The Catalyst for Change: Broadcom Uncertainty
NETdepot, a managed services provider running thousands of VMs across hundreds of customers, found itself in an untenable position following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware. Despite having built their entire infrastructure and team expertise around VMware over more than a decade, the company faced complete uncertainty about licensing availability and pricing. Their aggregator couldn't provide clarity on whether they'd even have licensing within a month. This uncertainty, combined with operational challenges like hardware sprawl across six to seven racks of hosts and restrictive core-count licensing that prevented infrastructure consolidation, forced NETdepot to evaluate alternatives. The decision wasn't driven by dissatisfaction with VMware's technology but by business continuity risk and the need for a stable, predictable platform that could support their long-term strategy as a service provider.
Migration Strategy and Execution
NETdepot's migration from VMware to VergeOS proved smoother than anticipated, largely due to familiar nomenclature and architecture that minimized the learning curve for their VMware-certified team. The automated migration tool streamlined the process by connecting directly to vCenter or ESXi hosts via standard ports (443 and one additional port), immediately discovering all VMs and enabling selective migration. The process involved incremental backups with minimal downtime during final cutover—VMs were powered off in VMware, a final delta backup completed in seconds, and workloads were brought online in VergeOS. The built-in rollback plan was simple: if issues arose, VMs could be powered back up in the untouched VMware environment. NETdepot credits VergeOS support for providing guidance throughout the process, with five-minute response times and immediate Zoom sessions when questions arose. The migration covered both production and DR workloads, with production environments requiring careful planning to avoid disruption while DR migrations offered more flexibility.
Infrastructure Consolidation and Cost Impact
The transition to VergeOS enabled dramatic infrastructure consolidation, reducing NETdepot's footprint from six to seven racks of hosts down to a single rack. This was achieved by moving from 20-core Intel Silver processors to 96-core AMD processors with 2TB of RAM per host, running thousands of VMs on individual servers—a density impossible under VMware's core-count licensing model. The consolidation delivered multiple cost benefits: elimination of VMware licensing fees, reduced data center footprint lowering cooling and power costs, and elimination of third-party backup licensing (previously Veeam) since data protection is built into VergeOS. The company also eliminated the need for separate NSX licensing, as VergeOS includes advanced networking capabilities like IPsec and SSL VPN, distributed firewalling, and load balancing in the core license. For a managed services provider operating at scale, these combined savings significantly improved total cost of ownership while actually increasing infrastructure capability and density.
Networking and Multi-Tenancy Capabilities
VergeOS networking proved particularly compelling for NETdepot's managed services model, delivering NSX-equivalent functionality without additional licensing. The platform includes edge gateway firewalls with both IPsec and SSL VPN capabilities—features that had forced NETdepot to deploy third-party firewalls when VMware moved from NSX-V to NSX-T. The multi-tenant architecture mirrors vCloud Director, with each tenant receiving its own URL, isolated networking, and the ability to create internal networks without VLAN conflicts or coordination with other tenants. Tenants can brand their environment and map custom DNS entries. The networking model uses "virtual wires" rather than distributed virtual switches, which initially required a mental shift but ultimately made more sense when thinking about physical infrastructure connectivity. NETdepot can now deliver complete virtual private clouds with no noisy neighbors, bare metal options, and fully managed infrastructure—all from a single platform that their team found intuitive after the initial learning curve.
