Virtualization
VMware
The dominant enterprise virtualization platform. VMware vSphere runs multiple isolated VMs on a single physical server — maximizing hardware utilization.
VMware is the dominant enterprise virtualization platform, now owned by Broadcom. VMware vSphere is the core product — it lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server, each isolated from the others. Instead of one server running one workload, you run dozens of VMs on one host, dramatically improving hardware utilization and operational flexibility.
The enterprise stack: vSphere (the hypervisor platform), vCenter (centralized management of all hosts), vSAN (software-defined storage), and NSX (software-defined networking). Most serious VMware deployments are built on some combination of these.
The current landscape: Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023 and moved to a subscription licensing model, ending perpetual licenses and eliminating many lower-tier products. This has significantly increased costs for most organizations and triggered a wave of migration planning — to Hyper-V, Proxmox, Nutanix, or cloud-native alternatives.
For organizations still on VMware: understanding your current licensing exposure and mapping a forward path is increasingly urgent. The integration depth and operational maturity of the platform are real, but so is the cost trajectory under Broadcom's ownership.