6/19/2026
VMware or Proxmox: Choosing a Virtualisation Platform for Import Substitution
VMware licenses are no longer officially renewed, and infrastructure stuck on an old version is a risk that grows silently. Here’s the comparison.
A couple of years ago, choosing a virtualisation platform was a matter of taste and budget. Today, for most Russian companies, it’s a matter of necessity: VMware licenses are no longer officially sold or renewed, and running an outdated, unpatched version means quietly stockpiling risk that stays invisible right up until the first serious incident.
How Proxmox differs from VMware
Proxmox VE is an open-source platform built on KVM and LXC with a web-based management interface. On core functionality — creating and migrating VMs, snapshots, clustering, backups — it covers the vast majority of scenarios VMware vSphere was used for.
| Parameter | VMware vSphere / Proxmox VE |
|---|---|
| Licensing model | Paid, officially unavailable in Russia / Open-source, free |
| Clustering & live migration | Mature, well-established / Solid, actively developed |
| Central management | vCenter, a separate product / Built into the web UI |
| Backups | Third-party tools or the vSphere API / Built-in, plus third-party options |
| Entry cost | High — licenses plus support / Low — mainly time and migration effort |
The real differences aren’t in core functionality — they’re in the ecosystem around the platform. Some familiar enterprise tooling built around VMware, including vCenter and specific third-party integrations, has no direct equivalent in Proxmox and requires rethinking a few processes rather than simply flipping a switch.
When migration is worth it, and when it can wait
If infrastructure is running stably on a currently supported VMware version, there’s no reason to panic. But if the version has long fallen out of support and security patches aren’t being applied, risk accumulates quietly but constantly. Companies actively buying new hardware or facing expiring licenses will find migration practically unavoidable in the medium term — better to do it on a plan than in a scramble when an old license suddenly stops working.
How to minimise migration risk
Migrating VMs directly from VMware to Proxmox is technically straightforward and usually happens without data loss when properly planned. The mistake we see most often during audits is trying to move everything at once, including production 1C databases, in week one. The right order is the opposite: move non-critical systems first, prove out the process and tooling on them, and only then migrate the critical services, once the team trusts every step.
Bottom line
Proxmox is a mature, fully working alternative for the vast majority of small and mid-size business virtualisation scenarios. The real difficulty of migration is almost never technical — it’s organisational. Careful planning brings the risk of downtime close to zero.