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The VMware alternative built on open infrastructure

Licensing changes shouldn’t dictate your architecture. edgeContinuum turns OpenStack into a full cloud experience: managed Kubernetes, virtual machines and databases, self-service for your teams, on hardware you already own.

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Open-source foundation, licensed per managed resource, not per vCPURuns on your hardware, in your perimeterBuilt and supported in the EU, air-gap capable
Today
vSphere VMsvirtualization
vCentermanagement
TanzuKubernetes
edgeContinuum
Managed KubernetesCNCF conformant
PostgreSQLmanaged, HA
VMson your OpenStack
After the move

Why teams are moving off VMware

Since the Broadcom acquisition, virtualization licensing has shifted to bundled subscriptions with steep price increases, and many organizations are re-evaluating a stack they otherwise trusted. The credible exit path is open infrastructure; the honest problem with that path is that raw OpenStack is powerful but operationally demanding.

That is the gap edgeContinuum closes: we put a managed-services layer, a modern console and one API on top of OpenStack, so the migration lands on something your teams can actually operate, and your developers get a better experience than they had before.

The licensing math has changed

Teams evaluating a VMware exit strategy keep hitting the same numbers: per-core subscription bundles, minimum commitments, and renewal quotes multiplying the cost of the same hardware. A vSphere alternative only makes sense if it cuts the licensing dependency without cutting capability: virtualization, Kubernetes, storage integration and the management pane all have to land somewhere.

Shortlisting VMware alternatives

Most lists of VMware alternatives are lists of hypervisors: Proxmox VE, XCP-ng, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, and OpenStack. That is the right list if what you are replacing is ESXi and nothing else. It is the wrong list if the reason you are leaving is that vSphere plus vCenter plus Tanzu plus the bundle around it was doing more than virtualization, because swapping the hypervisor alone leaves you rebuilding the rest by hand. The comparison worth running is against the whole stack you licence today: ESXi was never the complaint, but the per-core subscription bundles, Tanzu tied to the vSphere licence underneath, a vCenter per site, and tenancy that assumes one IT organization all are. Our guide to shortlisting VMware alternatives works through the four routes in detail.

If a hypervisor is genuinely all you need, say so on the call and we will tell you plainly that a Proxmox or XCP-ng deployment is cheaper than a platform. For the layer-by-layer detail, see our breakdown on OpenStack vs VMware and managed Kubernetes on OpenStack, or follow our VMware to OpenStack migration playbook.

Where your VMware workloads land

vSphere virtual machines
OpenStack VMs, managed like public cloudImage and flavor catalogs, SSH keys, and networks, routers and firewall rules from the console
vCenter as the management pane
One console, one API, plus TerraformEvery infrastructure you operate, managed from a single pane
Tanzu / Kubernetes add-ons
CNCF-conformant managed KubernetesAutoscaling node pools, in-place upgrades, dedicated or hosted control planes
HA and automated recovery
Desired-state automationUpgrades, scaling and failure recovery run continuously, without runbooks
Per-socket / per-core subscriptions
Per managed resourceOpen-source foundation with a subscription per resource managed through the platform, independent of cores, sockets or users
A vCenter per site, linked together
Sites as regions and zonesOne control plane across data centers, private clouds and edge sites, each reconciling locally and resyncing after a link outage.

What you gain in the move

One migration, not two

Don’t move to bare OpenStack and then spend years building self-service on top. Land directly on a platform where clusters, VMs and databases are one click away.

Sovereignty included

From shared SaaS to fully air-gapped sites: the same platform and API. Your hardware, your data, your perimeter, with no foreign licensing lever over your infrastructure.

More than virtualization

VMware replacement is the starting point. You also gain managed Kubernetes, managed PostgreSQL and an application marketplace your teams serve themselves from.

Plan your exit with engineers, not salespeople

Tell us what your VMware estate looks like and we’ll map it to open infrastructure together, honestly, including the parts that take work.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the best alternatives to VMware after the Broadcom licensing changes?
It depends which part of VMware you are replacing. For the hypervisor alone the usual shortlist is Proxmox VE, XCP-ng, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV and OpenStack. If you also licensed vCenter, Tanzu and the surrounding bundle, then a hypervisor swap only covers a fraction of it and you rebuild management, Kubernetes, tenancy and automation yourself. The third option is a managed platform on open infrastructure, which is what edgeContinuum is: OpenStack underneath for virtualization, plus managed Kubernetes, managed PostgreSQL, multi-tenancy and one console across sites. Deciding whether you are replacing a hypervisor or a platform is the step that makes the shortlist obvious.
Where can I find a vSphere alternative for edge computing?
Yes, and it is one of the clearer wins. Instead of a vCenter per location, each facility runs an agent that pulls its desired state and reconciles locally, so a site keeps provisioning and self-healing even when the link to the centre is down, then resyncs. Hundreds of sites sit under one control plane. The edge computing platform page covers the model in detail.
Do we have to adopt OpenStack?
Yes, OpenStack is the foundation, and that is deliberate: it is the mature, open, widely deployed virtualization layer. What edgeContinuum changes is operability: you manage services through the console and API rather than operating raw OpenStack day to day, and your existing hardware keeps doing the work underneath.
How do our existing VMs get there?
VM images import into OpenStack through standard tooling (qemu-img and the image service), and from there they are managed through the platform: catalogs, networks, firewall rules and lifecycle. Our engineers work the migration plan with you.
What does this ask of our operations team?
Less than raw OpenStack asks. The platform continuously drives infrastructure back to its desired state, so upgrades, scaling and recovery are automated, and the console removes most day-to-day CLI work.
Can we run it somewhere first?
Yes. Start with the SaaS control plane against a lab OpenStack, or book a call for an on-premises pilot: the free trial provisions managed services in minutes.
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What does a VMware exit actually cost compared with renewing?
The renewal number is easy to get and the exit number is not, which is why the comparison so often stalls. A fair exit estimate has four parts: the hardware you keep (usually all of it, since OpenStack runs on the same servers), the platform subscription that replaces the licence, the engineering time to move workloads in waves, and the parallel-running period where both stacks are live. The part teams routinely miss is the fourth. What makes the arithmetic work is that the first part is mostly zero and the second does not scale with cores: edgeContinuum is a subscription per managed resource, so denser hosts do not cost more.
Is Proxmox a realistic VMware alternative for an enterprise estate?
For a single cluster with one team operating it, Proxmox VE is a genuinely good hypervisor and many teams are happy there. Where it runs out of room is the layer above: multi-tenancy beyond simple user separation, quotas that hold across teams or clients, managed Kubernetes and managed databases as catalog products, and many sites under one control plane. If your estate is one cluster, the honest answer may be Proxmox. If it is several sites, several teams, or clients you bill, that ceiling arrives quickly. Our Proxmox alternative page covers the specifics.
Do we have to replace vCenter and Tanzu at the same time as ESXi?
No, and trying to is what makes these projects fail. The estate moves in waves. In practice the management pane goes first in a small footprint: you stand up the platform beside the existing estate, move a low-risk workload group, and run both for a while. Tanzu workloads are redeployed onto standard CNCF Kubernetes when their turn comes, and because those clusters are conformant, charts, operators and manifests carry over unchanged. The migration guide sets out the phases we use.
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