IT decisions are fraught with friction. In particular, decisions made deep within the stack are difficult to reverse. We spoke with Sangfor Technologies, a virtualization provider that works to minimize this friction as much as possible for those leaving VMware.
“What VMware offers and what Sangfor offers can be identical or very similar,” Keith Lee tells us. He is the Global Cloud Business Director at Sangfor Technologies. Lee adds that Sangfor provides the core virtualization capabilities enterprises expect from VMware, while offering greater flexibility in infrastructure architecture, integrated security, and ecosystem choices.
For example, there’s aSV instead of vSphere as a hypervisor, aSAN as the counterpart to vSAN, and aNET instead of NSX. But where the two companies differ significantly is in the area of security. The major similarity is the deep integration with Veeam and Cohesity when it comes to backup and disaster recovery. But these features are also inherent to Sangfor.
Sangfor began in 2000 as a network security provider in China and has since expanded to a global reach with a broad focus on IT infrastructure. It now has a significant presence outside of Asia, particularly in Latin America. Europe is a growth market for this company. In addition to modern security tools and virtualization, Sangfor also provides solutions such as HCI, Enterprise Distributed Storage, AI Agent Builder and VDI. Specifically for virtualization, this means that Sangfor offers not only backup but also a virtual firewall, load balancer, and more under the umbrella of Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Unlike traditional virtualization vendors, Sangfor brings its cybersecurity expertise into the infrastructure layer. This, the company suggests, enables organizations to combine virtualization, network security and infrastructure protection with a more integrated architecture.
Layered and flexible
In terms of features, there are more vendors vying to replace VMware. However, the transition, even when explicitly stated in many cases, is not straightforward. Consider all the integrations, the protection and consistency of workloads, and the business processes that depend on them. Apart from the world’s largest customers that Broadcom is targeting, many organizations do not fit into that company’s business plan. They need to make the switch, and quickly. And that’s where the problem lies: while the majority of processes may be able to migrate without significant downtime or hiccups, core tasks often cannot simply tolerate any downtime.
Sangfor is addressing this, Lee explains. Many customers don’t want a “big bang” migration. Smaller customers may have used only VMware for virtualization and can obtain this from Sangfor. According to him, mid-sized organizations aren’t a problem either: virtualization and a virtual network together are effectively available as a blueprint.
Where things get tricky is with legacy systems. Sangfor has a solution for that as well, Lee explains. “We’re able to integrate with existing backup vendors like Veeam and Cohesity, so they don’t have to remove their storage. We also integrate with external storage. The only thing we need to replace is the virtualization software. What this means is that organizations do not necessarily need to replace their existing storage infrastructure when moving away from VMware. With supported external storage and backup integrations, Sangfor enables customers to modernize their virtualization layer while preserving compatible infrastructure investments.”
Migrations from VMware are possible via SCMT, Sangfor’s cloud migration tool. It supports agentless or agent-based V2V (virtual-to-virtual) migration from other virtualization platforms. Alternatives include physical-to-virtual (P2V) migrations via agents, or importing a Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) and then booting the VM. Backup vendors are another option; back up the VMware environment and then reboot via Sangfor.
In one key area, another important differentiator is Sangfor’s Memory Tiering technology. By intelligently extending physical memory capacity with high-performance NVMe storage, it allows organizations to optimize memory utilization and potentially reduce hardware investment for suitable workloads, while keeping performance-sensitive data in DRAM. Not all workloads have the same requirements for this hardware, or are even relevant to it. Reducing costs by using only the fastest memory where it’s needed is possible with both VMware and Sangfor, and as far as we know, this isn’t available anywhere else.
How do you migrate?
Broadcom, of course, has no interest in making it easy to leave VMware. One of the simplest paths involved a workaround: VDDK. This Virtual Disk Development Kit enabled migrations to access the virtual disk at a deep level, making it relatively easy to move a workload while keeping all configurations intact. Broadcom has since made this process difficult by turning off downloads for VDDK.
Critical VMware workloads can be managed via the Sangfor Cloud Platform (SCP) alongside Sangfor VMs and containers. This ensures that no silos are created during migration, allowing IT administrators to transition while maintaining the same overview.
Subscriptions, not just bundles
Within Europe, Sangfor is focusing on subscriptions. The major difference from VMware is that it still offers a fair amount of flexibility by not bundling all solutions together. Lee notes that this option is available, but adds: “Customers can also add features based on their needs. For example, if an organization needs multi-tenant features or requires an additional containerized solution, that’s possible. So it’s not just about flexibility within the platform, but also in choosing which features and licenses to use.”
Beyond the technical requirements, the most important aspect of a VMware migration is trust in the vendor and in the future. Your new technology stack shouldn’t be plagued by lock-in again if that can be avoided now. “Customers are already worried,” says Keith Lee. “And they don’t want to be locked in by a vendor anymore. That’s the flexibility we offer.”
A good sign for Sangfor, Lee points to long-standing customer relationships and repeat deployments as indicators of trust, emphasizing that responsive technical support and long-term investment protection are central to Sangfor’s customer strategy. And when it comes to support: “Our customers say they always receive a quick response, regardless of the feedback.”
It’s a bold promise from Sangfor Technologies as a VMware alternative, one that competes with multiple virtualization platforms. Its focus on security and its layered revenue model set it apart from most of the competition, though it still needs to build brand awareness and a track record in our region.
Conclusion
Sangfor is positioning itself to be more than just another VMware alternative. It combines virtualization with integrated security, a flexible infrastructure architecture, and a growing third-party ecosystem. It seeks to offer a future-ready solution for organizations seeking a practical path to reduce dependency on a single technology vendor.