Alternatives to Virtualization with Verge.io’s Aaron Richman

This is Textron tv. Hey guys, thanks for the throw. io, and we're talking about, well, what's going on in the VMware ecosystem these days post merger with Broadcom.

There's certainly have been a lot of changes. Some folks are wondering, uh, what all the fuss and turmoil is about, but people are clearly evaluating their options. Aaron, welcome to show.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. So what are you hearing from customers about all this?

I mean, a lot of folks have been VMware customers for decades. They have tons and tons of, uh, instances of virtual machines from VMware. The this is not the first merger and acquisition involving VMware.

So what's making this one different? You know, I think the simple answer is the market share that, uh, VMware has as compared to the previous acquisitions. Um, this has not gone all together differently than, than they went, uh, years gone by, uh, ca for example, et cetera.

But I, I think that because the market share is so large, uh, to your point with, uh, the VMware usage for virtualization, uh, it affects almost everybody. It's, it's really, uh, it's astounding. So what are you people telling you they're willing to do?

And I'm asking the question with some skepticism, because we all know that a lot of IT executives will, you know, take a coffee cup from another vendor, put it on their desk, and invite the rival in to have a chat and see if they can get a better deal. Sure. So to that extent, are people just kinda, you know, using this as a negotiating tactic, or are they actually willing to get up and move and swap some things out?

Uh, so probably there's a small percentage, uh, that, you know, may, may be in that first boat, the, the coffee cup boat. But I think genuinely, the vast majority are, uh, they're really beside themselves. They, they are concerned to put it mildly.

Some are frankly panicked. Uh, so there's a real wide spectrum of, uh, emotional response of, uh, business response that they're just not so sure. Uh, and without talking yet about any of the details that have made them unsure, there's so much, uh, turmoil that absolutely the majority are looking at real viable alternatives right now.

So what is the core source of the turmoil? Is it just that they are worried that prices are gonna go up, or is there something else afoot here? Uh, yes and yes.

So, uh, they, they are, uh, already hearing, uh, so a few things have happened. A number in fact, um, definitively have happened. So no longer are, are customers able to continue their perpetual licenses that they got used to having with VMware ended subscription only.

That's not necessarily a terrible thing if it's done right, but there's a lot of folks unhappy about that. There's per core licensing that is, uh, really prohibitive, uh, when it comes to the more modern, uh, hardware that's being, uh, being developed. And, um, people aren't thrilled about about that.

Um, and then, you know, the entire VMware partner ecosystem was fired. Uh, so people don't necessarily even know who to talk to, to, to get quotes for renewals. Uh, there's just a whole, uh, slew, uh, of one, one challenge after another, challenge after another that are making people feel like I really need to see if there's something different and better that, that we can do here.

Yeah, the disruption on the partner side is probably intense, but they'll get more partners and eventually build the back that, that ecosystem. It's just a question of how long, um, yep. My question to you is, what are the options that customers have?

I mean, what can they actually do? 'cause so many of them are, uh, tied up in code and APIs and stuff that they've been using for decades. Well, you're right about, you're right about that.

And, uh, you know, I have to say, uh, you maybe see it on my shirt and the background here. io. Uh, but, but because of what we are offering and perhaps, you know, there are other offerings that, here's what I've been saying for almost a year now.

I've been telling people, you should look, I'd love, if you'd look at us, please do. But whatever you do, look, look around you, you're gonna need something. Um, we do believe at Verge that we have, uh, the most mature, uh, really industry leading alternative to, to VMware.

Uh, but so the short answer to what can people do is, um, explore your options so you're not held hostage, uh, bullied, uh, or just really put at a severe disadvantage, um, before it's too late. Alright. For those that don't know that Verge is, what exactly is the option that you're providing folks?

And then what are some of the other options? Sure, sure. Uh, well, so Verge has really simply put a, uh, a very, uh, single product.

We have one product, it's called VIR os, and it is a complete VMware alternative, uh, a complete replacement of VMware. So it's a single code base, and in this single code base is the virtualization piece. Uh, the hypervisor is the storage management, and is also the, uh, networking software defined networking.

So everything, if you were a VMware customer, really deep into their stack, it's their ESXI, their vsan, and their NSX. Well, for us, that's not three components or three bills. It's VI os.

And so that's the alternative that we're offering folks. And, and I mean, we're talking to five 10, sometimes 12 people a day, mostly calling us or emailing us. And, uh, replacing VMware, uh, rapidly, uh, as, as we go Now, we've also had some Hyper V replacement, uh, shops.

