Why VMWare’s old strengths no longer justify its modern complexity

While VMware has long been a cornerstone of IT infrastructure, it is becoming increasingly clear that it presents several challenges that we cannot ignore. Let’s start with the financial implications. VMware’s licensing costs and subscription fees are significant, to say the least, and the complexity of the licensing structure doesn’t help. It often feels like navigating a maze to find the right package, and the recurring maintenance costs only add to the burden. Then there is the problem of supplier retention. When we commit to VMware, we commit to the entire ecosystem, which limits our flexibility. As multi-cloud strategies and open source solutions become more prevalent, the risk of being constrained by a single vendor’s roadmap increases. The dependency is real, as is the challenge of migrating to other platforms – it is complex and expensive.

When it comes to performance, VMware’s architecture is starting to show its age. It may not be the best solution for modern cloud-native workloads like container environments or latency-sensitive applications like AI. Due to the overhead and scalability limitations inherent in VMware’s setup, we don’t always optimize every byte of memory or every watt of performance, which is a problem in today’s performance-driven world. Additionally, when considering innovation, we must recognize that despite its dominance, VMware has lagged behind in adopting new technologies such as edge computing, containerization, and advanced AI automation. It seems like the market is moving faster than VMware is able to keep up.

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