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Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

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Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#51

Post by proxysna »

rwmj wrote: post #19
proxysna wrote: post #14

Great time to migrate off VMware. All the migration paths are well-trodden by now, but goddamn 40k vm's. A lot of work ahead.

I work at Red Hat and a customer moving 40k servers off VMware is a fairly regular occurrence. It'd be one of the larger migrations but certainly not unusual. We can usually do about 500-1000 guests per day once the migration is fully underway after the initial engagement and a qualification period where the VMs get scoped for anything unusual / difficult to move. It's all based around open source projects virt-v2v a…

Nice. Thanks for the insight!

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#52

Post by quickthrowman »

GlacierFox wrote: post #13

Why would you self sabotage such a considerable contract? Are Broadcom stupid?

Broadcom expects every customer to move off VMware eventually due to technology shifts, by jacking up the price 10x and cutting costs 70% they can print money for a few years from customers that are either too risk-averse or too dysfunctional to switch to another product.

Possibly they’ll do enough brand damage that it turns out to be a negative ROI, but for now they’re printing money.

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#53

Post by remus »

GlacierFox wrote: post #13

Why would you self sabotage such a considerable contract? Are Broadcom stupid?

It does seem an odd move. No doubt they're going to milk existing customers for everything they're worth, but they're going to create a generation of people who will never buy anything from them ever again. That guy who's busting his balls to migrate off VMWare because of the price hike is gonna be the CTO in 10 years time, and when he's making that 10m USD purchasing decision they're gonna stay well away from anything with the name Broadcom on it.

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#54

Post by [deleted] »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #47
twoodfin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Broadcom correctly realizes that no matter what they do there is no long term: In a world of Cloud hyperscalers and containerization, the absolute number of “traditional” virtual machines run by a commercial hypervisor has nowhere to go but down.

Containers do not reduce reliance on VMs, really. Those containers still need a server to run on, and that server is almost certainly going to be a VM and not bare metal.

[deleted]

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#55

Post by mjfisher »

driverdan wrote: post #50

As someone who has never dealt with anything close to this scale, why would it take 18 months to migrate? Is this poor config management, a lack of automation, or something else?

I can't speak to this particular case, but most of the delay is likely to be organisational rather than technical at this kind of scale.

Don't think about how hard it is to migrate a VM to a new provider. Think about how hard it is to:

* Get procurement to sign off on a new vendor

* Guarantee that your ISO compliance standards can be met under the new regime

* Make sure that GDPR requirements are met during any data transfer process to the satisfaction of your legal team

* Get the old infrastructure team and the new infrastructure team coordinated enough to be able to plan a migration without downtime

* Mollify the consultants that the CEO's friend said he should hire

* Analyse the migration plan to death to derisk it while at the same time be unable to actually evaluate it small scale due to the points above

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#56

Post by to11mtm »

mjfisher wrote: post #55
driverdan wrote: post #50

As someone who has never dealt with anything close to this scale, why would it take 18 months to migrate? Is this poor config management, a lack of automation, or something else?

I can't speak to this particular case, but most of the delay is likely to be organisational rather than technical at this kind of scale. Don't think about how hard it is to migrate a VM to a new provider. Think about how hard it is to: * Get procurement to sign off on a new vendor * Guarantee that your ISO compliance standards can be met under the new regime * Make sure that GDPR requirements are met during any data…

Don't forget any relevant training for employees (e.x. for things like 'how to connect to a virtual desktop'). That can add up in some cases.

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#57

Post by malfist »

fsuts wrote: post #27
sokoloff wrote: post #4

If Tesco needs character witnesses that Broadcom has done this to many other customers, I think they’ll find plenty of willing participants. Broadcom’s marketing for Proxmox is extremely effective.

[flagged]

What are you talking about? Judicial filings in the UK are not generally confidential and when they are it is usually only about specific documents.

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#58

Post by rwmj »

twoodfin wrote: post #41
stackskipton wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but whole strategy is "Jack up prices by 500%, cut expenses by 70% and make more money in short term" What about the long term? Who care, massive money made and they can use that to keep going.

I think Broadcom correctly realizes that no matter what they do there is no long term: In a world of Cloud hyperscalers and containerization, the absolute number of “traditional” virtual machines run by a commercial hypervisor has nowhere to go but down.

No one's going away from VMs any time soon (if ever). More than half of the workloads we see being migrated are Windows. Many more are odd/ancient RHEL versions running some very specific software where the manufacturer won't offer a newer version / went out of business / the guy who set it up left and no one knows how it's configured / it works and we never want to touch it again.

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#59

Post by BLKNSLVR »

Spooky23 wrote: post #40
stackskipton wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but whole strategy is "Jack up prices by 500%, cut expenses by 70% and make more money in short term" What about the long term? Who care, massive money made and they can use that to keep going.

They make AI crap. The future is Mars.

But Snickers is Mars with nuts, so it's both healthier and more filling.

The future is Snickers!

Re: Tesco moving 40k server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's abusive conduct

#60

Post by usernametaken29 »

At that scale it is almost always easier to run your own infrastructure. Like, I’m not kidding, kubernetes will handle it fairly easy. Get a DevOps engineer or a good consulting agency and run your cluster on Hetzner. This saved us insane amounts of money. No need to buy infrastructure outright but simply moving off the cloud will easily squash your bill by 50% if not more.
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