Wind River Cloud Platform VMware Workload Migration Overview

Table of Contents

As cloud and virtualization costs rise—driven by licensing models, operational overhead, and vendor lock-in—many enterprises are actively seeking open, flexible alternatives.

This overview outlines how virtual machines (VMs) and containers can be migrated from VMware vSphere to Wind River® Cloud Platform, an integrated solution built on OpenStack and Kubernetes. The migration approach is designed to minimize disruption while accelerating time to value, enabling enterprises to modernize infrastructure without sacrificing operational continuity.

The platform supports both cold migrations, performed during planned maintenance windows, and warm migrations, where workloads remain active during transition. This flexibility allows customers to align migration strategy with business and operational requirements. Wind River has supported VM and container migrations across some of the most complex cloud environments globally, leveraging automation to streamline the transition from VMware-based infrastructure.

🚀 Migration Overview
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Wind River Cloud Platform simplifies workload migration through a set of integrated capabilities:

Centralized management
A unified operational view for migrating both VMs and containers from VMware environments.
Customer-operated migration
Automation-driven tooling combined with optional Wind River support services, training, and migration expertise.
Blueprint-based automation
Predefined blueprints standardize deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management.
Dedicated management clusters
Enables Cloud Platform to operate alongside VMware and other clusters during phased transitions.
Bulk migration support
Workloads can be migrated manually or through scheduled automation.
End-to-end lifecycle management
Maintains continuity for backup and restore, provisioning, change management, scaling, patching, and upgrades before and after migration.

🧭 Migration Methodologies
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Wind River Professional Services delivers end-to-end migration programs tailored to customer environments. While each migration scenario is unique, most follow a common set of phases supported by Cloud Platform tools and automation to ensure predictable outcomes and reduced risk.

🛠️ Migration Process
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A typical migration from VMware vSphere to Wind River Cloud Platform follows a structured, phased approach:

Phase 1: Discovery
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Wind River and customer stakeholders assess the existing VMware environment to identify migration priorities and constraints.

Key activities include:

Inventorying VMware infrastructure and prioritizing workloads
Mapping VM dependencies and critical services
Identifying existing workflows, scripts, blueprints, and operational policies

Phase 2: Proof of Value
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Using insights from discovery, Wind River evaluates the technical and economic benefits of migration.

Key activities include:

Defining migration schedules, maintenance windows, and KPIs
Identifying how Cloud Platform capabilities, including Wind River Conductor, will automate migration
Developing ROI, TCO, and time-to-value assessments
Identifying risks and mitigation strategies to ensure business continuity

Phase 3: Migration Proposal
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Upon validation of value, Wind River delivers a formal migration proposal.

Key activities include:

Defining migration strategy and execution approach
Specifying products, services, tools, and training
Establishing timelines, SLAs, and customer acceptance criteria

Phase 4: Planning and Design
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With proposal approval, detailed technical and operational planning begins.

Key activities include:

Developing a detailed project plan and governance model
Defining roles and responsibilities
Finalizing architecture, design, and test plans
Delivering customer training and knowledge transfer

Phase 5: Implementation and Deployment
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Migration execution begins with controlled validation and scales to full production.

Key activities include:

Achieving deployment and operational readiness
Performing pilot migrations using noncritical workloads
Automating workflows to accelerate large-scale migration
Executing full production migration and validation
Providing ongoing support under defined SLAs
Decommissioning VMware infrastructure

At the completion of this phase, customers are fully operational on Wind River Cloud Platform.

☁️ Cloud Platform Migration Support
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Simplified workload mobility
Move workloads across on-premises, cloud, edge, and hybrid environments with minimal downtime.
Hybrid and multi-cloud support
Enable portability across diverse infrastructure providers.
Scalable architecture
Support deployments ranging from single-site environments to globally distributed clouds.
Risk reduction
Minimize downtime, data loss, and performance degradation during migration.

💼 Benefits of Workload Migration
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Cost optimization
Reduce licensing and operational expenses compared to proprietary virtualization platforms.
Freedom from vendor lock-in
Adopt open technologies such as OpenStack and Kubernetes, supported by a broad ecosystem.
Infrastructure modernization
Lower technical debt while improving security, scalability, and upgradeability.