Rackspace moving some of its own workloads off VMware to address bigger Broadcom bills

Exclusive Rackspace is moving some of its back-office workloads off VMware and onto a platform called Private Cloud Director offered by cloud infrastructure outfit Platform9.

The Register understands that Rackspace considered testing migration from VMware after its software bills rose under Broadcom's licensing changes and it felt a need to consider less costly alternatives.

“We are cognizant of changes in licensing and what that means for us,” said Justin Kuss, Rackspace’s VP, Product and Architect for Application and Platform Modernization. “What we are looking at is to run our infrastructure as efficiently as possible.”

That desire has seen Rackspace move around 50 VMs running databases, application servers and third party software systems, to Platform9’s Private Cloud Director (PCD).

PCD launched in in 2024 and which aims to replicate most of the functions found in VMware’s stack. Platform9 has also created a tool called vJailbreak that migrates VMware implementations to OpenStack (check out its GitHub repo here).

Platform9 co-founder and VP of product Madhura Maskasky told The Register vJailbreak is designed to automate migrations away from VMware, and can do so for considerably less than the $300 to $3,000 per VM recently suggested by analyst firm Gartner as the likely cost if professional migration services are engaged.

Rackspace’s Kuss is impressed by the tool, which he told us has moved VMs in an hour. He said Rackspace has around 3,000 VMs he now considers candidates for migration to PCD.

He was also at pains to point out that Rackspace maintains a strong relationship with Broadcom and continues to offer hosted VMware.

Platform9’s Maskasky was part of the VMware team that created vCloud Director, a precursor to the Cloud Foundation private cloud stack that Broadcom has made its hero product. She told The Register her experience, and that of her colleagues, saw them build PCD to offer an easy target for VMware migrations. Getting the tool to that condition saw Platform9 rewrite much of its existing platform, adding a new user interface and using Kubernetes to deploy some key components. The result is a product that uses the open-source KVM hypervisor, OpenStack, and Kubernetes, to deliver a platform that hosts VMs and containers, runs virtual networks, and can handle both software-defined and third-party storage.

Maskasky said PCD has already been adopted by a Fortune 500 company she declined to name, but which is using it to migrate more than 40,000 virtual machines off the VMware stack. She said another Fortune 500 company, this one based in India, is making a move on a similar scale.

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The Register recently met a senior HPE exec who said orgs migrating off VMware are mostly doing so “out of spite” as they’ve already had unpleasant experiences with Broadcom after its acquisitions of Computer Associates and Symantec’s enterprise business.

Kuss said that’s not Rackspace’s motivation. “We are just trying to maximise resources,” he said. “I'm sure there are some sore feelings off of what happened last year, but I think people are just saying: ‘Look, there's probably some other opportunities to look at the infrastructure and who else is out there’.”

Maskasky told us “I see prospects that have strong feelings about Broadcom. Others just want diversification. They do not want to be tied to a single platform anymore where the provider can come say ‘I'm going to raise the prices 10x’. They don't want to be in that position anymore.”

Some therefore seek an alternative supplier for some of their VM estate to create leverage.

The Register has learned of major migrations away from VMware at cloud providers Anexia and Beeks Group, insurance company GEICO, Computershare and Boyd Gaming.

However Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has told investors revenue and profit are both growing faster than expected.

The HPE exec we recently met suggested more migrations away from VMware will happen in coming years, as it takes time to prepare the move. Gartner offered us similar predictions, suggesting many VMware users will renew their licenses despite misgivings with Broadcom but plan an exit before their next bill falls due.

For now, however, consider that a significant Broadcom partner may greatly reduce use of VMware products, while also adopting a tool – OpenStack – that it helped to create. ®