Navigating the current VMware Challenges

In the past 18 months: 

• Licensing models changed dramatically
• Infrastructure costs increased - in some cases by 3 to 10
• Thousands of partners worldwide lost their certifications
• Clients were left without the technical expertise they had relied on

This is not just a pricing discussion. It is a governance, risk, and infrastructure continuity issue. For many organizations, the key questions are now strategic:

• Does our current partner still have the required certifications?
• Are we exposed to unexpected renewal costs?
• Do we have a credible roadmap - on or off VMware?
• Who is accountable for our platform strategy going forward?

The answers to these questions will shape infrastructure decisions for the next five to ten years.

• Budget Unpredictability: New licensing structures have fundamentally changed cost models. Budgets built on previous assumptions may no longer be valid.
   
• Expertise Gaps: Not all partners maintained their VMware status. If your provider was affected, you may now be operating without certified architects, direct vendor support channels, validated upgrade or migration paths and long-term platform governance.
   
• Strategic Uncertainty: Organizations are being pushed to make infrastructure decisions quickly - often without a clear framework.

Every organization we consult with is looking at the same five strategic directions. Choosing the right one requires looking past the spreadsheet and into your five-year architectural goals.

• Path 1: Stay on VMware, renegotiate - best formMission-critical workloads with deep integration.
   
• Path 2: Migrate to Kubernetes-native - best for modern development teams (OpenShift, Rancher, Gardener).
   
• Path 3: Move to hyperscaler-native - best for existing Azure or AWS commitments.
   
• Path 4: Sovereign Cloud - best for Swiss regulated entities (finance, healthcare).
   
• Path 5: Hybrid: sovereign foundation + selective hyperscaler - best for large enterprises with varied needs.

Your situation is unique. Your licensing exposure, infrastructure dependencies, and risk tolerance aren't the same as anyone else's and the right path forward shouldn't be either.

As one of VMware's top 100 global partners and a leading Swiss cloud provider, ELCA/ EveryWare has deep, hands-on expertise across the full landscape: VMware on sovereign cloud infrastructure, OpenStack, OpenShift, and the major hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure, and OCI. We work with all of them. That means we have no agenda to push you in one direction.

But we go further than advice. We can also operate your target platform, so you get a single partner from assessment to production.

Our role is to help you make the right decision for your business, then see it through.
 

ELCA/ EveryWare typically support organizations through four structured steps:

1. Assess your current position: We start by understanding where you actually stand - your VMware environment, licensing exposure, infrastructure dependencies, renewal timeline, and operational risks. No assumptions, no shortcuts.
2. Define the right strategic path: With a clear picture of your situation, we work alongside your teams to evaluate realistic options - whether that means staying on VMware, migrating to sovereign cloud, moving workloads to a hyperscaler, or a hybrid of all three.
3. Execute the transition safely: Once the path is defined, we support every stage of implementation: architecture design, migration planning, cost optimization, governance and compliance, and operational readiness.
4. Operate your target platform: We don't just hand you the keys. Whether your destination is our sovereign cloud, OpenShift, or a managed hyperscaler environment, we can run it for you - with Swiss-based operations, full SLA coverage, and the compliance guarantees your business requires.