Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Here is a deal that almost died for the wrong reason. The customer said, “We need Hyper-V.” The partner logged it as a technical requirement, qualified the opportunity out of any VMware conversation, and moved on. Reasonable enough. That is what a stated requirement is supposed to mean. Except it was not technical. When someone finally asked why Hyper-V, the answer had nothing to do with the hypervisor.

VMware ESX systems are a recurring target in ransomware campaigns. Threat groups including SCATTERED SPIDER, BlackBasta, Royal (aka BlackSuit), Akira, and the ESX-focused ransomware as a service (RaaS) platform shinysp1d3r have demonstrated that once an adversary reaches the hypervisor layer, they can rapidly encrypt virtual machines, disable logging, and cripple an entire data center.

For connecting physical servers and computers to a network, you need physical network adapters, switches, and routers. With virtual machines, virtual network concepts are used for communication between the different components of an infrastructure. The proper configuration of ESXi networking on a host is critically important to the configuration of any ESXi environment. Generally, ESXi host networks include storage, vMotion, VM, and management networks.

As a virtualization market leader, VMware offers products for a wide range of users. Its enterprise-grade line includes VMware vSphere products like ESXi, which is a type 1 hypervisor. VMware also offers type 2 hypervisors like VMware Workstation Player (or VMware Player) and VMware Workstation Pro (or VMware Workstation). Type 2 hypervisors are installed on the underlying host OS running on the physical machine.

VMware vCenter is an important component of the VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure, allowing you to use advanced VMware features. The most common approach to installing vCenter is deploying vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) as a virtual machine on an ESXi host. This blog post explains how to install VMware vCenter as a virtual appliance to get access to enterprise features in your vSphere environment.

For decades, VMware stood at the center of enterprise infrastructure. It underpinned critical applications, supported recovery plans, shaped data center strategy, and sustained daily IT workflows. For many organizations, VMware felt less like a platform choice and more like an operational cornerstone: load-bearing, familiar, and assumed. Then the landscape began to shift. Few developments have loomed larger over the IT industry recently than the reshaping of VMware’s commercial model.

Something significant is happening across enterprise IT right now — and I do not think it has been fully reckoned with yet. More than 5,000 organizations are actively evaluating or executing a migration away from VMware. The Broadcom acquisition changed the economics of VMware dramatically and abruptly. Licensing costs surged. Bundling decisions eliminated flexibility.

The initial ESXi configuration after installation is an important step in making sure the host is functional, that is ready to serve as a standalone host or as part of a vCenter cluster. In the previous post, we explained the interactive ESXi installation step by step. Once the installation is done, you need to complete some initial ESXi configuration in the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) and embedded VMware Host Client.

When Broadcom completed its $69 billion acquisition of VMware in November 2023, most customers assumed the initial disruption would settle. Licensing models would stabilise. Partner programmes would find a new equilibrium. Pricing would normalise. Two years in, it’s clear that didn’t happen.

Backup remains the best approach to data protection for physical and virtual machines, even in the face of new threats to data integrity and accessibility. However, virtual machine backup presents a challenge to IT admins in terms of storage, VM performance, resource efficiency, security, and recovery times. There are multiple methods to choose from to back up VMs. This post explains the advantages and disadvantages of 3 backup methods.