From VMware to OpenShift on IBM Cloud: guiding our client towards future-ready architecture

Modern enterprises are under growing pressure to innovate faster, remain agile, and reduce IT costs, all while maintaining control and visibility. One of our clients, operating a complex VMware-based environment, approached us with a clear ambition: to modernize their infrastructure by moving to IBM Cloud and gradually adopt a containerized architecture based on Red Hat OpenShift.

Their journey was not just about migration, but about laying the foundation for a more intelligent, automated, and cost-transparent IT landscape. Here is how we helped guide them through this transformation, using IBM Cloud as the platform, Turbonomic for performance-driven automation, and Apptio for financial governance.

Phase 1: understanding the VMware landscape

We started with a comprehensive assessment of the client’s existing VMware environment. This included not only technical mapping, such as VM dependencies and utilisation, but also cost modelling and licensing impact. Our goal was to create a clear inventory of workloads and understand which ones could be moved as-is, which required transformation, and which could be retired entirely.

This discovery phase was essential to ensure that we did not just replicate inefficiencies in the cloud, but actually improved the environment with every step.

Phase 2: building a landing zone in IBM Cloud

Once the assessment was complete, we designed and deployed a secure landing zone in IBM Cloud using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) infrastructure. This allowed for a smooth initial migration of selected workloads from the VMware environment, while maintaining network isolation, identity and access management, and compliance controls.

The client could continue to work with virtual machines in a familiar model, but now in a more scalable and resilient cloud environment.

Phase 3: real-time performance optimization with Turbonomic

After the workloads had been moved to IBM Cloud, we introduced Turbonomic to monitor application behavior and resource usage in real time. Turbonomic dynamically analyses performance and demand, making automated decisions to optimize compute, storage, and network resources without manual intervention.

This not only helped maintain application performance and availability, but also avoided overprovisioning and unnecessary spending, both crucial in a cloud context.

Phase 4: gaining financial control with Apptio

With the technical migration stabilized and workloads optimized, the next step was to bring financial transparency into the picture. Apptio was implemented to enable a cost allocation model that gave individual teams visibility into their cloud consumption and spending patterns.

Using Apptio, the client was able to implement showback and prepare for chargeback, aligning IT spend with business outcomes. This opened the door to more strategic conversations around value delivery, rather than just infrastructure costs.

Phase 5: preparing for and embracing OpenShift

With the foundation now in place, the client began preparing for the next stage of their evolution: modernizing their application landscape through containers. Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud was selected as the strategic platform to support this transition.

We worked with the client to containerize selected workloads and deploy them into OpenShift clusters. This not only provided a scalable Kubernetes environment with enterprise-grade support, but also enabled automation, CI/CD integration, and platform consistency across environments.

The adoption of OpenShift is ongoing, but the client is already seeing the benefits of faster deployment cycles, easier environment replication, and reduced operational complexity.

Looking ahead: from infrastructure to innovation

This journey from VMware to OpenShift illustrates how a cloud migration can become a true transformation when guided by the right architecture and tools. By combining IBM Cloud’s flexibility, Turbonomic’s automation, and Apptio’s financial intelligence, our client is now positioned to focus less on infrastructure and more on innovation.

Modernization is not a one-time project, but a continuous process. We’re proud to be supporting this client on their path to a smarter IT future, one step at a time.