How Zajil Migrated 500+ VMware VMs to an Open Private Cloud
StackOrbit designed, deployed and operates a private cloud platform using Apache CloudStack and KVM, enabling Zajil to replace VMware infrastructure and run a scalable enterprise cloud for development workloads.
Customer Overview
Zajil is one of the most established ICT and connectivity providers in the Middle East and North Africa region. For more than three decades the company has delivered internet connectivity, MPLS services and managed infrastructure solutions to enterprise customers across the region.
With more than 30+ POP locations and major fiber investments, Zajil required a modern private cloud platform to support internal development workloads and enterprise infrastructure.
Business Objective
Zajil aimed to migrate its VMware infrastructure to an open-source cloud platform capable of supporting large-scale enterprise workloads while reducing dependency on proprietary virtualization platforms.
The goal was to create a private cloud environment enabling development teams to deploy and scale virtual machines quickly while maintaining full infrastructure control.
- Reduce infrastructure licensing costs by 85%
- Migrate 500+ VMware virtual machines seamlessly
- Eliminate vendor lock-in with open-source infrastructure
The Challenge
Infrastructure Challenge
VMware clusters created high licensing costs and limited infrastructure flexibility. Annual licensing costs exceeded $500K with no clear upgrade path.
Operational Challenge
Internal teams lacked experience managing large-scale open-source cloud infrastructure and required significant training and support.
Business Challenge
Vendor lock-in and hypervisor licensing costs reduced long-term scalability and business agility for future growth.
StackOrbit Solution
Comprehensive private cloud migration and management platform
VMware Migration
Migration of 500+ virtual machines from VMware to Apache CloudStack with KVM hypervisor using custom scripts and minimal downtime.
StackWatch Monitoring
Real-time infrastructure monitoring for cloud clusters and virtual machines with alerting and performance dashboards.
Cloud Marketplace
One-click deployment of operating systems and preconfigured templates for rapid application deployment.
StackOps Managed Operations
24/7 operations and management of Apache CloudStack infrastructure with enterprise SLA support and incident response.
Migration Automation
Custom migration scripts and tooling to simplify large-scale VM migration with minimal application downtime.
Enterprise Private Cloud
Scalable infrastructure platform for enterprise development workloads with elastic resource allocation.
Infrastructure Architecture
Regions
1
Zones
2
Hypervisors
KVM / XCP-NG
Storage
Enterprise SAN + Local
VM Migration
500+
Deployment Time
2 Weeks
Results & Detailed Comparison
Before StackOrbit
VMware proprietary virtualization with high licensing overhead
After StackOrbit
Open-source Apache CloudStack with KVM hypervisor - no licensing costs
Eliminated vendor lock-in and reduced total cost of ownership significantly
Before StackOrbit
$500K+ annual hypervisor licensing costs
After StackOrbit
Reduced infrastructure licensing by 85%
Open-source stack eliminated recurring proprietary licensing expenses
Before StackOrbit
Manual VM provisioning requiring 2-3 hours per deployment
After StackOrbit
Automated private cloud VM deployment in minutes
Infrastructure-as-Code approach enabled one-click VM provisioning
Before StackOrbit
Vendor lock-in with limited hardware flexibility
After StackOrbit
Complete hardware independence and infrastructure flexibility
Can switch hypervisors and hardware vendors without application changes
Before StackOrbit
VMware clusters maxed at 500 VMs capacity
After StackOrbit
Elastic private cloud platform scales to thousands of VMs
Linear scalability with additional compute nodes and zones
Before StackOrbit
Internal team managing infrastructure 9-to-5
After StackOrbit
24/7 managed operations by StackOrbit StackOps team
Eliminated operational burden with enterprise SLA support
It was an easy decision for us to partner with StackOrbit team. We received excellent documentation and implemented the whole stack quickly. StackOrbit provided monitoring tools and custom migration scripts that made the VMware migration easy. We can now scale resources easily and deliver more value to our customers.
Jobin Thomas
Sr. SRE, Zajil
Migrate from VMware to Open Private Cloud
StackOrbit helps enterprises migrate from VMware to scalable open cloud platforms powered by Apache CloudStack.
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