01
Licensing Cost Review
As part of a wider cost-optimisation programme, Lifebank reviewed its virtualisation licensing model against projected renewal costs and set a target to materially reduce recurring platform spend.
Case Study
Achieving 80% Licensing Cost Reduction via VMware to Proxmox VE Migration
Lifebank Foundation Inc. — Non-Profit Microfinance, Philippines
Facing a virtualisation licensing renewal, Lifebank set out to reduce recurring platform costs without compromising availability. ISPL delivered a phased, rolling migration from VMware vSphere and Veeam to Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server — zero new hardware, zero VMs lost, every downtime threshold met.
Proxmox VEVMware MigrationProxmox Backup ServerHCINon-ProfitPhilippines
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At A Glance
The transformation, in numbers.
80%
Licensing Cost Reduction
Zero
VMs Lost in Transition
$0
New Hardware Capex
5
Migration Phases
Background
A mature enterprise setup under financial pressure.
Lifebank Foundation Inc., a non-profit microfinance organization based in the Philippines, operated a business-critical IT infrastructure built around a multi-node VMware vSphere cluster hosting a significant number of Virtual Machines — from mission-critical financial applications to supporting business functions — all demanding high availability.
The storage backbone consisted of a dual SAN setup: two SAN switches connected to two SAN servers, providing centralized high-performance shared storage. For data protection, Lifebank ran Veeam Backup & Replication across two dedicated servers — an on-site primary and an off-site disaster recovery replica.
The environment was technically sound. The driver for change was commercial rather than technical: leadership targeted a structural reduction in recurring platform licensing.
The Challenges
Five compounding pressures that made the status quo untenable.
02
Backup Infrastructure Tied to the Platform
Lifebank's data protection relied entirely on Veeam Backup & Replication. With a platform migration inevitable, retaining Veeam would mean carrying a redundant cost that no longer aligned with the new direction.
03
Workload Continuity Risk
40% of workloads were classified Critical (max 1 hour downtime), 30% Medium (up to 4 hours), and 30% Low (up to 24 hours) — all windows restricted to weekends and off-hours only.
04
No New Hardware Permitted
Lifebank had a firm position of zero new hardware procurement. The entire migration had to execute within the existing physical footprint — leaving no margin for error in capacity planning.
05
Orphaned VM Workloads
A subset of VMs existed only within the Veeam backup repository with no active presence in VMware. These workloads still held business relevance and needed to be recovered and re-platformed.
Workload Downtime Classification
| Category | Share | Permissible Downtime Window |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 40% | Max 1 hour (weekends, off-hours only) |
| Medium | 30% | Up to 4 hours (weekends, off-hours only) |
| Low | 30% | Up to 24 hours (weekends, off-hours only) |
Solution Proposed
A structured platform transition — entirely within existing hardware.
- 1Proxmox VE as Target Platform
ISPL recommended Proxmox VE — an enterprise-grade open-source hypervisor with native VMware migration tooling, cluster HA, full SAN compatibility, and Proxmox's official subscription support model.
- 2Phased Rolling Node Migration
Rather than a bulk cutover, ISPL proposed a node-by-node rolling migration: each host decommissioned from VMware, commissioned as a Proxmox VE node, and validated before the next host was touched.
- 3Existing SAN Infrastructure Reused
~40% available storage headroom in the dual SAN setup was sufficient to carve new LUNs for the Proxmox VE cluster without disrupting active VMware workloads during the transition.
- 4Recovery of Orphaned VMs
VMs present only in the Veeam repository were restored directly via Veeam's standard VM restore procedure and onboarded into the Proxmox VE cluster as part of the migration scope.
- 5Proxmox Backup Server Replaces Veeam
Both Veeam servers were repurposed as Proxmox Backup Server nodes — maintaining the on-site/off-site replication architecture with encryption at rest applied to all backup data.
Implementation
Five phases. Every workload migrated. Every threshold met.
ISPL executed the migration in carefully sequenced phases — each validated before proceeding, all scheduled within permitted off-hour weekend windows aligned to workload downtime tiers.
01
Initial Proxmox VE Cluster Commissioning
ISPL identified the VMware hosts running lowest-priority VMs, consolidated workloads onto remaining hosts, removed two hosts from vSphere, installed Proxmox VE, and formed a 2-node PVE cluster. New LUNs were carved from existing SAN headroom and integrated as shared storage.
02
Initial Workload Migration to Proxmox VE
VMs from the freed VMware hosts were migrated using Proxmox VE's built-in VMware migration tooling via an offline method — clean shutdown before transfer to guarantee data consistency. Each VM was validated with application owners before the next was started.
03
Rolling Node-by-Node Migration
For every remaining VMware host: workloads evacuated to other VMware nodes → host removed from vSphere → Proxmox VE installed → host joined the growing PVE cluster → VMs migrated offline → validated with application owners. Repeated until all hosts had been re-provisioned as Proxmox VE nodes.
04
Recovery of Orphaned VM Workloads
VMs existing only in the Veeam backup repository were restored directly from Veeam backups using Veeam's standard VM restore procedure, brought online within the Proxmox VE cluster, and validated.
05
PBS Commissioning & Veeam Decommissioning
Both Veeam servers were decommissioned. Hardware repurposed as PBS nodes: primary on-site PBS datastore integrated with PVE cluster, scheduled backup jobs with encryption at rest, off-site PBS node configured for encrypted replication. End-to-end backup and restore workflow validated before sign-off.
Before vs. After
From vendor dependency to platform independence.
Before
- Multi-node VMware vSphere cluster under subscription licensing
- Veeam Backup & Replication adding additional licensing overhead
- Dual SAN underutilised — ~40% headroom unused
- Orphaned VMs stranded in backup repository only
- No data protection encryption at rest
- Full vendor lock-in to proprietary virtualization stack
After
- Proxmox VE cluster — open-source enterprise hypervisor, zero per-host licensing
- Proxmox Backup Server replacing Veeam — integrated, no extra licensing
- Existing SAN fully leveraged — zero new storage hardware purchased
- All orphaned VMs recovered and running in production
- Encryption at rest on all backup data, on-site and off-site
- Platform independence on open standards — no vendor lock-in
Outcomes
Unambiguous results across every success metric.
80%
Licensing Cost Reduction
Immediate and sustained financial relief — the primary driver that initiated the engagement.
0
VMs Lost in Transition
Complete workload migration including successful recovery of orphaned VMs from the Veeam repository.
0
Downtime Threshold Breaches
All workload migrations scheduled within permissible windows — Critical within 1 hour, no exceptions.
$0
Capital Expenditure
The entire transformation executed within the existing hardware footprint — purely a service engagement.
This engagement demonstrates that organizations in the financial sector need not choose between cost efficiency and operational resilience. Platform independence from high-cost proprietary vendors is both achievable and sustainable.
About Illumia Solutions — As an official Proxmox partner with deep enterprise infrastructure expertise, ISPL delivers platform transformations that protect operational continuity at every step while achieving transformative reductions in infrastructure overhead.