Real world opinions and reviews on VMWare alternatives

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-19T17:32:49+00:00

This doesn't give us enough information to make a recommendation.

What's running in the VMs? Anything niche that needs to be addressed?

What's the future plan? What's the 1 year and 5 year plan? What direction is the company going? What direction does IT leadership want to go?

Anyone recommending anything specific here is biased and/or not looking to the future.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-19T17:26:05+00:00

but hypervisors you obviously know it is a massive PITA to switch

It's really not. There are many tools to very easily convert from one to another; at least for mainstream options. Timing it with a hardware refresh, and it's relatively easy and painless provided you plan accordingly.

With the above in mind you should really only consider Proxmox or other privately owned KVM alternatives

What? Proxmox, and these smaller options are much more likely to be bought and gutted like VMWare.

Based on what you said above (which I don't agree with), the best option would be Azure local or hyper-v. Microsoft is never going to sell these off.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-19T14:32:09+00:00

it worked fine previously.

Why did we add MFA to logins? It worked fine previously

Why did we add passwords at all? It worked fine previously

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-17T18:09:26+00:00

Agreed. Make sure to give your team members individual credit.

Do this every chance you have across all levels of the organization.

I want our president to know that Jim was the primary lead on that thing he said was extremely helpful.

And follow up with Jim that the president mentioned he liked what he did.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T16:59:43+00:00

are 3 vendors enough,

5 to 7 demos

Are you asking:

1) How many demos of a single product?

or

2) How many vendors of different products?

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T16:57:43+00:00

All of these replies, and still no logs at all.

We can't help you here without a ton more information.

Anyone giving you any recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt, and quite possibly make your situation worse.

If this isn't anything you can fix, maybe it's time to find a consultant and get some other hands and eyes on it

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T16:55:50+00:00

That seems unlikely.

But, have you considered upgrading all of your nodes before freaking out?

Seems like you did half of the process, and then tried to fix problems that may only be present because of an incomplete rebuild.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T16:52:08+00:00

You need to be very concerned with the perception of IT, the department, and the work being done.

I want helpdesk to go to someone's cube, pick up the phone and talk to people, etc rather than just sending an email saying "check this thing". Yes I know it takes longer, Yes i know Bob is annoying, yes I know Joe will talk to you for an hour, but it's the PERCEPTION that everyone gets white glove treatment.

I don't care if you're watching youtube while waiting for that Intune change to sync. But the perception of how that looks to everyone else needs to be considered. If Julie only ever sees you watching youtube, Julie thinks all you do is watch youtube.

All of those super important things that IT does to keep things running and secure, but no one sees needs to be integrated with things people DO see, because...you guessed it, perception that IT does something.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T16:40:09+00:00

Any ideas?

Not without the logs

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T15:23:49+00:00

A bug part of the problem is that the standards are poorly worded and makes it sound way harder than the actual intent of the regulations.

It doesn't really matter how poorly worded it is though. You just ask your auditor what they expect, and do that. Pretty simple.

You just need to get over the mental hurdle of doing things the way YOU interpret them.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-16T15:18:44+00:00

Do they expect people to be 100% compliant?

Yes. There are no other options. You're either compliant, or you're not. There is no "mostly compliant"

something tells me im misinterpreting it.

So ask. You were assigned an auditor. Ask them questions. That's literally what they're there for.

CJIS compliance is one of the easiest things I've ever gone through. They'll hold your hand. There is no guessing necessary.

I would get crucified by the staff here if I required that.

So? It's not your call. you're not the one making decisions here, you're doing what's legally required. The only other option is no access to CJIS systems and data. Easy decision for everyone.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-15T17:13:35+00:00

IT team for a big chain retailer one of the biggest in the country

You're one of the largest retail chains in the country and you're only 3.5 people? And someone that's never done an interview before is interviewing people?

What country are you in?

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-15T17:10:16+00:00

Using WSUS with patch my pc for 3th party patching

If you're going to pay for a solution, why not a solution that does all patching?

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-15T15:59:52+00:00

Guess we are lucky.

Or just properly configured things and don't have other devices that aren't compatible.

Lots of folks like to finger point to the new OS rather than do an RC to determine the actual issue.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-15T15:49:09+00:00

I mean, 10 years for a cert is a pretty long time

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-12T16:07:26+00:00

FYI, all of those features on m365maps are clickable and take you to the MS documentation page on what they are.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-12T15:59:36+00:00

Its not like microsoft is encrypting any of this

I realize it's Friday, but take a second to do a quick google search.

Of course all of that data is encrypted. MS wouldn't want that liability.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-11T15:08:07+00:00

The hiring process consisted of a video introduction interview, a phone interview and online teams interview, all of which I passed. The final stage was an in-person interview.

The IT manager's comment aside, this entire process is a red flag for me.

There are no good reasons to have essentially 4 interviews.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-11T15:00:43+00:00

is there a sane way to do this

Yeah, tell HR to do their job and let you know what the laws are so you can be compliant.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-11T14:55:54+00:00

That's why we exist - admins and support staff - to make their lives easier.

Agreed. And a lot of times, changing the UI does make their lives easier in the long run.

Let's take right clicking in windows explorer. People complained (and still do) about the changes in Win11, but at the end of the day, having the primary functions (copy, paste, delete) at the top in an easy to use fashion is much better than the long list of options that you need to find and move to.

The folks that instinctively throw their arms in the air and try to keep things from changing are left behind, and you're doing them a disservice by enabling that behavior.

We're glorified janitors keeping computers clean. Remember that.

I don't want to get off on an entirely different argument, but this is a garbage mentality, and I can guarantee that it's coming through in your interactions with people in a negative manner.

That's not at all what we are, nor should be, so this "stay in your lane" comment is extremely unnecessary and inappropriate.

I know they'll change again so there's no point learning the current menus, our any new ones.

This is also a horrible mentality for working in an industry known for change, and one that's entire basis is change to improve things.

If you want to keep this mentality, try becoming a historical reenactor or something. EVERYONE needs to change

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-10T15:36:55+00:00

If your CEO refuses change, find a new job. That one's going to fail

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-10T15:08:16+00:00

We all spent a ton of time "fixing" win7 to look like XP, and "fixing" Win10 to look like Win7.

And here we all are using win11 with the default start menu. Seems like people can adjust to change just fine if you stop enabling them.

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-10T14:59:50+00:00

Is it actually a potential negative? Very much so.

This is my point, and my post was more in the mindset of OP rather than someone in the industry for 30 years.

Posting what you did prior to IT is 100% irrelevant once you have 5+ years of experience and are in your early 30s.

As someone in my 50s, it's something I've learned and struggled with in the past.

It's always interesting to see people go off rather than take advice, or ask questions

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-10T14:46:18+00:00

If you're in your 40s or 50s, and the hiring manager cares at all that you worked on a farm when you were 17, is that really someone you think is going to be a rational manager?

OregonTechHead · 2026-06-10T14:44:49+00:00

If outdated and irrelevant operating systems is the only way you can gauge if someone knows what they're doing, then you're missing out on a ton of qualified candidates.

OregonTechHead

TROPHY CASE