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Concerns about support for VMware customers have emerged amidst significant changes in the distribution landscape. Following an automatic transition of support tickets to Ingram, Broadcom indicated that the customer in question did not meet the threshold for direct assistance. As a result, response times from Ingram have extended to a week or more. Adding to the complexity, Ingram announced a considerable downsizing of its VMware operations in December, although VMware continues to collaborate with other distributors, such as Arrow.
The issues with support from VMware’s resellers predate Ingram’s announcement. As reported by an anonymous reseller to CRN, the average wait time for VMware quotes through a distributor has skyrocketed to around a month, compared to the previous norm of “two to three days” prior to Broadcom’s involvement. Furthermore, The Register has highlighted challenges reported by VMware customers, indicating that Ingram has struggled to manage “the increased responsibilities it assumed.”
Challenges of Migration
According to a January research note by Gartner titled “Estimating a Large-Scale VMware,” the process of migrating from VMware poses significant challenges for large enterprises. The report defines a large-scale migration as encompassing a substantial number of virtualized workloads, typically exceeding 2,000 virtual machines (VMs) and/or requiring at least 100 hosts. This definition suggests a much larger undertaking than for smaller businesses with, say, 300 VMs, yet it underscores the operational scale and complexity involved in such migrations.
Gartner’s analysis estimates that the entire migration process—from initial scoping to technical evaluations—could span 18 to 48 months. It anticipates that a midsize enterprise would require a minimum of two years to sufficiently detach its dependencies from VMware’s server virtualization platform.
The financial implications of these migrations are also considerable, with expected costs ranging from $300 to $3,000 per VM, should organizations enlist third-party service providers. Notably, Gartner emphasizes that these figures do not encompass all potential costs associated with a large-scale migration. Organizations should also prepare for expenses related to acquiring new software licenses, cloud services, hardware investments (including compute and storage), early termination fees for existing virtual environments, as well as costs for application testing and quality assurance, including necessary testing equipment.
The substantial financial and time commitments, along with the need for trained personnel, can lead customers to hesitate when considering a shift away from VMware. This is particularly true given the disruptions many are currently experiencing due to the alterations made by Broadcom to the platform.
Source
arstechnica.com