Virtualization & Private Cloud
One of our seven practice areas — every brief we’ve published in this coverage area, newest first.
-
ZSvirt 1.0 Explained: ZStack’s Open-Source VMware Alternative
ZSvirt is ZStack’s GPLv3, KVM-based open-source virtualization platform. This guide covers the license, architecture, key features, ZMigrate migration, support options, community activity and a pre-pilot checklist.
-
What Is VDI? Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Explained
A vendor-neutral explainer of virtual desktop infrastructure: components, persistent vs non-persistent desktops, VDI vs RDS and DaaS, cost drivers, security and an evaluation checklist, built from NIST guidance and Amazon WorkSpaces, Citrix, Microsoft, Omnissa and Parallels documentation.
-
What Is HCI? Hyperconverged Infrastructure Explained
A vendor-neutral explainer of hyperconverged infrastructure: how the distributed storage layer protects data, small-site designs with a witness, HCI vs converged vs 3-tier, disaggregated options and an evaluation checklist, built from Azure Local, Nutanix, Proxmox VE, Scale Computing and vSAN documentation.
-
VMware to Proxmox Migration: The 2026 Playbook
A VMware to Proxmox migration playbook built from the official docs: assessment, target design, the ESXi import wizard and its limits, manual fallbacks, guest drivers, cutover and rollback.
-
Citrix Alternatives in 2026: DaaS, VDI and RDS Compared
A vendor-neutral guide to alternatives to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Citrix DaaS, grouped by delivery model: control plane, hosting, display protocol, session types and licensing units for Amazon WorkSpaces, Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, Omnissa Horizon, Parallels RAS and Microsoft RDS, with a migration plan and evaluation checklist.
-
KVM vs VMware: Architecture and Operations Compared
KVM is a Linux kernel module, so the real comparison is vSphere against the platforms built on it: Proxmox VE, OpenShift Virtualization, Nutanix AHV and OpenStack. This brief compares architecture, management, live migration, HA, storage, drivers, guest support and backup from vendor docs.
-
Proxmox Cluster Setup: Nodes, Quorum, Storage and HA
A Proxmox cluster is a group of Proxmox VE servers joined with the pvecm tool over a Corosync network, and as of October 2026 (Proxmox VE 9.2) Proxmox says you need at least 3 nodes for reliable quorum if you want high availability, or 2 nodes plus an external QDevice vote. Clustering is free in…
-
XCP-ng vs Proxmox in 2026: Pricing, Support and Fit
As of October 2026, XCP-ng and Proxmox VE are both free and open source, and the difference you pay for is support: Vates prices XCP-ng support per host (Essential is $2,000 a year for up to 3 hosts, Pro is $1,000 per host per year with a 3-host minimum), while Proxmox prices per CPU socket,…
-
Hyper-V vs VMware in 2026: Licensing, Cost and Fit
As of October 2026, Hyper-V comes with Windows Server 2025, and the Datacenter edition lists at a suggested MSRP of $6,771 per 16 core licenses with unlimited virtual machines on the licensed host. Broadcom licenses VMware vSphere through per-core subscriptions such as VCF and VVF, with a 16-core minimum per CPU, and its product pages…
-
Proxmox vs VMware in 2026: Licensing, Cost and Fit
As of October 2026, Proxmox VE is free, open-source software with optional support subscriptions of EUR 120 to 1,100 per CPU socket per year, while VMware vSphere is sold only as Broadcom per-core subscriptions (VMware Cloud Foundation or vSphere Foundation) with a 16-core minimum per CPU and no published list price. The practical difference: a…