With VMware’s rising costs and licensing changes under Broadcom, IT leaders are evaluating Nutanix AHV as a powerful alternative. Learn how three organizations navigated their VMware to Nutanix AHV migration journey to unlock cost savings, simplicity, and performance.
Welcome to a deep dive into one of the most pressing topics in IT infrastructure today: migrating from VMware to Nutanix AHV.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wrestling with the same questions our panel tackled recently. What’s next for VMware under Broadcom, how do you manage rising costs, and is Nutanix AHV really a viable alternative?
This post is a direct reflection of our August 2025 virtual panel discussion, where I had the privilege of moderating a candid conversation with three IT leaders who’ve lived through the migration journey. We skipped the slides and got straight to the real talk of what worked, what didn’t, and what you need to know if you’re considering a similar move.
Setting the Stage: Why This Discussion Matters
Let’s be honest – uncertainty around VMware’s future has been a cloud over the industry for two years. Licensing changes, price hikes, and shifting product features have forced organizations to rethink their virtualization strategies.
As mentioned at the start of the panel, “What is Broadcom doing with VMware? Prices are going up, licensing is changing, and product features and functionality are shifting.” The result? IT leaders are searching for alternatives that offer cost savings, simplicity, and agility.
Our goal for this session was simple: share practical advice and real-world insights from organizations that have already made the move to Nutanix AHV, or are actively evaluating it. No bashing, just realism about the state of the industry and what’s possible.
Meet the Panelists
I was joined by three customers from diverse industries, each with a unique perspective:
- Cody Reimers, Albany County Sheriff’s Department (Public Safety)
- Scott Ziegler, RPWB, Rogers, Patrick, Westbrook and Britton (Legal)
- Devin Costa, Jones Onslow Electric Membership Corporation (Utilities)
Each panelist brought hands-on experience with Nutanix AHV and different stages of adoption; some fully migrated, some running mixed environments, all with valuable lessons to share.
Decision-Making:
Why Move to Nutanix AHV?
Cost Savings and Simplicity
Cody kicked things off with the core reason for their migration:
“The biggest point was the renewal costs. We were seeing where Broadcom was going, and what the renewal costs were coming in as. What we really liked was the demo of Nutanix AHV, not only the cost savings, but also the overall management and simplicity. It still provided the same functional services we were doing.”
Devin echoed this, highlighting the licensing model:
“With Nutanix, you get AHV basically for free. We were already running Nutanix hardware, so it wasn’t an issue. Why not take advantage of that and save a little bit of money?”
Overcoming Hesitancy
Migrating critical services, especially in public safety, comes with risks. Cody admitted, “We were concerned about the sustainability and how well it would continue to operate in the event of a disaster or outage. But it was very simple to deploy. We had it up in a matter of hours and were building out the new environment. It was far easier than operating with VMware.”
Devin added, “There was really nothing that we can’t do in AHV that we weren’t already doing in VMware. So why not move forward?”
Risk Management and Planning
Scott’s firm faced not only VMware costs but also hardware renewal. “Our PowerEdge servers were long in the tooth, about six years old, and starting to show their age. We needed to expand, and were running out of memory. Migrating to AHV meant we could consolidate and simplify,” Scott shared.
The migration was carefully planned to minimize downtime. “From the user’s perspective, there was never any downtime. We migrated 120 VMs, and the staged rollout was pretty painless. I expected it to be a lot worse,” Scott said. He credited the Nutanix Move tool and expert support for the smooth transition.
Devin and Cody both emphasized the importance of disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity. Nutanix’s native DR functionality allowed for live disaster testing and seamless failover, critical for organizations that operate 24/7.
Day Two: Life After Migration
Performance and Stability
One of the most immediate benefits was improved performance. Scott reported, “Citrix logins went from 30 seconds to under 20 seconds internally, which is crazy. We’ve never had that fast before. External users saw similar improvements, and nothing changed on the network side.”
