Watch On-Demand

Rethinking VMware-to-KVM Migration Beyond VDDK

Migrate from VMware to vendor independence with intelligent automation, minimal downtime and a VDDK-free migration path.

Recorded on 23 October 2026 – 53 minutes

The Webinar at a Glance

Topic

Automated VMware-to-KVM migration. Choosing the right platform to migrate away from VMware.

Migration Destination

Apache CloudStack with KVM

Product Demonstrated

ShapeBlue Migrate - automated migration tool designed to help organizations move large-scale VMware environments to Apache CloudStack.

Technical Focus

Structured VMware migration to open-source. VDDK, Changed Block Tracking and direct NFS reads.

Suitable for

Enterprises, cloud service providers and managed service providers, telecoms.

What’s in the recording

This on-demand webinar explains how organisations can migrate VMware workloads to Apache CloudStack and KVM using a structured, automated migration process. It covers VMware environment discovery, migration-wave planning, workload conversion, Changed Block Tracking, VDDK limitations, direct NFS reads and controlled cutover.

In this on-demand webinar, ShapeBlue CTO Khachatur Nazaretyan and Cloud Architect Jithin Raju show how to plan and automate a large VMware to KVM migration with ShapeBlue Migrate. You’ll see how to keep downtime to short, scheduled cutovers, and how to move workloads without depending on VDDK.

You will also hear practical guidance from ShapeBlue’s experts, based on real-world experience planning and delivering complex VMware migration projects.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:53 What is VDDK and why it matters
04:56 How the rules of virtualisation have changed
07:00 Common problems in VMware migrations
10:06 Why Apache CloudStack and KVM
10:50 VMware to KVM migration options
13:22 ShapeBlue Migrate overview
22:29 Live demo of ShapeBlue Migrate
34:44 Why partner with ShapeBlue
37:39 Q&A

Are you looking for a VMware alternative?

ShapeBlue helps organizations assess, design, build and migrate to open-source and Apache CloudStack-powered private clouds. From migration planning to long-term support, we will guide you at every stage of your journey.

Speak with a migration expert today!

Start Your VMware Migration

Meet the Presenters

Khachatur Nazaretyan

CTO, ShapeBlue

Khachatur has worked across the whole infrastructure stack for nearly two decades, starting in full-stack development in 2007 and moving through systems and network administration, senior cloud architecture and technical consulting. He has designed and run CloudStack-based private cloud platforms for enterprise and service provider workloads. 

Jithin Raju

Cloud Architect, ShapeBlue

Jithin is a Cloud Architect by profession. He has helped organisations around the globe use commercial distributions of Apache CloudStack over the past 10 years. These organisations include private, public, and government cloud service providers.

Webinar-VMware to Open-Source_02

Moving VMware workloads without relying on VDDK? There is an option!

Many VMware-to-KVM migration methods use the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit, or VDDK, to access and transfer virtual disks. Obtaining and maintaining the correct VDDK version can create an additional dependency within a migration project.

ShapeBlue Migrate provides several migration mechanisms for different workloads and storage architectures. Its direct NFS read capability allows the migration worker to read source disks directly from accessible NFS datastores during Changed Block Tracking migrations.

For supported NFS-backed VMware environments, this removes VDDK and the ESXi host from the data-transfer path. It can reduce load on ESXi hosts, remove an external software dependency and accelerate migration where the existing transfer path is the bottleneck.

Webinar-VMware to Open-Source_01

Automated VMware-to-KVM migration with ShapeBlue Migrate?

ShapeBlue Migrate is designed to help organisations plan and execute complex VMware-to-Apache CloudStack migrations through a structured and repeatable process. The platform supports:

  • Automated discovery and inventory across VMware environments
  • Workload assessment and migration-wave planning
  • Multiple migration mechanisms for different workloads
  • Warm migration using Changed Block Tracking
  • Direct NFS reads for supported NFS-backed environments
  • Planned and controlled cutovers
  • Centralised migration monitoring and progress tracking
  • Granular configuration at environment, wave and virtual-machine level

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the webinar?

The recording runs for 53 minutes, including a live demo of ShapeBlue Migrate and a Q&A session.

The full recording is available on this page and on ShapeBlue’s YouTube channel, free and with no registration needed.

