Shadow-Soft shares top challenges holding organizations back from virtualization modernization

For many organizations, the decision to modernize virtualization platforms is no longer a "nice to have,” it is a necessity driven by a market in flux. With growing pressures like vendor lock-in and rising renewal costs, the need to move both quickly and strategically are increasingly important. 

But if the "state of traditional virtualization is uncertain," as Ross Beard, vice president of marketing and partner alliances at Shadow-Soft, puts it, why do so many organizations hesitate to move towards a modern future?

Beard, whose team has supported over 200 customers in their modernization journeys, sat down with Red Hat to dig into the top-of-mind challenges holding enterprises back from a migration off of traditional virtualization platforms, and how to overcome them.

The “vision” block  

Organizations often find that the move from a legacy hypervisor to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization isn't just a technology shift but a mindset adjustment. 

Beard notes that teams struggle to "visualize what that world (of containerization) looks like.” They need to map their existing concept of virtual machines (VMs) to a new perspective that includes containers, cloud-native functionalities, and hybrid cloud capabilities. Often, this audience has never explored the world of containerization before, and the idea of uprooting platforms puts existing knowledge and skills at risk.  

Red Hat Specialized Partners for virtualization like Shadow-Soft help simplify this transition, focusing heavily on the initial visualization phase. By helping customers architect a solution and make early tooling decisions, they turn an abstract concept into a concrete, actionable roadmap towards a more modern future. Additionally, through OpenShift Virtualization's dedicated learning resources, integrated VM management tools, and AI-powered assistance, users can more easily bridge the skills gap to start managing their VMs on this modern platform.   

Navigate OpenShift Virtualization as a VMware admin →

The integration gap

Migrating virtual machines to a new platform is rarely a one-for-one replacement. A successful modern platform often makes use of a larger surrounding ecosystem.

For many organizations, "it’s not just a legacy VM platform replacement," Beard explains. You need to account for storage, observability, and automation in the new environment. For example, you might need, "Portworx potentially for storage," or, "Dynatrace for observability," to replicate or enhance what you had in your legacy stack, which can delay decision-making.

Shadow-Soft and Red Hat use their unique collaboration to bridge that gap, integrating third-party solutions directly into the proof of concept (PoC) and production environments. Beard also notes that the work Red Hat does to certify these integrations makes customers feel confident that the new platform meets all enterprise requirements before a single production workload is moved. When you move to production, this means you're running a fully integrated, supported platform.

Explore Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization integrated partners → 

The time trap

Perhaps the most dangerous challenge is procrastination. Beard observes that often, "the move isn’t prioritized... they’re pushing it down the road.”

But modernizing infrastructure and onboarding teams take time. Proper exploration, education, and an optional pilot phase cannot be rushed and carried out effectively if you are staring down a hard renewal deadline (with some companies seeing up to a "9x increase,” Beard notes). Teams must recognize that the move to OpenShift Virtualization should be prioritized for effective adoption both culturally and technologically. 

Beard notes that Shadow-Soft works with organizations to, “help them visualize what that world is going to look like in OpenShift Virtualization and help them architect and make decisions around all the different tooling that they will need in that new platform.”

The sooner you can begin the conversation, the better. Prioritize the move now to gain a more predictable, reliable, and safer option before you are backed into a corner. Shadow-Soft and Red Hat will work with you to make sure you have the necessary tools and support to make the transition to a more modern platform. 

Learn how to migrate VMs to OpenShift Virtualization →

A complete application platform for the future

As you evaluate your virtualization environment and strategic requirements, it’s important to remember that you're not alone. Red Hat, along with key certified migration partners like Shadow-Soft, are here to help you overcome these barriers and feel confident in making the leap to a platform that serves your current virtualization needs and provides a foundation for future innovation.  

OpenShift Virtualization helps you safely and non-disruptively migrate your VMs to a hybrid cloud platform, enabling you to adopt a, "cloud-native architecture approach without immediately jumping into containerization." With containerization, automation, and an AI-ready infrastructure, Red Hat OpenShift provides a unified platform that is capable of hosting all of your current and future workloads. 

• Migrate to Red Hat OpenShift with Shadow-Soft
• Build a strategic roadmap with Red Hat Consulting