Over the years, many businesses have structured their IT infrastructure around VMware. Now, shifts in licensing models and cloud partner contracts threaten cost stability. Many organizations may face sudden cost increases or more complex billing models especially if licensing terms or vendor programs change.
With Azure VMware Solution (AVS), organizations can take the VMware environments they know and trust and extend them seamlessly into Azure. The result? Greater agility, predictable costs, and a faster path to innovation, all without the disruption of rebuilding applications. It’s the simplest way to modernize your IT infrastructure while staying in control of your operations and spending.
The Cost Challenge in VMware and Cloud Transformation
As organizations modernize their infrastructure, managing the cost of transformation becomes increasingly complex. Many VMware customers face new pricing pressures and program shifts creating uncertainty for long-term IT planning.
At the same time, cloud adoption brings its own challenges: retraining teams, re-architecting workloads, and managing unexpected costs. These combined factors make balancing innovation with fiscal control more critical than ever.
Why This Matters
- Unexpected cost exposure can derail IT budgets or planned projects.
- Vendor program changes can create uncertainty for long-term planning.
- Cloud-native migrations, while attractive, often demand a learning curve and skill shift creating risk if not aligned with existing investments.
AVS presents a way to smooth that transition: it blends familiarity with innovation and places cost risk with Microsoft allowing organizations to breathe easier about license changes.
Azure VMware Solution (AVS) as a Cost-Stabilizing Strategy
One of AVS’s core advantages is that VMware licensing is bundled into the offering. Thus, Microsoft absorbs the licensing and pricing risk, insulating your organization from sudden licensing model shifts.
AVS supports Reserved Instances for one, three, or five-year terms, offering fixed, predictable pricing. That financial certainty empowers planners and CFOs to budget long-term with confidence.
Added Cost Benefits & Incentives
- Azure Hybrid Use Benefit enables you to use existing Windows Server or SQL Server licenses, potentially reducing costs.
- Free Extended Security Updates for Windows Server and SQL Server help avoid surprise costs for legacy workloads.
- Combined, these incentives reinforce that AVS is not just predictable but cost advantageous.
Smooth Migration Preserve Skills and Minimize Risk
Moving VMware workloads to Azure need not be disruptive. Through a tested migrate-manage-modernize approach, the transition becomes structured and manageable:
- Assessment & Planning
Experts examine your current VMware stack and forecast your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). From there, they design a migration plan that aligns with your goals.
- Mass Migration
Workloads can move rapidly with minimal interruptions. Because AVS supports vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, and retains existing IP addressing, you avoid major process changes.
- Managed AVS Services
A managed services partner (e.g. Zones) handles platform updates, optimization, and performance monitoring, freeing your IT team to focus on strategic priorities.
- Cloud-Native Modernization
After migration, you can gradually modernize your workloads by integrating Azure native services, AI, monitoring, and automation.
Why This Path Works
- Minimal retraining: Because the VMware stack remains familiar, existing teams can continue working with known tools and processes.
- Operational continuity: With existing IP addresses and minimal configuration changes, workloads move with few technical hurdles.
- Low risk: The phased approach helps catch issues early and prevents large-scale disruption.
Business Benefits More than Cost Savings
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Seamless Technology, Improved TCO, and Resilience
By adopting AVS, organizations gain:
- A lift-and-shift migration to Azure without altering the underlying VMware architecture
- Transparency into current and future TCO, often yielding lower overall costs thanks to cloud efficiencies
- More robust disaster recovery capabilities leveraging Azure’s native infrastructure
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Microsoft-Managed Infrastructure & Native Services
Your workloads run on VMware-validated infrastructure in Azure, backed by Microsoft’s management. On top of this, you gain full access to Azure services and capabilities such as:
- Azure Virtual Desktop
- Azure Defender for Cloud, monitoring, and security tools
- AI, analytics, and automation services
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Fixed Pricing & Strategic Agility
Limited-time offers may allow fixed pricing for up to 5 years, giving financial security during change. Meanwhile, you gain the agility to modernize apps, exit data centers, or refresh infrastructure more easily.
Conclusion
The move toward Azure VMware Solution (AVS) is more than just a defensive response to rising costs it’s a proactive strategy for achieving cloud-led growth.
AVS delivers cost predictability through bundled licensing and reserved pricing, ensures operational continuity by preserving existing VMware skills and architecture, and unlocks innovation through seamless access to Azure’s vast cloud services.
Every organization’s cloud journey is unique. But if parity, predictability, and innovation matter to you, AVS is an excellent bridge. With expert partners like Zones, the journey is smoother, cheaper, and more strategic.
Time to migrate? Zones is here to help.
With deep expertise and a strong track record, Zones is well positioned to help organizations make a successful AVS transition. Here’s why:
- Extensive Microsoft certifications - over 2,000+ across the organization
- Azure-certified professionals in-house
- Proven delivery references in complex cloud and VMware projects
- Specialized status as an audited Azure VMware Solution partner
- 24/7 Access to skilled team of experts
By combining Microsoft, VMware, and Zones expertise, organizations enjoy a migration experience that is fast, low-risk, and aligned to strategic goals.
Ready to explore AVS for your organization?
Contact us to schedule a consultation, review your VMware roadmap, and unlock the future of cloud innovation with stability and confidence.
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Zones : Mar 22, 2017 2:15:54 AM
Zones