Ensono Reduces VMware Renewal Costs by 17%

For this case study, the client is us—Ensono. As a Pinnacle VMware Cloud Service Provider, we faced the challenge of navigating Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware and its impact on our licensing costs. Our mission was to minimize these costs for ourselves and prepare to help our clients do the same.

When Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in November 2023, significant changes to bundles and pricing were implemented. These changes concerned many VMware customers, with 56% expressing worries primarily about increased costs¹. Ensono needed to swiftly understand and mitigate the impact on our business, as we approached a critical renewal date and prepared for a minimum-term three-year deal.

Ensono undertook a comprehensive optimization strategy to address the new licensing model and reduce costs. This strategy included the following steps:

• Switched Focus from vRAM to Cores: Optimized the number of cores and servers to directly impact licensing costs.
• Redesigned Disaster Recovery Plan: Switched idle hosts to “maintenance mode” to avoid unnecessary costs, utilizing automation for hydration during failover and DR tests.
• Consolidated and Decommissioned Spare Capacity: Assessed and reduced our core count by 17%, mitigating the cost impact of high availability.
• Deployed New Server Models: Increased RAM density and performance per core, allowing more VMs per host and reducing the number of cores needing licenses.
• Replaced Servers with Fewer Than 16 Cores: Identified and replaced servers not meeting the 16-core minimum to avoid paying for unused capacity.
• Improved vCPU to Core Allocation: Ensured VM profiles met overcommit ratios for optimal cluster performance without mixing environments.
• Utilized vSAN to Reduce Storage Costs: Leveraged 1 TiB raw licensed vSAN per CPU core, maximizing storage investment.
• Evaluated Software Defined Networking Sprawl: Reduced usage of costly NSX Networking features, focusing only on necessary services.

Through our optimization efforts, Ensono achieved significant cost savings and operational efficiencies.

• Reduced VMware Renewal Costs by 17%
• Decreased Licensed Core Count by 17%, cutting data center and labor costs
• Developed Expertise to Assist Clients in navigating similar challenges
• Adopted vSAN to replace external storage arrays, reducing labor, data center, and third-party vendor costs by approximately 50%

Ensono’s proactive optimization strategy in response to Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware not only minimized our own licensing costs but also equipped us with the expertise to support our clients in managing similar challenges. This case study exemplifies our commitment to operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, ensuring we remain a trusted ally for our clients’ IT infrastructure needs.