Moving to the Cloud: Beware the "Lift and Shift" Trap

Considering the move to cloud? An “All-in” approach to cloud is less than optimal for today’s business outcomes. Bulk migrations, moving everything without rationalizing the portfolio, otherwise known as “lift and shift”, has several impacts both technical and financial. The paradigm shift to subscription-based licensing presents the perfect opportunity to reassess your cloud strategy and deploy multi-cloud within a higher value virtualization platform, while not giving away the control and oversubscription benefits you have now. We’ll explain how you can avoid the expensive trap of a “lift and shift” strategy and take full advantage of cloud’s flexibility and cost-saving features.

The Oversubscription Legacy

Historically, VMware provided a highly efficient solution for managing infrastructure costs. By

virtualizing several guest hosts onto a single host computer, businesses could significantly

reduce their hardware expenditures. Instead of purchasing ten servers, companies could buy one or two robust servers and run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on them. This strategy allowed businesses to realize substantial savings, often only needing 10% of the bare metal hardware to manage their workloads.

However, VMware's traditional model has become less cost-effective with the shift towards

subscription-based pricing, and the increasing complexity of managing on-premises infrastructure compared to modern cloud-native and open-source solutions.

New Paradigms in Virtualization

The industry is moving towards new standards, where infrastructure as code becomes the norm. While VMs remain a component, technologies like containers, TerraForm/OpenTofu, and Ansible are leading the way towards standardized, automated, and manageable environments. Kubernetes, for example, offers robust automation and management capabilities, steering organizations away from traditional subscription models like vSphere.

Embracing Open-Source Solutions

Open-source solutions provide greater flexibility and control over your infrastructure. They

allow for more efficient resource utilization and eliminate the dependency on expensive,

proprietary cloud services. You can right-size your VMs, utilize auto-scaling effectively, and adopt cloud-native practices without incurring high subscription fees.

Plus open-source platforms offer robust automation and management capabilities, helping you

optimize your cloud environment and reduce operational costs. You can fully realize the benefits of the cloud, enhance your infrastructure's efficiency, and maintain control over your costs.

Of course, embracing open-source isn’t without its challenges. Issues like limited

support, complex integration, and security concerns, often make businesses hesitant to adopt

open-source technology…

“Lift and Shape” with Kudzu

That’s why we created Kudzu – an end-to-end solution that provides managed, secure, and

optimized private cloud environments built on open-source technology. Kudzu makes it easy to

safely transition away from VMware, offering robust migration services and dedicated support.

Kudzu replaces VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and Tanzu, leveraging CloudStack so that you are no longer at the mercy of costly commercial software vendors.

Free yourself from exploitative pricing models and reclaim control over your cloud

infrastructure. Liberate Your Cloud.