What are VMware Alternatives?

AWS offers a wide range of options for customers looking to migrate and modernize VMware workloads. Most organizations will find that one or more of the options below fit their needs:

• Migrate by rehosting virtual machines in the cloud. Lift and shift your VMs from on-premises data centers to AWS. Rehosting allows for minimal application changes but lets you eliminate hypervisor licensing cost increases and gain access to cloud scalability and services.

• Modernize to cloud-native services. Get the most out of your workloads by modernizing to containers, managed services, and serverless architectures. This approach takes more time upfront but delivers the greatest long-term performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.  

• Run VMware in the cloud. Keep your existing VMware environment and extend or expand it to the cloud with Amazon EVS. If you have aging hardware and existing VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licenses, this is an approach you can take. 

• Extend cloud services to your on-premises data center. For workloads that must remain on-premises due to compliance or latency requirements, this hybrid model lets you extend cloud services to your data center.

The cloud offers VMware alternatives that eliminate hardware costs, replace capacity planning with on-demand scalability, and provide an AI foundation that on-premises infrastructure can't match. Moving VMware workloads to the cloud is more than just about resolving licensing challenges. The cloud eliminates the costs of managing physical hardware and capacity planning, replacing it with an on-demand, scalable infrastructure. Organizations gain access to managed services, built-in security and compliance controls, partner offerings, and global infrastructure designed for resilience and high availability. Perhaps most importantly, the cloud provides a foundation for AI capabilities (generative AI, agentic AI, intelligent automation, machine learning inference, etc.) that are difficult and costly to replicate on-premises.

Move to an alternative virtualization platform on the cloud. For organizations that want to stay virtualized, some cloud providers support third-party hypervisors and virtualization tools.

AWS offers the most comprehensive migration and modernization pathways for VMware workloads,  backed by 20 years of proven migration expertise, purpose-built services, and global infrastructure. While other cloud providers offer VMware migration options, AWS provides the broadest set of pathways — from running VMware as-is to full cloud-native modernization — giving you more flexibility to match your specific goals, timeline, and operational needs.

• Complete choice and flexibility - AWS supports every approach to VMware migration and modernization — whether you want to migrate to Amazon EC2, modernize to cloud-native services, run VMware in the cloud with Amazon EVS, extend cloud to your data center with AWS Outposts, or explore alternative virtualization solutions on AWS. You choose the path that fits your business goals, timeline, and operational needs.

• Proven expertise and specialized programs - AWS delivers proven resources and programs to accelerate your VMware-to-AWS transformation. Access complimentary assessments, specialized funding to ease budget constraints, and methodologies refined through hundreds of thousands of migrations over 20 years. Fast-track and simplify execution through our extensive partner network or AWS Professional Services. Build internal expertise through Training and Certification programs. Move with confidence, backed by the resources and support you need.

• Infrastructure built for scale and resilience - AWS delivers the most extensive and reliable global cloud infrastructure—built to run your most critical workloads at any scale.  "AWS has been recognized as a cloud infrastructure leader for 15 consecutive years (Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform), AWS delivers proven security and reliability for enterprise workloads.

• A foundation for innovation and AI - By migrating and modernizing VMware workloads on AWS, you are building the foundation for long-term innovation and success. Once on AWS, you gain access to 240+ services spanning AI and machine learning, application modernization, data analytics, and more. AWS invests to help you innovate, giving you the tools to build AI-ready architectures and differentiate your business.

AWS offers a wide range of options for customers looking to migrate and modernize VMware workloads. Most organizations will find that one or more of the options below fit their needs:

• Migrate by rehosting virtual machines in the cloud. Lift and shift your VMs from on-premises data centers to AWS. Rehosting allows for minimal application changes but lets you eliminate hypervisor licensing cost increases and gain access to cloud scalability and services.