Devin agreed, “End users expressed how much faster it was and how much quicker it responded. It was a game-changer. When end users say, ‘Hey, this is working fast,’ you know you’re doing something right.”
Operational Efficiency
Patch and firmware lifecycle management became dramatically simpler. Cody described, “It has saved hours upon hours of my life. Now I just go into Prism Element or Prism Central, run my updates, and it does everything autonomously. I don’t have to do each individual host one at a time. It handles it all. It has saved hundreds of hours.”
Devin added, “We do a lot of it during the day. We don’t have to schedule time after hours. We get so many man hours back in our day.”
Disaster Recovery and Data Protection
Cody shared his experience moving from Zerto to Nutanix DR services. “I had a lot of challenges with Zerto. When I built DR into Nutanix, it was very straightforward. It gives you the ability to test a failover without actually performing a failover and tells you why it’s failing without causing any impact. Everything remained operational throughout that time period.”
Network mapping and IP changes were handled smoothly, with Nutanix offering both manual and automatic options. “You tell it what VLAN or subnet you want, and it will move it there and automatically assign as long as you have those features in place,” Cody explained.
Regarding Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Cody found Nutanix competitive. “We didn’t notice any significant changes. Nutanix DR can go down to one-minute RPOs, and there are three different types of DR strategies—async, near sync, and metro sync—so you can craft it to what you need.”
Unified Storage and Infrastructure
Scott’s firm moved away from NetApp to Nutanix Unified Storage. “Sometimes it felt like you needed a PhD to operate NetApp. We didn’t need high IO for files, so why spend tons of money on NetApp when we can get what we need and still get good performance out of Nutanix?”
The migration resulted in significant savings in rack space and power. “We saved about 14U in rack space. It’s crazy how much space is in our rack now. We were looking at having to upgrade our PDU because we had too much stuff, and now we can stick with what we’ve got,” Scott said.
Cloud Integration and Future Plans
Devin’s organization is leveraging Azure VMware Solution (AVS) as a DR target, with plans to expand cloud integration. “We’re on the East Coast of North Carolina, affected by hurricanes. AVS seemed like a good fit. We can have our secondary systems up and running in the cloud environment, alleviating downtime. We have outage management systems that have to be up 24/7, 365,” Devin explained.
Scott mentioned their use of Nutanix Files today and is interested in extending those capabilities into Azure. With Nutanix Files now running natively in Azure, he can seamlessly replicate file data from his on-premises Nutanix Files deployment to Nutanix Files in Azure. This provides a consistent management experience across environments and supports scenarios such as cloud-based disaster recovery, data mobility, and long-term workload modernization.
Key Takeaways and Advice
As we wrapped up, I summarized the common themes:
- Flexible IT infrastructure that grows as needed
- Seamless adoption and simplified management
- Cost savings and predictable licensing
- Deeper automation and operational efficiency
- Integrated disaster recovery and business continuity
Each panelist shared their next steps:
- Cody: “A little bit of it all – adding security and additional workloads.”
- Scott: “We’re kind of done. Nothing left to do other than maintenance, so now I can sleep well at night.”
- Devin: “We recently purchased Data Lens for visibility into our file system. Excited about Nutanix Files in Azure and new DR strategies.”
Conclusion
Migrating from VMware to Nutanix AHV is not just a technical shift, it’s a strategic move that can deliver cost savings, operational simplicity, and future-proof flexibility. The experiences shared by Cody, Scott, and Devin demonstrate that with careful planning, expert support, and the right tools, organizations can navigate the migration with minimal disruption and maximum benefit.
Whether you’re facing rising VMware costs, seeking to simplify your environment, or planning for cloud integration and disaster recovery, Nutanix AHV offers a compelling alternative. As I concluded, “Not every workload is made for Nutanix, just like not every workload is made for the cloud. The key is understanding your environment, evaluating your options, and crafting a migration strategy that fits your needs.”
If you’re considering a migration, hands-on workshops and modernization assessments can help you understand what makes sense for your organization. The journey may be complex, but with the right partners and insights, it can be transformative.
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