News: 1705912214

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Veeam researching support for VMware alternative Proxmox as backup buyers fret about Broadcom

(2024/01/22)


Exclusive Backup software vendor Veeam is doing early research on VMware alternative Proxmox, potentially with a view to creating a product to protect data created using the tool.

"We're researching and doing some prototyping around Proxmox to see what's possible there as far as backup goes," Anton Gostev, Veeam's senior veep for product management [1]posted on January 11.

Another Veeam product manager, Fabian Kessler, last week [2]confirmed that effort, writing "Proxmox is something we are doing some early research on."

[3]

Kessler's post came in a thread on Veeam's forums titled "Broadcom/VMware debacle" in which Veeam users vented about Broadcom's actions such as effectively hiking prices for VMware's products and [4]disqualifying some VMware partners.

[5]

[6]

"Any VMware Partner here thinking to switch to another hypervisor after Broadcom debacle? And maybe explore also third-party backup solutions moving from Veeam?" poses the opening post in the thread.

[7]As Broadcom nukes VMware's channel, the big winner is set to be Nutanix

[8]Broadcom ditches VMware Cloud Service Providers

[9]VMware's end-user compute products are for sale. Who might buy 'em?

[10]Citrix pulls the plug on its User Group Community

The thread features discussion of VMware alternatives. As the discussion progressed, Gostev offered the following advice, and news:

You may also want to check out Oracle Linux KVM. This looks to be the direct continuation of Red Hat Virtualization.

Veeam will support Oracle Linux KVM in the next immediate update of our RHV backup capability, which will also be rebranded accordingly.

Smart tech buyers know that products are only viable when they're surrounded by an ecosystem of complementary tools – and given that backup is an essential complement to any infrastructure or app, knowing Oracle Linux KVM and Proxmox are in Veeam's sights makes it easier to consider both as VMware alternatives.

Broadcom knows this, too. And it knows that if a major vendor like Veeam promotes its wares as making a VMware off-ramp a little easier, more may choose to seek an alternative server virtualization tool.

Whether Broadcom cares about that happening is the $61 billion question – the acquisitive org has pledged to increase profits produced by VMware rapidly. Losing customers would make that harder, no matter that Broadcom prefers to focus on large buyers. ®

Get our [11]Tech Resources



[1] https://forums.veeam.com/red-hat-virtualization-f62/feature-request-proxmox-t71691-30.html#p508413

[2] https://forums.veeam.com/post508940.html#p508940

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/virtualization&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Za5K3ik7BS90zuXJZOK61QAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/18/broadcom_vmware_channel_disruption/

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/virtualization&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Za5K3ik7BS90zuXJZOK61QAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/virtualization&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Za5K3ik7BS90zuXJZOK61QAAAQg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/18/broadcom_vmware_channel_disruption/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/broadcom_ends_vmware_partner_program/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/19/vmware_euc_sale_speculation/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/citrix_user_group_community_ends/

[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



XCP-ng/Xen Orchestra has this built in

Psy-Q

This is essentially a true FOSS fork of XenServer and you get backup capability built in for free (beer and speech) thanks to Orchestra.

It seems underappreciated but it's the first place I'd look, skipping Proxmox completely, if I needed a VMware alternative. But Veeam won't mention or support it, of course, since Veeam isn't required there and so can't make any money off it.

Proxmox uses OpenZFS

Anonymous Coward

Considering Proxmox supports ZFS ( [1]the OpenZFS 2.2.0 implementation to be precise ) it would make a great backup solution.

[1] https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap#Proxmox_VE_8.1

Good

demon driver

Broadcom seems to be helping Proxmox a lot lately. In the long run that will also help us cheapskates who use the free Proxmox edition in small setups.

Proxmox also offers their own backup solution, though (Proxmox Backup Server), making use of lots of ZFS bells and whistles.

Re: Good

Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward

Scuttlebutt has it that restoring from Proxmox backup server is a real PITA as it is slow, since the backups consists of thousands of small files.

I am testing out Proxmox atm, and find that the Veeam agent on the VM's backs up quicker than Proxmox backup server. Plus, Veeam's been proven through and through.

Proxmox has "native" backup

thondwe

Proxmox has thier own backup solution - Proxmox Backup Server

Works fine for my HomeLab needs - real questions do either Proxmox or XCP-NG fit your use case and how much will it cost to switch, retrain etc.

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