For many organisations across Australia, virtualisation has become more of a burden than a benefit. What started as a way to consolidate infrastructure and improve agility has, in recent years, shifted into something more rigid — complex environments, ballooning licensing fees, and increasing pressure to commit to a single roadmap.

And now, with shifting dynamics in the virtualisation market, many IT leaders are left asking: what’s next?

At Honeylight, we believe the answer starts with choice.

We’re proud to be the only provider in Australia currently trialling HPE VM Essentials, a new offering designed to help businesses simplify virtualisation, regain control of infrastructure decisions, and reduce costs — all without adding operational risk or disrupting existing workloads.

Whether you’re already questioning your current long-term commitment or simply looking for a smarter, more flexible way to manage virtual machines, HPE VM Essentials offers a new path forward.

Why Virtualisation Needs a Rethink

The recent consolidation of the virtualisation market has put pressure on IT teams to reconsider their long-term strategy. Licensing costs are rising. Vendor support models are changing. And according to recent research, 99% of businesses have concerns about how the VMware–Broadcom deal will affect their infrastructure plans. Almost a third are actively exploring alternatives.

But for organisations that have built their operations around virtualisation over the last decade — the stakes are higher. Any change to virtualisation strategy brings risk: to business continuity, to staff capability, and to legacy workloads that still power core systems.

The challenge is finding a solution that balances today’s operational needs with tomorrow’s flexibility.

Introducing HPE VM Essentials: A New Way Forward

HPE VM Essentials is an open virtualisation solution that simplifies how businesses manage virtual machines — whether those VMs are running on VMware or KVM-based infrastructure.

At its core, VM Essentials gives you a unified interface to provision, manage, and orchestrate virtual machines across both environments. That means you can continue to run your existing VMware clusters, while gradually exploring and adopting the HVM hypervisor (HPE’s enterprise-grade KVM-based alternative) — at your own pace.

Key Capabilities Include:

• Unified VM management across VMware and KVM
• Live migration and high availability for workloads
• Integrated backup and data protection with Cohesity, Commvault and Veeam
• Cluster-level orchestration and lifecycle control
• No additional licence fees to manage existing VMware clusters

It’s available as standalone software or as part of HPE Private Cloud Business Edition, with flexible licensing to match your business and growth trajectory.

Lower Your Risk, Not Your Standards

At Honeylight, we understand that making a change to your virtualisation environment isn’t just a technical decision — it’s a business decision. One that needs to be grounded in continuity, support, and a clear path forward.

It lets you maintain your existing VMware investments while building toward a more agile and cost-effective future. And with Honeylight’s end-to-end implementation and managed services, you’ll have the local expertise needed to plan, trial and deploy the solution on your terms.

Innovation Backed by Experience

As an HPE Gold Partner, Honeylight has always been an early adopter of next-generation infrastructure — but more importantly, we know how to help customers make change manageable.

Our partnership with HPE gives us direct access to performance testing, roadmap insights and engineering guidance. This means our clients get tailored advice, not guesswork. And our implementation team can help you map your current environment, build a phased deployment plan, and run side-by-side infrastructure if needed.

You don’t have to go all-in from day one. VM Essentials lets you try, test and transition at your own pace — and with Honeylight by your side, you’ll have the assurance that your risk is low and your strategy is sound.

See the Benefits for Yourself

If you’re looking for a smarter way to manage virtualisation without overcommitting to one vendor, now is the time to explore your options.

Download the infographic to see how HPE VM Essentials can support your transition to a more agile, cost-effective virtualisation model — and how Honeylight can support you every step of the way.

Download the Infographic