What if you could use your existing VMware servers for your storage refresh? Many IT professionals are facing two big projects in 2025: a SAN refresh and the replacement of VMware. The problem is that most vendors will want you to replace all that hardware, storage servers, and virtualization servers with new hardware from them. This article will discuss how your existing VMware servers could be repurposed into a high-performance, cost-effective storage solution while simultaneously transitioning to a VMware alternative.
The Hidden Cost of Dedicated Storage Arrays
For years, IT teams have been conditioned to believe that storage must reside in a separate, dedicated storage array—whether all-flash or hybrid—even though they are very similar to the servers running the virtualization layer!
While these systems provide centralized storage, they come with significant drawbacks:
- High cost – Enterprise storage arrays are expensive, with vendors charging a premium for hardware and software features.
- Vendor lock-in – Many arrays require proprietary drives and support contracts that lock organizations into rigid upgrade cycles.
- Complexity – Dedicated storage arrays require separate management, tuning, and optimization—leading to higher operational overhead.
- Performance bottlenecks – Storage arrays introduce additional network latency and rely on RAID or erasure coding, which slows rebuild times when failures occur.
With VergeOS, organizations can avoid these limitations entirely. Instead of relying on a dedicated storage array, VergeOS enables existing, formerly VMware servers to become fully integrated, enterprise-class vSANs. Organizations gain a cost-effective, high-performance alternative by eliminating the need for separate storage hardware and expensive licensing fees.
How VMware Servers Can Become Your Storage Infrastructure and Replace VMware
The key to transforming existing VMware servers into enterprise-class storage is using a data center operating system that integrates storage directly into the virtualization layer. Instead of separating compute and storage into distinct silos, VergeOS enables storage to run alongside virtualized workloads, eliminating the inefficiencies of traditional architectures.
With VergeOS, you can use your VMware Servers for Your Storage Refresh :
- Aggregate storage across multiple servers into a unified storage pool
- Provide high-performance, VM-aware storage without the need for a separate array
- Deliver beyond enterprise-class redundancy and data protection without RAID bottlenecks
- Eliminate expensive storage licensing costs by removing the need for vSAN VMs or external SAN solutions
- Enable a seamless transition from VMware to a modern virtualization platform without downtime
To learn more, join our live webinar, “Break Free from the Storage Refresh Cycle,” an interactive whiteboard session.
Advantages of VMware Servers for a Storage Refresh
Immediate Cost Savings
Transitioning from VMware servers for a storage refresh, IT teams can eliminate the need to purchase a new storage array and stop paying VMware’s ever-increasing licensing fees. Instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new storage system and hypervisor licensing, organizations can use their current hardware to achieve the same performance and scalability at a fraction of the cost.
VergeOS eliminates these costs by converging storage, virtualization, and networking into a single platform, allowing organizations to maximize their existing infrastructure investments. VergeOS can derive unparalleled performance from standard server-class SSDs, which are 10X less than the price of a dedicated all-flash array. Our customers frequently add 100TBs of all-flash capacity to their environment for less than $12,000. Ask your array vendor how much 100TBs of capacity, controllers, and networking will cost.
Performance Without Bottlenecks
Dedicated storage arrays often introduce performance bottlenecks due to network latency and RAID overhead. Converging storage and virtualization into the same platform eliminates these inefficiencies, allowing data to move directly between the storage and virtualized workloads without unnecessary network hops.
Because VergeOS natively integrates VM-aware storage, it optimizes performance for virtual workloads without needing separate tuning or storage hardware upgrades.
Built-in Data Protection Without RAID Complexity
Most traditional storage arrays rely on RAID or erasure coding, which increases write latency and leads to long rebuild times when a drive fails. Using a modern software-defined approach, IT teams can distribute data across multiple servers, allowing for parallelized recovery that restores data in minutes instead of hours or days.
VergeOS replaces RAID with distributed redundancy, ensuring that failures do not impact performance or availability.
Easier Management with a Unified Interface
Managing storage separately from virtualization increases administrative overhead and complexity. With VergeOS, storage is managed directly within the virtualization platform, allowing IT teams to control virtualization, storage, and networking from a single interface.
This reduces the need for specialized storage expertise and simplifies day-to-day operations, making IT infrastructure easier to scale and maintain.
Future-Proofing for Growth
Traditional storage arrays require forklift upgrades to expand capacity, forcing organizations into disruptive migrations. Organizations can scale capacity by repurposing VMware servers as a storage platform while transitioning to VergeOS by adding more drives to available drive bays or additional standard servers from almost any manufacturer—eliminating vendor lock-in and restrictive licensing.
VergeOS enables seamless expansion by allowing IT teams to mix and match hardware without being locked into proprietary storage platforms.
Conclusion: Use VMware Servers as Your Storage Refresh
Why Buy Storage When You Already Own It?
Organizations planning to move away from VMware don’t have to scrap their existing hardware. Using VMware servers as your storage refresh enables you to repurpose them into a next-generation storage platform that is more cost-effective, easier to manage, and performs better than a traditional storage array.
Even more importantly, by adopting VergeOS, IT teams can transition away from VMware simultaneously, eliminating the need for expensive licensing while gaining a fully integrated virtualization and storage solution.
Instead of investing in another costly storage array or renewing VMware licenses, IT teams can modernize their entire infrastructure with VergeOS—leveraging the hardware they already own for better performance, lower costs, and complete control over their future IT strategy.
If you’re planning your next storage refresh or VMware migration, why not do both at once—without new hardware investments? Schedule a 30-minute meeting with us, and we can take you through a virtual whiteboard session to explain how the transition would work in your data center.
