Plan the platform and the migration together
Moving virtual machines also means reviewing their dependencies, guest operating system support, networking, high availability, and backups. The replacement platform needs a named operator. DJ2 Services plans that work alongside the storage design, migration phases, and rollback path for each stage.
An upcoming VMware renewal or hardware refresh is a useful time to compare options. The diagnostic helps you assess the cost and work involved before committing to a move.
Decisions to make before cutover
Record each virtual machine, its owner, and its dependencies. Decide where it belongs on the replacement platform, including which workloads need your hardware and which fit AWS.
Plan VLANs, routing, firewall rules, VPNs, and management networks for the target platform. Verify guest operating system support before the first migration wave.
Design high availability around the failures your environment needs to handle. Test the rollback plan for each migration phase so you have a defined recovery path if a wave fails.
Storage design after VMFS or vSAN
Moving off VMFS or vSAN requires a storage design for the replacement platform. The review covers:
- ZFS pool layout, weighing mirror performance and rebuild behavior against RAIDZ capacity
- Snapshots and replication timed around the migration waves
- Backups that remain independent of the storage they protect
- Capacity requirements for the target cluster, with the old datastore sizes as a starting point for review
Environments this service fits
This service is aimed at organizations with:
- 100 to 2,000 employees and a small infrastructure team
- 3 to 20 virtualization hosts running 50 to 500 virtual machines
- One or two sites or colocation locations
- An existing VMware environment, with AWS already used elsewhere in the business
Proxmox can fit a straightforward virtualization replacement. OpenNebula is worth considering when the requirements also include Kubernetes, tenant separation, self-service, or quotas. During the diagnostic, DJ2S compares both options against the planned workloads and operating requirements.
From assessment to ongoing engineering
The Virtualization & Private Cloud Exit Diagnostic defines the work. A Private Cloud Migration & Modernization Sprint follows at an agreed fixed scope, with a Managed Hybrid Platform Engineering Retainer available for ongoing operations after the build. You approve each phase separately.
DJ2 Services (DJ2S) builds, secures, and operates hybrid infrastructure across AWS, colocation, private compute, and Kubernetes. Hardware and cloud accounts remain customer-owned.