• Modernize to cloud-native services. Get the most out of your workloads by modernizing to containers, managed services, and serverless architectures. This approach takes more time upfront but delivers the greatest long-term performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.  

• Run VMware in the cloud. Keep your existing VMware environment and extend or expand it to the cloud with Amazon EVS. If you have aging hardware and existing VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licenses, this is an approach you can take. 

• Extend cloud services to your on-premises data center. For workloads that must remain on-premises due to compliance or latency requirements, this hybrid model lets you extend cloud services to your data center.

Migrate by rehosting VMware workloads to Amazon EC2 with AWS Transform

For organizations ready to move beyond the VMware hypervisor, rehosting (or lift-and-shift) VMware to Amazon EC2 eliminates hypervisor licensing costs and gives you access to over 240 AWS services. VMware VMs are migrated to EC2 instances using block-level replication, allowing for minimal downtime and automated, quick cutovers.

AWS Transform, the first agentic AI service purpose-built for large-scale VMware migrations, automates the end-to-end process. Instead of spending months on manual assessments and wave planning, the AWS Transform migration agent helps reduce complexity and accelerate time-to-value for VMware to cloud migrations. To learn more about how AWS Transform automates your migration with agentic AI, visit the AWS Transform for VMware page. 

Modernize by replatforming or refactoring to AWS native services  

If your organization is fully ready to modernize, AWS provides a broad set of services to help you adopt modern, scalable infrastructure --- and modernization does not have to happen all at once. Many organizations start by moving VMware workloads to Amazon EVS or EC2 to get immediate cloud benefits and then modernize over time as teams build cloud expertise. You can replatform containers to Amazon ECS or Amazon EKS for improved resource efficiency, modernize databases to Amazon RDS or Amazon Aurora, or adopt serverless architectures with AWS Lambda. You can also modernize your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) by replatforming to Amazon WorkSpaces, giving your end users secure, managed desktops and applications without the overhead of on-premises VDI management. Shutterfly, a consumer products and e-commerce company, modernized 800 systems and achieved a 25% reduction in operating costs — finishing their migration project six months ahead of schedule. months ahead of schedule. 

Run VMware in the cloud with Amazon EVS

If your priority is operational consistency, Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS) lets you run VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) directly within your Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) — without re-architecting your applications. You keep the same VMware tools your team already knows (vCenter, vSAN, NSX), with no IP changes and no retraining required. You can manage the environment yourself or work with an AWS partner for a managed service experience.  

Amazon EVS is ideal for organizations with near-term renewal timelines, as well as for those with workloads that are deeply integrated with VMware tooling and would be too complex to move off. 

Aeroméxico, Mexico's global airline, used this approach to migrate 50 applications across 96 servers in just 60 days, achieving 3–10x faster speed to market.

Some workloads must remain on-premises due to data residency regulations, compliance requirements, or low-latency needs. AWS Outposts brings AWS infrastructure (including EC2 instances) directly to your on-premises data center, so workloads with compliance or latency requirements can stay on-site while running on AWS. You get a consistent hybrid experience with the same APIs, tools, and management console you use in the cloud. British American Tobacco, a global multi-category consumer goods company, used AWS Outposts to reduce costs by 45%, improve disaster recovery from weeks to hours, and maintain 24/7 operations across more than 40 factories worldwide.

For organizations that want to eliminate VMware licensing but prefer to use a virtualization solution for VMware feature parity, AWS supports two options:

• Nutanix Cloud Clusters on AWS (NC2 on AWS) — NC2 on AWS brings the Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure experience to AWS, letting you run Nutanix workloads natively on AWS bare metal. It's ideal for organizations already invested in Nutanix tooling that want to reduce VMware dependency while gaining cloud scalability.

• Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) — ROSA is a fully managed Kubernetes platform built on Red Hat OpenShift and delivered as a service on AWS. It's best suited for organizations looking to modernize VMware workloads to containers while maintaining familiar Red Hat workflows.

