this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
461 points (99.1% liked)

Technology

58306 readers
2997 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 52 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Many SMBs will walk away at next server refresh.

VMware is walking dead.

We're currently testing Nutanix and Proxmox for smaller clients.

Proxmox support is similar (~65%) in cost to VMware licensing, but it's not likely to pull this sudden increase BS. Plus it's capabilities are significant for SMB.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't be afraid to use Proxmox for small and middle size business. It's solid and based on solid, opensource tech. As long as people make sure they get paid, I'm sure they'll get even better.

Good on you for making sure your clients pay for support, that's how opensource thrives.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

Paid support is a requirement for business. Tryinto avoid that is Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

When shit goes tits-up, you really need the support resources right now.

Win-win in my book.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That’s the point. Broadcom focuses on only the top consumers and desire everyone else to go away. They then focus only on what those top consumers want and their support staff can be cut down considerably.

It’s an interesting tactic that they have mastered.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Eventually even those customers will look at alternatives too if there's only like 50 companies worldwide using it.

[–] JustAnotherRando@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, this is one scenario where the principles in F2P games like MOBAs applies to the business world. Focusing only on the top X companies and losing that market share has a cascading effect where it's harder to find competent administrators, it's harder for those administrators to find support online (which then means they have to call for the support they pay for - which while good in the short term for VMWare, is frustrating for the customer, and means that the extra money they're charging has to partially be used to cover techs to provide said report). The little fish in a market like this help to provide what is essentially free troubleshooting online via stack overflow etc. And giving that market share to competitors gives them the cash flow and experience to build a support system online and improve their product, and then win over the big fish.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

Bingo.

Where does the next gen of admins come from, if they're been using Proxmox, etc, to learn on?

All my peers started with VMware years ago because they could get ESXi for free and run it on test boxes, then have the experience to deploy in client sites.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Except this is a top customer with tens of thousands of VM's, walking away.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

SMBs aren’t running 10k vms.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It sounds like every large sas company tbh.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

You're not wrong!

I think Broadcom overplayed it on this one, as this example shows.

Or, they're playing a game we can't figure out. A 20,000 VM client is in the "large customers we want to keep" category.