Tactical IT Planning in the Wake of VMware’s Acquisition

For many organizations, VMware’s recent changes are more than a shift in licensing — they’re a wake-up call. With the Broadcom acquisition reshaping VMware’s ecosystem, IT leadership must address immediate tactical needs while keeping an eye on their long-term strategy. 

Understanding the way forward is critical for your organization to successfully answer the question: What can you do today to mitigate disruption and optimize your virtualization environment? 

The first step in tactical planning is understanding how VMware’s new terms and conditions affect your organization. Whether you’re considering a renewal, exploring new platforms, or modernizing your infrastructure, knowing where you stand is essential. 

Here are some key actions that you should be taking now: 

• Conduct a license review: Conduct a comprehensive license assessment to understand your dependencies on VMware. This step will clarify whether a three or five-year renewal is necessary, even if migration is in your future.  
  
• Capacity analysis: Understanding your current level of dependency on the VMware ecosystem can better help you decide on an alternative, whether it’s different virtualization platforms or containerization. The performance and capacity of those workloads on the VMware ecosystem is a key metric to focus on if you’re seeking the greatest return on your tactical plan. 
  
• Evaluate alternatives: For organizations seeking immediate options, explore virtualization platforms such as Nutanix, Azure Stack HCI, Hyper-V with Azure ARC, Red Hat OpenStack or Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. These platforms offer different cost structures and features that could better align with your IT environment. 
  
• Optimize workloads: Review your existing workloads to identify opportunities for efficiency. Determine which applications should remain on virtual machines and which are better suited for containerization. Even if you’re staying on virtual machines, that is not a “do nothing” approach; those workloads may need additional tuning to run more efficiently or to take further advantage of consolidation. 

While virtualization has long been the backbone of IT infrastructure, containerization is gaining traction as the next evolution in workload management. Containers offer several benefits, including agility, scalability and efficiency that traditional virtual machines can’t match. 

If containerization is something you hadn’t considered before, here are a few reasons to think about it: 

• Workload portability: Containers enable seamless movement between on-premises and cloud environments, offering flexibility for hybrid models. 
• Faster deployment: Containers streamline application development and deployment, supporting faster time-to-market for new services. 
• Reduced vendor lock-in: By adopting a container-first approach, organizations gain independence from specific virtualization vendors, which is especially relevant in today’s landscape. 

Whether you’re navigating VMware’s changes or exploring containerization, CDW is here to help. Our services focus on immediate pain points with a clear and tactical approach: 

• VMware expertise: Our team can guide you through license reviews and decisions. 
• Migration assistance: We help organizations transition to new platforms with minimal business disruption. 
• Containerization solutions: CDW supports container adoption through tailored advisory services, training and implementation. 
  

Right now, your organization should be focusing on tactical IT planning — addressing immediate challenges and ensuring business continuity during a time of industry change. This will be critical to the success of your organization’s overall strategic plan. 

We understand that the future of IT isn’t just about choosing the right platform; it’s about building a long-term strategy that can adapt to change. Tactical planning is just step one of this journey. While navigating the new VMware landscape may seem daunting at first, VMware’s shift presents several long-term opportunities for the future of virtualization.