VDDK is VMware’s Virtual Disk Development Kit, a library many migration tools use to read VM disks. Depending on it adds an external component that a migration project has to obtain and maintain, which can add risk and complexity.

Yes. In supported NFS-backed environments, ShapeBlue Migrate can use direct NFS reads to read source disks straight from the NFS datastore during warm migration, removing VDDK and the ESXi host from the data path. It’s enabled per migration, and any disk it can’t read this way falls back to VDDK.

Warm migration copies a VM’s disk while the VM keeps running. Changed Block Tracking (CBT) then records which blocks change, so at cutover only those blocks need to be synced. This keeps the final outage short.

Apache CloudStack and KVM provide an open-source alternative for organisations that want greater control over their virtualisation and cloud infrastructure. KVM provides the virtualisation layer, while Apache CloudStack manages and orchestrates the compute, networking and storage resources around it. Together, they provide a complete platform for operating private, public and sovereign cloud environments without depending on a proprietary virtualisation stack.

KVM is a powerful open-source hypervisor, but it does not provide a complete cloud management platform by itself. Organisations still need a way to manage hosts, virtual machines, networks, storage, users, permissions, capacity and automation across the infrastructure.

Apache CloudStack adds this management and orchestration layer. It provides a central user interface and API for deploying and managing KVM-based cloud infrastructure at scale.

Yes. Apache CloudStack provides many of the infrastructure capabilities organisations expect from an enterprise virtualisation and cloud platform, including high availability, live migration, host maintenance, workload management, software-defined networking, storage integration, templates, snapshots, role-based access and infrastructure automation.

CloudStack is not a direct copy of VMware vSphere. It uses a cloud-oriented architecture designed to manage infrastructure across clusters, datacentres and geographic regions. Organisations should assess how their existing VMware architecture and operational processes will map to CloudStack before beginning a migration.

CloudStack’s core functionality includes:

  • Multi-tenant cloud orchestration
  • Compute, storage, and network management
  • Flexible hypervisor support (KVM, VMware, XenServer/XCP-ng, Hyper-V)
  • Advanced networking (VLANs, security groups, VRs)
  • Role-based access control
  • Self-service user portals
  • Comprehensive API ecosystem
  • Usage metering and billing integration

These features provide both operational control and flexibility for cloud administrators and consumers.

Apache CloudStack provides a broad set of capabilities for managing enterprise and service-provider infrastructure, including:

  • Centralised management of compute, networking and storage
  • High availability and virtual machine state monitoring
  • Live migration and host maintenance
  • Multi-tenant resource isolation
  • Advanced networking, including isolated networks, VPCs, VLANs, firewalls and load balancing
  • Integration with NFS, iSCSI, Ceph and other storage technologies
  • Role-based access and delegated administration
  • LDAP, SAML, OAuth2 and two-factor authentication options
  • Usage metering, alerts, capacity management and audit logs
  • A comprehensive API for automation and third-party integrations

The exact architecture and available capabilities depend on the CloudStack version, hypervisor, storage and networking technologies selected.

Yes. Apache CloudStack is designed to manage infrastructure across multiple zones, pods, clusters and hypervisor hosts. It gives operators centralised visibility and control while allowing resources, accounts and administrative responsibilities to be separated across domains and projects.

This architecture makes CloudStack suitable for large enterprise environments, cloud service providers, managed service providers and organisations operating infrastructure across multiple locations.

Apache CloudStack is an open-source project governed by the Apache Software Foundation rather than controlled by a single commercial software vendor. Organisations can inspect the source code, operate the platform independently and choose their own infrastructure, integration and support partners.

CloudStack also supports multiple hypervisors, storage systems and networking technologies. This flexibility helps organisations reduce dependence on a single infrastructure vendor and make future technology decisions based on their operational requirements.

ShapeBlue supports the complete migration journey, from discovery and assessment to target architecture, CloudStack deployment, pilot migration, large-scale execution and post-migration operations.

ShapeBlue Migrate adds automation across the migration process, while ShapeBlue’s consultants and engineers provide the architectural and operational expertise needed to prepare the target platform, select the appropriate migration mechanisms and manage complex migration scenarios.