The best alternative depends on your goals:

• If you want to keep using VMware tools with cloud benefits — Amazon EVS runs VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on AWS.

• If you want to eliminate VMware licensing — Migrating to Amazon EC2 is the proven path. Use AWS Transform to accelerate your migration Amazon EC2.

• If you want maximum long-term value — Modernizing in the cloud delivers the greatest cloud benefits.

 

Your VMware migration does not have to happen all at once. For example,

1. Start with rehosting — Lift and shift your VMs to Amazon EC2 quickly using AWS Transform. This gets you off VMware fast with minimal disruption.

1. Then modernize at your own pace — Once in the cloud, you can gradually replatform workloads to containers, serverless, or managed services to unlock greater efficiency and cost savings.

The best alternative depends on your goals. If you want to keep using VMware tools with cloud benefits, Amazon EVS runs VMware Cloud Foundation on AWS. If you want to eliminate licensing, migrating to Amazon EC2 with AWS Transform is a proven path. For maximum long-term value, modernizing in the cloud delivers the greatest cloud benefits.

The best migration tools to move from VMware to AWS include AWS Transform and a broad ecosystem of ISV partner solutions to help you migrate and modernize VMware workloads to the cloud.

AWS Transform for VMware migrations is the first agentic AI service purpose-built for large-scale VMware migrations. It automates the most complex and time-consuming parts of the process, including:

• Discovery  — Discover your on-premises VMware environment using the AWS Transform discovery tool, third-party discovery tool inventory data, and unstructured sources such as documents, notes, and business rules. 

• Migration Planning -  AWS Transform accelerates your migration planning by analizing application dependecies and automatically groups workloads into optimized migration waves.  

• Landing Zone creation – AWS Transform helps your automate landing zone creation and recommends optimal account structures based on migration data and business requirements

• Network conversion and migration — Generate hub-and-spoke and isolated network configurations with flexible IP address management. Migrate from source environments including NSX, Palo Alto, Fortigate, and Cisco ACI.

• Rehost servers – AWS Transform takes your source servers and converts them to run natively on AWS

• Replatform applications to containers – AWS Transform containerizes your source code as part of your overall migration workflow  

• Reporting — AWS Transform generates a detailed report with the migration plan and mapping of networks, servers, and applications to simplify internal approvals.

Built on 20 years of AWS migration expertise and hundreds of thousands of successful migrations, AWS Transform reduces risk and accelerates your timeline, so your team can focus on innovation instead of manual migration tasks. CSL, a leading biotechnological company, used AWS Transform across 17 data centers and 1,072 applications, accelerating application discovery 12x (from 1–2 hours to 5 minutes per application), saving 10.5 weeks of planning effort, and achieving 30% in operational cost savings.

ISV migration tools from leading technology partners provide specialized, end-to-end capabilities that help you across all phases of your VMware transformation journey: discovery and assessment, migration execution, and ongoing operations.  Some examples include CloudHedge, Concierto, Matilda Cloud, RiverMeadow

The best place to start is understanding your current environment, renewal timelines, and defining your goals. Here’s what AWS offers to get you started in your VMware migration and modernization:

• Start with a complimentary assessment. AWS offers complimentary assessments such as the Optimization and Licensing Assessment (OLA) to help you map your VMware workloads, identify dependencies, get an understanding of both on-premises and cloud environments, and determine the right migration path for your business.

• Funding and migration programs. Access tools, funding, and frameworks purpose-built for VMware migrations to AWS with Migration Acceleration Program (MAP). Reduce costs, accelerate your timeline, and move to the cloud with less risk.

• Training and Certification. Upskill your VMware teams for long-term cloud success. The AWS for VMware Administrators learning plan builds AWS fluency through interactive courses. 

Whether you are just starting to explore your options or ready to move, AWS has the expertise, tools, and programs to help you move forward with confidence. Ready to explore your options? Learn more about VMware alternatives on AWS.