Defence mandates move off VMware

Defence is actively reducing its use of VMware under a "mandate" issued in the lead-up to the department's licensing costs being doubled.

Sources with knowledge of the situation told iTnews that they had “been mandated to get off VMware, essentially”.

The formality of the “mandate” is not clear, and a Defence spokesperson declined to comment at all when approached by iTnews.

But it is not unprecedented; faced with skyrocketing software licence costs, others - such as Service NSW, once a flagship VMware customer, have indicated they are also seeking to replace VMware, albeit its containerisation product. In Service NSW’s case, the target is Red Hat OpenShift.

Defence is understood to have issued its “mandate” around September last year, months before a $178 million licence renewal for VMware was revealed.

The timing of the "mandate" likely coincides with when the quantum of the bill hike would have become known.

Long-time customers of VMware have faced increased costs after Broadcom acquired the virtualisation vendor in late 2023, switching its licensing model from perpetual to subscription-based in the process.

Defence told iTnews at the time of its VMware renewal that it had “streamlined and optimised its VMware software requirements to ensure value for money, following changes to VMware’s licensing model.”

When approached for detailed comments for this story, including on the scope of the "mandate", the progress to date implementing it, and whether exceptions to it were possible, Defence directed iTnews back to its earlier comments made in January.

However, iTnews did ascertain that the "mandate" applies to all parts of Defence with exposure to the VMware ecosystem.

A key challenge that Defence - and indeed any VMware customer - faces in contemplating a migration off of VMware is that the software is embedded in IT operations, and for a lot of administrators, it’s an ecosystem they are deeply familiar with.

“They’ve spent their entire careers with one style of design and we’ve now made them shift and it’s been quite a challenge,” a source told iTnews.

“[It’s been about] the training, the experience and making people understand why we’re going through this change - [that] it’s not change for change's sake.”

While cost is one factor in Defence’s decision, it’s understood to not be the only one, with sovereignty also emerging as a concern.

The CISPE - Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe - trade association has previously warned of sovereignty risks associated with running cloud infrastructure on VMware.

iTnews was unable to clarify Defence’s specific sovereignty concerns by the time of publication.