DevOps Services

Got a VMware renewal quote you can't justify?

Got a VMware renewal quote you can't justify? Send it to us. A paid pilot, a rollback plan per VM, a quote per VM and 90 days of support after the move.

Free AWS bill check See pricing

Most teams start with the free AWS bill check. Once the bill is down, we review the rest of your setup for free, and this is one of the things we can take on. How the steps work

The renewal quote that changed the budget

Your virtual machines have run on VMware for years. Technically, it worked. Then the renewal quote arrived after Broadcom took over VMware, and the number was several times what you paid before. IT teams have described increases of 300% to 400%, and in schools, a bill that will double at renewal.

Now someone has to decide: pay it, or move. And if you move, someone has to do it without breaking the systems the business runs on.

Proxmox is an open-source platform for running virtual machines. There is no per-core licence fee. Optional support subscriptions are sold per CPU socket by its maker.

What could happen

You pay the increase again next year. Absorbing one renewal buys a year. The next quote is unlikely to be smaller.
A rushed move breaks things. Migrations done under deadline pressure tend to fail on the details: a server that won't boot, an app that can't reach its database, a weekend of downtime nobody planned.
The person who knows VMware is the only person. Many teams are one or two people looking after dozens of machines. A migration on top of daily work is how mistakes happen.
You move, then nobody can support it. A common worry about Proxmox is "who do we call at 3am?" If nobody on your team knows Linux well, that worry is fair.

What can break in a migration

We tell you this up front because every one of these is fixable when it is planned for, and painful when it isn't.

Static IP addresses. The virtual network card changes during the move, and a server with a fixed address can come up without a working network.
Drivers. Disks and network cards need different drivers on Proxmox. Windows machines in particular need them installed before the move, or they may not boot.
BIOS and UEFI. Machines set up with one startup method must be moved with the same one, or they won't start.
vSAN storage. Proxmox can't import directly from VMware's vSAN storage. Those machines need an extra step through temporary storage.
Snapshots and VMware Tools. Old snapshots must be merged and VMware's own tools removed, or they cause problems later.

What we do, step by step

Send us your renewal quote and an inventory export. We tell you exactly what to export. No access to your systems is needed for this step.
Assessment. Software reads the export and lists every machine with its operating system, disks, network setup, startup method and storage type, and flags the risky ones. A senior engineer reviews it and checks it against the list above.
A quote per VM. You get a written price per virtual machine, plus any cluster build, next to your renewal quote, so the comparison is on one page. Machines with special storage or old operating systems are priced separately and explained.
A rollback plan per VM. Before any machine moves, it has a written plan: how it moves, how we check it works, and how to switch back to the VMware copy if it doesn't. Your VMware environment stays untouched until you accept each machine.
A paid pilot wave. We start with a small number of non-critical machines, agreed with you. You see the process, the downtime per machine and the result before committing to the rest.
Planned waves. The remaining machines move in agreed windows, outside your busy hours, with drivers, network and startup settings fixed before each cutover. A senior engineer is on every cutover.
90 days of support after the move. For 90 days after the last wave, we fix anything that comes up from the migration and help your team find their way around Proxmox.
Then keep it running. Most teams continue with Watch or Operate so updates, backups and monitoring on the new platform are covered.

What you can do yourself today

Find your current contract end date and the date the renewal quote expires. Work back 90 days.
Export your VM list: name, operating system, CPU, memory, disk size, storage type and startup method.
Mark each machine as critical, important or can-wait. The can-wait ones are your pilot.
Check which machines use vSAN, have old snapshots, or run operating systems that are past end of support.
Install Proxmox on a spare server and move one test machine yourself. You will learn more in an afternoon than from any brochure.

What's included in which plan

The migration itself is a project, quoted per VM after the assessment. After the move:

	Guard $700/mo	Watch $1,200/mo	Operate $2,800/mo
Updates for Proxmox and your servers, tested first	Yes	Yes	Yes
Locked-down servers and network rules	Yes	Yes	Yes
Backups restore-tested on a schedule	No	Yes	Yes
Uptime and capacity alerts to us first	No	Yes	Yes
Incident handling and changes on request	No	No	Yes

See all plans.

Questions about moving off VMware

Why a paid pilot instead of a free one?

Because it is real work on your real machines, done with the same care as the rest. It gives you a working result and an honest measure of the downtime per machine before you commit to the full move.

How much downtime should we expect?

It depends on disk sizes and how each machine is built. We give you an estimate per VM in the quote, and the pilot shows the real numbers. Critical machines move in windows you choose.

Is Proxmox ready for production?

It runs on KVM, the same technology many large clouds use underneath, and its maker sells support subscriptions. What matters more is whether someone watches and maintains it after the move, which is why we pair the migration with monthly care.

We are a Windows shop. Should we consider Hyper-V instead?

Possibly. If you already own the right Windows Server licences, Hyper-V can be the cheaper path for you. We will tell you if we think so after seeing your inventory.

How we work with your systems

You stay in control

Read-only access first
The free bill check needs read access and nothing else. Nothing in your systems changes.
You approve every change
Each change comes as a short written note first: what, why, and how to undo it.
Your data and billing stay yours
Everything stays in your own account. We never become your billing contact.
Every action logged
Every action we take is logged, and the log is visible to you.
One-click access removal
Delete the access role and our access ends at once, with no penalty.
Month to month
There is no minimum term and no exit fee. Stop at the end of any month.