Route Selection | From VMware to ZStack Cloud

In 2024, after being acquired by Broadcom, VMware will fully transition to a subscription model. VMware will convert its product lines into four basic subscription packages (VVEP/VVS/VVF/VCF) with additional components, shifting from perpetual licenses to 1/3/5-year subscriptions. The sales rules will also be adjusted under the subscription model.

For users, calculating costs and evaluating return on investment has become a complex issue. What does the subscription model mean for users? ZStack product technology experts will help users calculate the costs and share a comparison of user costs before and after VMware's subscription model, along with ZStack product solutions and success stories.

Cloud Paths

So, what scenarios are more suitable for choosing a Cloud solution?

Medium to Large Enterprises or Institutions: Medium to large enterprises or institutions often have extensive IT infrastructure and complex business needs, requiring more flexible and scalable resource management and service delivery models. Private clouds can provide higher levels of management and control, better meeting the needs of large enterprises.

Multi-Tenant Environments: If an enterprise needs to support multiple departments or business units sharing the same IT infrastructure and requires isolation and management of different tenants, the multi-tenant support and resource isolation features of private clouds may be more suitable.

Highly Customized Needs: Some enterprises may need customized resource management and configuration based on their business needs and specific application scenarios. Private clouds offer more flexible resource management and configuration capabilities, better supporting these customized needs.

High Security and Compliance Requirements: Some institutions, such as financial and healthcare organizations, have high requirements for data security and compliance, needing stricter data control and supervision. Private clouds provide better data isolation and security control capabilities, better meeting these needs.

Complex Application Scenarios: Some complex application scenarios may require various resources and services to cooperate and interact with each other, needing more control and customization capabilities. Private clouds offer richer services and features, better supporting these complex application scenarios.

Cloud Solution

When users are using VMware vSphere+vSAN+network, operations, containers, and other components, or when some heavy VMware users involve relatively full-stack products, mainly in medium to large data centers, VMware provides subscription combinations mainly including VVF and VCF for such customers' existing environments. The Cloud Solution can be adopted, which has the following important features:

ZStack Cloud provides users with organizational structure management, ticket management, independent region management, three-role separation, and project-based resource access control. It manages the operation permissions of different roles in the organization through a multi-level organizational structure, allowing for customized approval processes and separate billing for individual projects, making organizational management flexible and easy to use while reducing management costs. In terms of high security and high availability, ZStack Cloud integrates north-south and east-west firewall functions to achieve isolation and protection of virtual machines for customers. It supports agentless CDP capabilities for virtual machines, providing high availability for business operations.

Additionally, ZStack Cloud offers multiple value-added modules that users can choose from to expand functionality as needed. ZStack Cloud supports downward integration with distributed storage, upward integration with PaaS layer container services, and CMP multi-cloud management functions. It also supports hybrid cloud management, enabling unified management of Alibaba public cloud and VMware virtualization.

Notably, ZStack Cloud also has the following unique features:

Elastic Bare Metal: Delivers physical servers in the cloud within minutes, combining the characteristics and extreme physical computing performance of physical machines with the elasticity and security advantages of the cloud.

Heterogeneous Management: Supports unified management of chip clusters with different architectures.

ZStack ranks in the top 5 of the IDC Cloud System Software Market Report and is the number one independent cloud vendor, assisting over 3,600 enterprise users and partnering with over 300 active channels and 200 ecosystem partners, providing users with more attentive and high-quality services.

For some users, VMware's shift to subscriptions presents an opportune moment to upgrade virtualization with private cloud solutions. But what scenarios are better suited for private cloud to replace and upgrade virtualization?

Medium to large enterprises or organizations: These typically have extensive IT infrastructure and complex business needs, requiring more flexible and scalable resource management and service delivery models. Private clouds offer advanced management and control features to better meet the needs of large enterprises.

Multi-tenant environments: If an enterprise needs to support multiple departments or business units sharing the same IT infrastructure, with isolation and management for different tenants, private cloud's multi-tenant support and resource isolation features may be more suitable.

Highly customized needs: Some enterprises may require customized resource management and configuration based on their business needs and specific application scenarios. Private clouds provide more flexible resource management and configuration capabilities to support such customization needs.

High security and compliance requirements: Institutions like finance and healthcare often have stringent data security and compliance requirements, needing strict data control and regulation. Private clouds offer superior data isolation and security controls to meet these demands.

Complex application scenarios: Complex applications may require various resources and services to interact and collaborate, needing more control and customization. Private clouds offer richer services and features to better support these complex scenarios.

From VMware to ZStack Cloud

When users utilize VMware components like vSphere, vSAN, networking, operations, and containers, they can adopt the ZStack Cloud replacement path. Some heavy VMware users, mainly in medium to large data centers, use a relatively full-stack product. For such customers, VMware's subscription combinations primarily include the VVF and VCF packages. As shown, ZStack Cloud can also replace VMware's overall solutions. It offers the following key features:

ZStack Cloud provides organizational structure management, ticket management, independent area management, separation of duties, and project-based resource access control. It manages different roles' operational permissions within an organization through a multi-level organizational structure, allowing for decentralization and domain separation while enabling customizable approval processes and project-specific billing, making organizational management flexible and user-friendly, reducing management costs. In terms of high security and availability, ZStack Cloud integrates north-south and east-west firewall functions to achieve virtual machine isolation and protection for customers. It supports agentless CDP capabilities for virtual machines, ensuring high availability for business operations.

Additionally, ZStack Cloud offers multiple value-added modules that users can choose from to expand functionality as needed. It supports integration with distributed storage and PaaS-level container services, as well as CMP multi-cloud management functions, and supports hybrid cloud management, enabling unified management of Alibaba public cloud and VMware virtualization.

Notably, ZStack Cloud features four distinctive capabilities:

1. Multi-architecture cloud: First to receive "multi-architecture cloud" advanced certification from Trusted Cloud, compatible with four architectures and eight platforms.

2. Compliance with cryptographic evaluation: Based on hardware cryptographic machines certified by the National Cryptography Administration, providing unified certificate login and data protection functions with cryptographic machine resource pooling. After cloud integration, platform cryptographic evaluation compliance can be activated with one click.

3. Elastic bare metal: Delivers physical servers in the cloud at a minute-level, combining the characteristics and extreme performance of physical machines with the elasticity and security advantages of the cloud.

4. Heterogeneous management: Supports unified management of chip clusters with different architectures.

ZStack ranks in the top 5 of IDC's cloud system software market report, as the leading independent cloud vendor. Headquartered in Shanghai, it serves 34 provinces and cities across China, assisting over 3,600 enterprise users and partnering with more than 300 active channels and 200 ecosystem partners, providing attentive and high-quality services.