offers an easy-to-use migration tool that seamlessly migrates vSphere VMs to Arcfra with very limited downtime. | Migration-friendly cross-hypervisor mobility via Nutanix Move and professional services, supporting sources such as VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V. | Migration from VMware might involve more manual steps. | Migration-friendly lift-and-shift of Windows Server workloads via Azure Migrate and Azure Hybrid Benefit. | Migration to Oxide’s rack‑scale architecture may require adopting its integrated hardware‑software model, which differs from software‑only virtualization platforms. |
| Cost Model | Licensed by CPU core (pricing varies among the 4 different editions). AECP Advanced Edition saves 50% TCO compared to VMware Cloud Foundation. | Subscription/licensing model on software stack; hardware-agnostic. | No licensing costs for the core software. Optional subscription-based support is available. | Subscription-based licensing per physical core for Azure Local host software, separately purchasing validated hardware. | Capital purchase of a fully integrated rack, with no software licensing or subscription fees — designed for predictable, ownership‑based economics. |
| Ideal For | Enterprises that want a direct VMware alternative focused on VMs, with a balance on the container environment. | Mid-to-large enterprise private clouds, hybrid/multi-cloud deployments, with adequate budget. | vSphere only customers prioritize cost-effectiveness and open-source flexibility, and with strong development and O&M skills. | Organisations already invested in Microsoft/Azure, hybrid cloud strategy, remote/edge/branch offices needing Azure-hybrid infrastructure. | Organizations seeking cloud‑like on‑prem infrastructure, and modern data centers with integrated rack‑scale cloud stacks. |
| Gartner’s Identification | Full-stack HCI; a sample HCI-based VMware alternative | Full-stack HCI; a sample HCI-based VMware alternative | Hypervisor for VMware alternative | Hybrid-cloud HCI virtualization platform; A less common option as VCF alternative | A less common option as VCF alternative |
| Features | Sangfor | Scale Computing | StarWind | StorMagic |
| Core Technology | Converged cloud-infrastructure platform combining HCI and security virtualization with unified cloud management. | Edge-optimized hyper-converged infrastructure integrating hardware, software, and edge-deployment services. | Hyper-converged infrastructure appliance converging compute, storage, networking, virtualization and management into a single platform. | Software-defined virtual SAN (SvSAN) and full-stack HCI (SvHCI) for edge/ROBO with minimal hardware. |
| Virtualization | Compute virtualization via aSV hypervisor and integrated Kubernetes container support through SKE. | Built-in HyperCore virtualization (KVM-based) tightly integrated into the HCI platform, optimized for edge and branch use. | Runs on standard hypervisors (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper‑V) to provide a simplified, hyper‑converged virtualization environment. | SvHCI uses KVM/QEMU virtualization with a shared storage layer provided by SvSAN. |
| Storage | Integrated storage within HCI offering resource visualization, unified management of storage. | Built-in software-defined block storage (SCRIBE) with cluster-wide pooling and simplified management. | Built‑in StarWind VSAN pools internal server storage via software‑defined storage for shared HCI storage. | SvSAN provides virtual SAN over two or more servers, synchronous mirroring, low-cost deployment for high availability. |
| Networking | Integrated network-security platform combining NGFW, SASE (with SD-WAN), and infrastructure networking via aNET. | Network configuration support via physical switch setup and VLAN planning; no built-in virtual network fabric documented. | Virtual switching/virtual network capabilities included; supports iSCSI and other connectivity. | Minimal network footprint with only 1 GbE required and low‑bandwidth mirror traffic; designed for simplified edge deployment. |
| Management | Unified full-stack cloud and infrastructure control platform (SCP) with orchestration, self-service, and automation. | Fleet-management capabilities to manage many distributed edge nodes from central console. | Centralized management via a web‑based console and VMware vCenter plugin for unified control of HCI. | Edge Control dashboard for centralised management of SvSAN clusters; simplified operations. |
| Containerization | Integrated Kubernetes container platform (SKE) within Sangfor HCI for unified VM and container management. | Some support for containers/K8s in edge scenarios; emphasis more on VMs for edge. | Primarily optimized for VM workloads, with limited container (Docker) support rather than full container orchestration. | Container support via SvSAN CSI, but primary focus remains on VM workloads and edge storage. |
| Availability | Snapshot-based VM protection, continuous data protection (CDP), and high-availability recovery mechanisms via multi-copy storage and rapid fault detection. | Integrated backup/disaster recovery functionalities for distributed nodes. | High-availability HCI appliance with synchronous replication, redundant NVMe storage, and self-healing — with optional DR via asynchronous replication. | Highly available two-node mirror for edge/branch, with fast re-sync recovery and optional cross-site resiliency via stretched cluster. |
| Open Source | Proprietary commercial infrastructure stack with selective use of open-source components, not fully open-source. | Proprietary commercial platform built with a mix of proprietary code and adapted open‑source components—not fully open‑source. | Commercial product; not open-source core. | Commercial software built on open-source components; not fully open source. |
| Ecosystem | A strong Asia-Pacific security + cloud ecosystem, particularly in enterprise and government segments. | OEM partnerships with edge-oriented hardware vendors (e.g. Simply NUC, Lenovo), focused on distributed edge infrastructure. | Supports VMware vSphere and Hyper‑V; purpose-built for SMB and ROBO deployments. | Multi‑vendor x86 server support and a broad edge/ROBO partner ecosystem. |
| Ease of Migration | Secure HCI cloud platform with VMware-compatible migration, typically via phased transition. | Designed for fast, zero-touch deployments at edge or branch sites with minimal on‑site IT required. | Straightforward if migrating from VMware or Hyper-V; supports common formats. | Rapid deployment, two‑node HA configuration, and seamless replacement of legacy branch storage for simplified migration to virtual SAN. |
| Cost Model | Modular licensing for HCI + security modules; cost varies by size. | Per‑core subscription licensing with multi‑year contracts; designed for predictable, edge‑optimized costs. | Perpetual or subscription license (per‑node or per‑TB), with required annual maintenance for perpetual licenses. | Per‑TB perpetual or term‑based subscription licensing, optimized for cost‑effective edge deployments. |
| Ideal For | Security-sensitive industries, enterprises needing cloud & security convergence, branch/edge with strong protection needs. | Distributed edge, branch offices, retail chains, remote sites with simplified infrastructure needs. | SMBs, remote/branch offices (ROBO), sites where simplified HCI appliance is preferred. | Retail stores, remote/branch offices, edge sites with limited IT staff but need high availability storage. |
| Gartner’s Identification | Full-stack HCI; a sample HCI-based VMware alternative | A sample HCI-based VMware alternative | A sample HCI-based VMware alternative | A less common option as VCF alternative |
For more information, please refer to:
How to Achieve a Full-Stack VMware Replacement?
What Are the Options for Replacing VMware?
How to Make A Risk-Free Plan for VMware Replacement?
What are the alternatives to VMware vSphere?
What Are the Alternatives to VMware vSAN?
Do VMware Alternatives Offer Comparable Performance for Enterprise Workloads?
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Arcfra simplifies enterprise cloud infrastructure with a full-stack, software-defined platform built for the AI era. We deliver computing, storage, networking, security, Kubernetes, and more — all in one streamlined solution. Supporting VMs, containers, and AI workloads, Arcfra offers future-proof infrastructure trusted by enterprises across e-commerce, finance, and manufacturing. Arcfra is recognized by Gartner as a Representative Vendor in full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure. Learn more at www.arcfra.com.