미국 시츠, 838개 매장 VMware 전면 교체... 브로드컴 탓

Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Sheetz, a US convenience store chain, is moving its 838 locations off VMware. Sheetz has used VMware virtualization across two Dell R440/R450-series servers at each of its locations since 2019. Now it’s migrating 12 to 14 virtual machines (VMs) in each of its stores from VMware vSphere to StorMagic’s SvHCI, “with an additional two VMs to be replaced over the coming months to transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11,” Scott Robertson, infrastructure team manager at Sheetz, told Ars Technica via email. Ultimately, Sheetz will move about 11,000 VMs from Broadcom’s virtualization platform. Sheetz is still running the original Dell server hardware. So far, Sheetz has finished migrating more than 600 stores, averaging 200 per month, according to a company announcement today. Sheetz should be finished with the migration in four months, the announcement said. Robertson said that Sheetz decided to quit VMware because Broadcom’s changes, which include eliminating perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions to large bundles , forced the retail chain’s hand. He added: The projected price hikes, coupled with a mandatory subscription model and a five-year commitment, simply created too much uncertainty around long-term budgeting and increased our vendor dependence. There are numerous rivals trying to lure VMware customers left disgruntled by Broadcom’s takeover. But even frustrated IT departments are challenged to find replacements that match the breadth and capabilities of VMware, which has become synonymous with virtualization in its 28 years. Sheetz settled on StorMagic after already using StorMagic’s virtual storage area network offering, SvSAN, alongside VMware for critical in-store applications since 2019. “Our initial rollout proved StorMagic could deliver the resilience and centralized management needed across a large, distributed retail environment,” Gary Sliver, director of platform engineering at Sheetz, said in a statement. Sliver also noted that migrating hasn’t required Sheetz to “send technicians to every site.” Robertson told Ars that the ability to move from SvSAN to SvHCI remotely and without requiring hardware upgrades will save Sheetz a “significant” amount of money. Still, as expected with a big IT project, migrating virtualization platforms still presents challenges. When asked about Sheetz’s biggest migration obstacles, Robertson told Ars: Automation and [SvHCI’s VMware] VM Import Utility were absolutely vital to scaling this migration. Operating in a 24/7/365 retail environment meant that minimizing business disruption was critical. It required meticulous planning and heavy automation to ensure our store operations ran as smoothly as possible throughout the entire transition. SvHCI product maturity in relation to APIs meant it was a small amount of extra work, and the main challenge of the migration was [finding] the time available to do it, for the scale of the environment. They were having to simultaneously plan, develop, and implement. For many companies, the idea of moving off VMware is daunting due to the money, time, and staff that it may require. Some also report challenges in finding alternatives with the same capabilities and compatibility as VMware. Total or even partial migrations can seem particularly implausible for organizations that depend on VMware technology. As a result, there are many VMware customers interested in quitting or reducing their use of VMware products, but have yet to make the move or are still in the planning phases. In September, Gartner estimated that 35 percent of VMware workloads would migrate elsewhere by 2028 . StorMagic targets VMware’s larger customers StorMagic has a reputation for serving small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), but today’s announcement highlights its interest in winning over the enterprise-sized firms that Broadcom’s VMware strategy targets, especially enterprises with numerous SMB-sized locations. “In reality, we have always focused heavily on two distinct markets: SMB/mid-market datacenters and the ‘edge’ environments of large, highly distributed enterprises, like Sheetz. A distributed enterprise with hundreds or thousands of retail, grocery, or branch locations actually faces similar IT challenges at each site as a local SMB,” Scott Mann, StorMagic’s SVP of global sales, told Ars via email, pointing to these organizations having limited physical space, power, on-site technical staff, and budget. The executive sees further opportunity among VMware’s current enterprise clients. “Historically, large enterprises tolerated the ‘VMware tax’ at their edge locations because it was the status quo. However, with recent massive industry shifts, specifically Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, enterprises are facing massive budget increases just to keep their remote sites running,” Mann said. Other enterprises recently revealed to be migrating off of VMware include Allstate , T-Mobile , and UK grocery chain Tesco . For its part, Broadcom has argued that changes to VMware’s licensing model are in line with the rest of the industry, and its acquisition of VMware is considered financially successful . Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She's been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK. 20 Comments