Thinking About VMware Alternatives?

It’s an API and Automation Problem, Not Just a Hypervisor Swap

Not long ago, I was in a conversation with a CIO who got right to the point:
“Keith, what’s the alternative to VMware?”

That’s the question I hear over and over—especially since the Broadcom acquisition. It’s not just about the ESXi hypervisor. It’s about the entire VMware experience: the operational model, the control plane, the API, the ecosystem, and yes, the business relationship you now have with Broadcom.

But before you can talk about replacing “VMware” as a whole, you have to start at the foundation: what technology stack will you build on? That decision sets the stage for everything else.

Step One: The Foundation Choice

VMware’s stack is anchored by ESXi. If you’re leaving VMware, your first step is deciding what underpins your new platform:

• Microsoft Hyper-V — logical if you’re already committed to Microsoft’s ecosystem.

• KVM — the practical foundation for most organizations not going all-in on Microsoft.

Remember: KVM isn’t a product—it’s the hypervisor core. Choosing it means picking a supported platform, a support model, and an operating framework around it.

And for completeness—OpenStack and CloudStack are open-source IaaS platforms built on KVM. They can deliver a private cloud experience with API-driven provisioning and multi-tenancy. But they bring significant operational complexity, so they’re best suited for organizations with the engineering capacity to run them as products in their own right.

Step Two: The Operational Model

When you say “VMware,” you’re really talking about a full operational stack:

• vCenter for management

• DRS, HA, and vMotion for resilience

• Templates, clones, and policies for rapid provisioning

• A mature API and SDKs (vSphere Automation SDK, vSphere Web Services API, PowerCLI cmdlets) that your automation depends on

• An ecosystem of integrations for backup, monitoring, security, compliance

An alternative has to replace—or reimagine—all of that. And the hardest part is replacing the API and automation layer that holds it together.

Step Three: The Automation Gap

This is where projects succeed or fail. Swapping hypervisors is easy. Rebuilding the operational completeness of vSphere—especially automation—isn’t.

Here’s how the most common VMware alternatives stack up.

Nutanix (Integrated HCI)

Strengths:

• Familiar to VMware admins

• Hardware lifecycle and cluster management built-in

• Strong infrastructure automation APIs

• Often a single-vendor hardware+software relationship

Weaknesses:

• CI/CD patterns often need re-engineering

• Licensing/scaling economics can vary

Keith’s take: Strong “VMware-like” infrastructure experience, but not a drop-in for vSphere’s API model.

Proxmox VE (Open-Source Virtualization)

Strengths:

• Free and open-source with optional paid support

• KVM-based virtualization with integrated container support (LXC)

• Web-based management interface

• Active community and growing ecosystem

Weaknesses:

• API surface and ecosystem maturity are behind VMware

• Lacks integrated enterprise features like native DRS/HA at VMware’s level

• Requires more operational DIY compared to turnkey platforms

Keith’s take: Attractive for cost-conscious orgs with strong in-house skills. Not a like-for-like enterprise feature match, but can be effective if you’re comfortable integrating your own tooling.

Platform9 

Strengths:

• SaaS-managed control plane for on-prem KVM, OpenStack components, and Kubernetes

• Combines VM and container orchestration under one roof

• Removes much of the operational complexity of running on a on-premises cloud platform

Weaknesses:

• Less common in large enterprise footprints compared to VMware, Nutanix

Keith’s take: Strong choice if you want open-source infrastructure with managed-service ease. A good fit for hybrid models blending VM and Kubernetes workloads.

OpenShift (Container-First)

Strengths:

• Kubernetes API is now the automation standard for modern apps

• Great for containerized workloads and CI/CD

• Rich operator ecosystem

Weaknesses:

• Weak at deep host-level lifecycle and integration

• Requires cultural and operational shift to cloud-native

Keith’s take: Perfect for a Kubernetes-heavy future. Not intended as an infrastructure-first VMware replacement.

Oxide Computer Company (Integrated Rack-Scale Cloud)

Strengths:

• Fully integrated hardware + software stack designed for on-premises cloud operations

• Delivers a cloud-like API and operational model, but runs in your own data center

• Rack-scale architecture with built-in security, telemetry, and orchestration

• Strong opinionated design that reduces integration complexity for customers

Weaknesses:

• Early-stage adoption in the enterprise market; limited ecosystem compared to VMware

• Not a “mix and match” system — you buy and operate the entire Oxide rack as a unit

• Requires a shift toward cloud-native operations, even for traditional VM workloads

Keith’s take:
Oxide’s offering is for organizations that want the public cloud operational experience without leaving their own data center. It’s not a VMware clone — it’s a replatforming decision. If you’re ready to embrace an integrated rack-scale model and retool around its APIs, it can simplify operations. But if you need to lift-and-shift VMware-era automation wholesale, expect a high degree of change.