Some people find us when they're sand shopping because they really don't need to buy a new sand when they use Verge. We manage the storage internally. So, but VMware alternative, that's, I don't, I don't know if panic is quite the right word, but we've never seen anything like the amount of, uh, of, of interest and need real, not just interest need that exists today for a replacement.

Some folks might be looking at, uh, swamping out the hyperscaler for one, the cloud service providers will give them. I mean, is that a heavy lift or an easy lift? What's your sense of the work that goes into that?

That's an area that, I don't know if I have quite the right answer, uh, for you, uh, but it does make me think of something that I neglected to say previously that I'd like to share. And that is simply, uh, what vir os the, what the experience becomes. It's a cloud-like operating system cloud-like environment, but for people who want to, uh, need or want to maintain, uh, control of, uh, of the data, of the hardware, et cetera.

But from the perspective of, uh, of the cloud experience, it, it is that, um, but on premises, Other folks are thinking about taking their monolithic AppSec that run on VMs and encapsulate 'em and throw them up on Kubernetes clusters alongside their cloud native applications. I don't know how much work goes into that either, but it seems like there's a lot of different options to consider. So ultimately, why would I wanna stick with an integrated platform like Verge versus looking at these other options?

What's the benefit one way or the other? Oh, sure. No, great, great question.

So, so a number of things. Uh, one is the efficiency, the performance, and I dare say the price. Uh, the, the, you know, we're not obviously gonna have a pricing conversation here today.

But, uh, suffice it to say that someone who's just a little bit into the VMware world, uh, we typically save them 20 to 30%, um, with apples to apples, and if they're really deep in 60, 70, 80%. So it's compelling, uh, even if it wasn't as, uh, feature rich as it is, and, and it is, it, the price alone is compelling for many. Uh, the ransomware resiliency piece, which we haven't really discussed, but um, is second to none in the industry.

Uh, there are some folks who have moved to Verge just because of the ransomware resiliency, or at least that's the number one reason for them. Um, so, uh, there, there are other alternatives, uh, worth exploring, no doubt. Uh, the, but we're, we are bringing on more and more new customers than we've ever imagined, frankly, uh, because of, of these matters.

The, uh, the, the uncertainty that's in the market right now, the cost reduction, uh, I would, I guess I would also add the ease of management, you know, um, that maybe that's a, a lesser priority for some. But, you know, one of our bigger customers that has over 10,000 VMs in their environment, uh, manages that, uh, up until late last year with two, with two folks, they just added a third. Uh, and they're managing, it's a research university.

They run all of their, uh, private, uh, all of their, uh, advanced research computing on us with three people with 10,000 plus VMs and new research groups coming to them every day. So those are some of the reasons, uh, certainly the price, the, uh, management, uh, overhead being so low, uh, and, and the ransomware resiliency, uh, that you get with this new, with this new platform. I'd love to get your perspective on hybrid cloud computing.

I feel like we've been talking about it forever and a day, but when I actually poke into this, what I discovered is people are running VMware on premise and they're running most of their workloads in the cloud on something else, and the two hardly ever meet. So, you know, will, this conversation is, we're kind of having it around what's happening on the, on-premise side. Mm-Hmm.

Drive more people to kind of think through, uh, a real hybrid cloud strategy versus a multi-cloud strategy. We've very specifically, uh, offered to folks, uh, I don't know if it's a new, maybe a new old way of thinking, uh, which is, you know, the cloud is what, it's a data center somewhere. That's, that's what the cloud is.

And so if you, if you enjoy certain aspects of the cloud, right, which is just someone else's data center, frankly, then what if we can give you all of that flexibility and that elasticity and the ability to, you know, assign down to the smallest atomic unit, you know, to, to the core, uh, for applications. And what if you could do all of that and not have to hire someone in particular to be able to understand the bill? Uh, you know, that.

So, so that's our, uh, that's our position currently with regards to the cloud. There are other folks who, you know, could speak more to the hybrid cloud, the multi-cloud. Um, we just think if, if we give you that cloud like operating environment, uh, in your own facility or in your co-location, uh, I mean, MSPs, for instance, are some of our biggest customers.

Uh, they, they love the multi-tenancy that's native to our product, and, uh, the ease with which they can have increased machine density, uh, better performance, even using existing hardware. Um, so yes, so for us that that cloud experience is what we're offering, but not in someone else's cloud, uh, in, in, in your own. All right, folks, you heard it here.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you pretty much know that there's a lot of turmoil happening in that VMware ecosystem these days. Everybody's looking at their options one way or in the other. And Berge might just be one other.

Hey Aaron, thanks for being on the show. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being here.

Take care. And back to you guys in the studio.