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VMware by Broadcom · Nutanix
VMware vSphere and Nutanix in Cairo
Design, licensing, migration and support for the two leading enterprise virtualization platforms, with honest advice on which fits your business now.
About the platforms
What is VMware?
VMware is the company behind vSphere, the most widely used enterprise virtualization platform. vSphere is made of the ESXi hypervisor, which runs on each physical server, and vCenter, which manages hosts and virtual machines centrally. It offers mature features such as live migration of running virtual machines between hosts (vMotion), high availability and automatic load balancing. VMware was acquired by Broadcom in late 2023, and its products are now sold as subscription bundles rather than perpetual licences. For many businesses, this has meant significant changes to renewal costs.
What is Nutanix?
Nutanix is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform. Instead of separate servers and a separate storage system, Nutanix combines compute, storage and virtualization into clustered nodes managed from one interface, called Prism. You grow by adding nodes. Nutanix includes its own hypervisor, AHV, and can also run on other hypervisors. It is known for simple management and is increasingly considered by organisations reviewing their VMware costs.
What ITZone does
Licence review
What you have, what you need, and the true renewal cost
Platform decision
Stay on VMware, move to Nutanix, or move to Hyper-V
Design and build
Clusters, storage, networking and management
Migration
Between platforms with minimal downtime
Backup and DR
Replication and recovery planning
Support
Patching, upgrades, monitoring and troubleshooting
VMware licensing after Broadcom
Since the acquisition, VMware has moved from perpetual licences with support renewals to subscription bundles, generally priced per processor core with minimum core counts, and has consolidated many products into fewer offerings. For some customers the new bundles include features they didn’t have before; for others, especially smaller environments, renewal costs have risen sharply.
If your VMware renewal is coming up, don’t simply sign the quote. We review your current hosts, cores and features in use, compare the renewal against right-sized options, and model the three-to-five-year cost of staying versus migrating to Nutanix or Hyper-V. Sometimes staying is the right answer; sometimes migration pays for itself within the first renewal period.
Comparing your options
| VMware vSphere | Nutanix | Microsoft Hyper-V | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Hypervisor + separate or virtual SAN storage | Hyperconverged nodes | Hypervisor with shared or local storage |
| Management | vCenter | Prism | Windows Admin Center / SCVMM |
| Licensing | Subscription bundles | Subscription | Included with Windows Server |
| Strengths | Mature, widest ecosystem | Simple, scale-out, integrated storage | Low cost for Microsoft shops |
| Best for | Large or complex estates, existing VMware skills | Growing mid-size, simplicity | SMEs on Windows Server |
Is VMware or Nutanix right for you?
Stay on / choose VMware if…
- You rely on advanced VMware features and integrations
- Your team has deep VMware skills
- The new bundle cost works for you
Consider Nutanix if…
- You want compute and storage in one platform
- You’re refreshing hardware anyway
- You want simpler day-to-day management
Consider Hyper-V if…
- You run mainly Windows workloads
- Cost is the top priority
- Your environment is small to medium
Hyperconverged vs traditional virtualization
In a traditional (three-tier) setup, you have separate servers for compute, a separate storage system such as a SAN, and a storage network connecting them. It is flexible and well understood, but there are more components to buy, manage and keep compatible.
In a hyperconverged setup, such as Nutanix, each node contains compute and storage, and software pools the storage across the cluster. There is no separate SAN to manage, upgrades are done across the cluster from one interface, and you scale by adding nodes. The trade-off is that compute and storage tend to grow together, which may not suit every workload.
Questions to ask before your VMware renewal
- How many hosts and processor cores are we actually licensing, and are all of them needed?
- Which features do we use today, and which bundle includes them?
- What will the renewal cost over three to five years, not just year one?
- Is our hardware due for refresh anyway? If so, a platform change costs less.
- Do our backup and monitoring tools support the alternatives?
- What skills does our team have, and what training would a change need?
Backup and disaster recovery for virtual environments
Whichever platform you choose, backups should work at the virtual machine level, with application-aware protection for databases and email, and copies stored off site or in the cloud. Replication to a second site or the cloud allows critical systems to be restarted quickly after a major failure. We design and test backup and recovery as part of every virtualization project. See Backup & Disaster Recovery
Ongoing support
Our support covers hypervisor and firmware updates, capacity monitoring, performance tuning, health checks, licence tracking and troubleshooting, plus opening and managing vendor support cases. You keep full administrative access and documentation.
Migrating from VMware to Nutanix or Hyper-V
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Assess
inventory virtual machines, dependencies, performance and licences.
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Design
size the new cluster and plan networks, storage and backup.
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Build
install and test the new platform alongside the old one.
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Migrate
move virtual machines in planned waves using conversion tools, testing each group with your users.
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Decommission
retire old hosts once everything is verified, and update documentation.
Migrations usually take a few weeks for small and mid-size environments. Most virtual machines need only a short, planned outage.
Not sure what you need?
We’ll audit your IT for free and tell you.
Implementation timeline
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1–2 weeks
Licence review and options
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1 week
Design and quote
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1–4 weeks
Hardware supply (if needed)
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1–2 weeks
Build and testing
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1–4 weeks
Migration waves
Who this is for
This service is for businesses running between two and a few dozen virtualization hosts: companies facing a VMware renewal, organisations refreshing ageing servers and SAN storage, IT managers who want simpler infrastructure for a small team, and companies building a new data room or private cloud. If you run only one or two servers, Hyper-V or a cloud option is usually simpler and cheaper, and we’ll tell you so.
Skills and training
Moving platforms is not only a technical decision; your team needs to be confident running the new environment. Every project includes handover training on day-to-day tasks such as creating virtual machines, checking health, applying updates and restoring from backup, plus written runbooks for common procedures. If your team is new to Nutanix or Hyper-V, we provide extra support during the first months.
Case study
A company with 3 VMware hosts received a renewal quote much higher than expected. After our review, they right-sized their setup, reducing their long-term licensing spend.
VMware & Nutanix questions, answered
What is VMware?
The company behind vSphere, the most widely used enterprise virtualization platform, now owned by Broadcom.
What is Nutanix?
A hyperconverged infrastructure platform combining compute, storage and virtualization in clustered nodes managed from one interface.
Why did my VMware licence cost go up?
VMware moved to subscription bundles priced mainly per core, with minimum core counts. Depending on your environment, renewals may cost more. We can review yours.
Can we move from VMware without buying new hardware?
Often yes. Hyper-V can run on most existing servers, and Nutanix supports certain hardware platforms. We check compatibility first.
Do you support existing VMware environments?
Yes. We provide patching, upgrades, monitoring and troubleshooting for vSphere environments.
How long does a VMware to Nutanix migration take?
For small and mid-size environments, typically a few weeks including planning and testing.
Will our backup software still work after migrating?
Most leading backup products support VMware, Nutanix AHV and Hyper-V, but licensing and setup differ. We check compatibility as part of the plan.
Can we run VMware and Nutanix side by side during migration?
Yes. We build the new platform alongside the existing one and move workloads in waves, so there’s always a working fallback.
Do you offer a free licence review?
Yes. Send us your current VMware licence details and host inventory, and we’ll show you the options at no charge.
Can Nutanix run on our existing servers?
Nutanix supports specific hardware platforms, including certain Dell and HPE models. We check whether your servers qualify before recommending it.
Do you support Nutanix environments installed by others?
Yes. We review cluster health, upgrades and backups, then provide ongoing support.