VMware Migration Best Practice for an Australian Mobile Carrier

Abstract: As VMware subscription costs keep climbing, mobile carriers are rethinking their virtualization foundation. An Australian mobile carrier had long relied on VMware across multiple data centers to carry core network and business systems. Facing the need for cloud-native evolution alongside rising subscription costs, the carrier adopted ZStack ZSphere, the enterprise edition of ZSvirt, as its virtualization foundation to achieve converged virtualization and cloud management with seamless hybrid-cloud integration. This enabled smooth migration of core workloads while building a unified, elastic, and continuously evolvable cloud foundation.

About ZSvirt

This case study was implemented with ZStack ZSphere, the enterprise edition of ZSvirt. ZSvirt is the open-source version of ZSphere, sharing the same enterprise-grade virtualization core and providing the same capabilities in smooth migration, converged virtualization and cloud management, and hybrid-cloud architecture support. The business scenarios, solutions, and best practices shown in this case can be fully reproduced with ZSvirt — the free, GPL-3.0 open-source edition. Open-source users can obtain the stability and reliability of enterprise-grade virtualization and complete a VMware replacement at zero license cost, with no vendor lock-in.

Note: This is an anonymized case study; the customer name and certain details are not disclosed.

1. Customer Background

The carrier is one of Australia’s leading mobile communications providers, serving a broad base of consumer and enterprise users. Its IT infrastructure spans multiple data centers and has long run core systems — including network business support systems, billing, and customer services — on VMware. As 5G business expands rapidly, compute demand fluctuates, and the infrastructure must evolve toward a more economical, flexible, and evolvable model.

2. Business Challenges

  • Rising subscription costs: After VMware moved to subscription licensing, licensing costs increased significantly, weighing heavily across multiple data centers.
  • Hybrid-cloud evolution: The business wanted on-premises virtualization to work with public-cloud elastic resources for on-demand scaling.
  • No disruption to core services: Migration of core systems had to be smooth without affecting in-service users.
  • Unified multi-cloud management: A single framework was needed to manage on-premises virtualization and cloud resources, reducing operational complexity.

3. Solution

The carrier built a converged virtualization and cloud-management foundation with ZStack ZSphere, the enterprise edition of ZSvirt:

  • Converged virtualization and cloud management: A unified platform manages compute, storage, and network resources, delivering unified resource management and service capabilities.
  • Hybrid-cloud integration: Seamless connection with public-cloud environments enables on-premises and cloud collaboration as business requires.
  • Smooth migration: Mature migration capabilities move core business systems from VMware to the new platform without interruption.
  • High-availability assurance: High-availability mechanisms keep core systems stable during and after migration.

4. Solution Highlights

  1. Hybrid-cloud support: On-premises virtualization works with public-cloud elastic resources for elastic scaling of 5G workloads.
  2. Converged cloud management: Unified management of diverse infrastructure reduces multi-cloud operational complexity.
  3. Smooth, seamless migration: Core workloads migrate without interruption, ensuring continuity of user services.
  4. Enterprise-grade availability: Stable, reliable operation for telecom-grade core business.

5. Business Benefits

  • Lower long-term costs: Eliminated high subscription fees and significantly optimized overall IT infrastructure investment.
  • Unified cloud management: Converged virtualization and cloud management enables centralized control of a multi-cloud environment.
  • Business continuity: Core workloads migrated smoothly with no perceived switchover, and user services were unaffected.
  • 5G-ready evolution: The elastic architecture and hybrid-cloud capability provide the foundation for 5G innovation and scale-out.

6. Best Practice Summary

Carrier infrastructure is characterized by large scale, high reliability requirements, and strong evolution needs. The key practices in this case are:

  • A unified foundation: Build a converged virtualization and cloud-management base;
  • Hybrid-cloud collaboration: Combine on-premises and public cloud on demand, balancing performance, elasticity, and cost;
  • Zero-disruption migration: Protect telecom-grade business continuity with smooth migration;
  • Built for evolution: Reserve room for new workloads such as 5G with an elastic architecture.