HPE Virtual Machine Environment (VME)

Strengths:

• Purpose-built to appeal to VMware customers considering a switch

• Includes KVM-based virtualization with HPE management tooling

• Tight integration with HPE hardware lifecycle management and support

Weaknesses:

• New entrant—ecosystem maturity and API surface aren’t at VMware levels yet

• Primarily attractive if you’re already an HPE infrastructure customer

Keith’s take: A logical option for all-HPE shops that want a familiar management experience without VMware licensing. For others, weigh API maturity and ecosystem depth before committing.

Public Cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)

Strengths:

• Everything is API-driven by design

• Rich automation and integration capabilities

• Fully managed infrastructure

Weaknesses:

• You’re adopting a provider’s entire operating model and roadmap

• Cost and governance require new discipline

Keith’s take: The automation story is unmatched—but this isn’t migration, it’s transformation.

Join us for a special VMware Cloud Foundation Webinar

Special Case: If You’re an NSX Shop

If your VMware environment isn’t just ESXi and vSphere, but NSX for network virtualization and microsegmentation, you’re dealing with a dual dependency:

1. The compute and virtualization stack (vSphere/ESXi)

2. The network and security stack (NSX Manager, DFW, overlay networking, edge services)

When you leave VMware, you have to make two parallel decisions:

• Compute platform replacement — All the API and automation considerations we’ve discussed still apply.

• Network and security platform replacement — You must decide if you’ll replicate NSX’s functionality, simplify to native networking in your new platform, or adopt a different SDN/Security model.

What makes NSX tricky:

• Tightly coupled automation: Many NSX shops have Terraform, Ansible, or CI/CD jobs that deploy both compute and network objects together.

• Policy and compliance dependencies: If your segmentation or compliance model is implemented in NSX DFW rules, you need an equivalent before migration.

• Multi-cloud networking: If you’re using NSX for connectivity between data centers and clouds, you’ll have to decide if you replace it with cloud-native networking, another overlay (like Aviatrix), or a physical/virtual network appliance model.

Possible NSX replacements, depending on path:

• Nutanix Flow — integrated microsegmentation for Nutanix AHV

• Kubernetes CNI + service mesh — for container-first environments like OpenShift

• Cloud-native security groups and firewalls — if moving to hyperscalers

• Standalone SDN/overlay solutions — like Arista, Juniper Contrail, VMware NSX bare-metal mode, or open-source OVN/OVS via OpenStack

Keith’s take:
This is a whole area of evaluation on its own, because none of the VMware alternatives mentioned earlier offer an integrated compute + network virtualization platform like NSX today. HPE’s recent acquisition of Juniper hints at a potential roadmap toward integration, but for now you’re looking at stitching together two separate solutions and significantly changing your operating model.

Pathway: Choosing Your VMware Alternative

When you strip the emotion and vendor noise away, your choice comes down to three main paths. Each has its own trade-offs and level of effort.

*Degree of Difficulty = effort to reach operational parity, retrain staff, and close the automation gap.

Keith’s take:
This is the “reality check” most people miss. You’re not just picking a product — you’re picking an operating model. The more it diverges from your VMware baseline, the higher the degree of difficulty.

Scorecard: What You Get vs. What You Need

Score each category 0–3 (None / Partial / Good / Excellent) for your target platform, then compare to vSphere.

Common API pain points when leaving VMware:

• vSphere Automation SDK (Python, Java, REST) — provisioning, tagging, policy enforcement

• vSphere Web Services API — legacy integrations for inventory and host ops

• PowerCLI cmdlets — embedded in Windows-centric automation scripts

Replacing these requires finding equivalent API calls or re-architecting automation logic entirely.

Your scorecard delta is your engineering backlog—the work to fund before moving production.

The Bottom Line

When someone asks, “What’s the alternative to VMware?” they’re really asking, “How do I replace the platform, the API, and the ecosystem I’ve relied on for years?”

There’s no one-for-one answer. The right choice depends on the foundation you pick, the operational model you want, and how much of the automation gap you’re ready to close.

The hypervisor is the easy part. The API—and the automation it enables—is where the strategy lives.

If you want help mapping your VMware-dependent automation to a new platform, that’s exactly what our async advisory covers. Email me at [email protected] and we’ll start with your gap map.