Introduction: The Real Challenge of Modern Cloud Migration 

Enterprises today are tasked with migrating and modernizing a wide spectrum of heterogeneous workloads from legacy VMs to modern containers, spanning across multiple hypervisors, operating systems, and runtime environments.

In the past, VMware and other private cloud platforms rose to dominance because they offered something revolutionary at the time, server consolidation, high availability, and operational control within the data center. Organizations could optimize hardware utilization, simplify management, and gain reliability without being tied to the physical limitations of bare metal. This model made sense when public cloud was still emerging and hypervisors outside VMware’s ecosystem lacked maturity.

However, the technology landscape has evolved. Modern public clouds now offer enterprise-grade hypervisors, elastic scalability, global reach, and integrated services that private cloud alone cannot match. Today’s migration challenge is no longer about simply replacing hardware, it’s about determining the right mix of cloud-native, containerized, and virtualized environments to meet performance, cost, and modernization goals.

These workloads typically include:

• VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM virtual machines
• Windows/Linux apps, including legacy environments
• Oracle databases, MS-SQl and other opensource databases.
• VDI infrastructure, and GPU-intensive apps
• Containers and Kubernetes-based microservices

As organizations adopt Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the key challenge becomes:
“Which OCI platform is the right landing zone for each workload?”

Well, It’s not just one. It’s a combination of OCI services, based on cost, complexity, performance, and licensing factors.

The Reality: Cloud Modernization is Always Hybrid

Let’s be clear, there’s no single answer.
It’s rarely “OCI Native VMs or OCVS or Containers.” It’s often all of them, working together based on the workload:

• Current platform (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, etc.)
• Refactoring effort required
• Licensing implications
• Performance or latency needs
• Future readiness for DevOps and containerization
• Managed vs non-managed aspect

OCI Modernization Journey – From Today’s Platform to Tomorrow’s Architecture

Migrating to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is not a one-size-fits-all decision. Every organization starts from different platforms like VMware, containers, legacy systems, databases, VDI, or specialized workloads, and each has unique modernization priorities. The journey often begins with a pragmatic starting point, such as OCVS for rapid lift-and-shift or OKE for containerized workloads, and evolves over phases toward optimized, cloud-native architectures. This roadmap illustrates how diverse workload types can progress from their current environments to their optimal future state on OCI, delivering cost efficiency, agility, operational simplicity, and deeper integration with OCI’s native and managed services.

Why OCI Native VMs Should Be Your Default

OCI native VMs offer a compelling starting point for most workload types:

Flexible Compute Choices

• Mix-and-match CPU, memory, GPU
• Reconfigure shapes without VM rebuilds
• Bare Metal options for maximum control

Seamless Integration

• Works with Block Storage, Autonomous DB, Load Balancer, IAM, Monitoring, Sevurity, etc.
• Tight alignment with OCI ecosystem and DevOps tooling.
• Extending the application landscape to leverage OCI GenAI services.

Global Availability & Edge Reach

• Available across global OCI regions
• Supports Cloud@Customer, Alloy, Dedicated Region.

Modernization-Ready

• Run legacy apps today → containerize tomorrow
• Integrates easily with OKE or OpenShift
• Supports observability, automation, and IaC

Cost Optimization

• Per-second billing
• BYOL support with automated license tracking

Lower operational burden compared to running your own hypervisors

When to Use Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

Use OCVS when you:

• Need a fast lift-and-shift with zero refactoring
• Rely heavily on NSX, vSAN, or vSphere tooling
• Have legacy OS versions or custom ISV appliances
• Want to maintain VMware operational continuity before gradually modernizing

OCVS provides a bridge, helping you move quickly now while building toward OCI-native or containerized platforms later.

OpenShift Virtualization: The Hybrid Path

For teams modernizing toward cloud-native stacks but still dependent on some legacy VMs:

• Run VMs and containers side-by-side in OpenShift
• Leverage GitOps, CI/CD, and automation pipelines
• Perfect for DevOps teams wanting full lifecycle control over legacy + new workloads

Container-Ready? Go with OKE or OpenShift

When your applications are containerized or in the process of being refactored:

Workload-to-Platform Decision Matrix

 Best Fit

 Not Applicable or Not Recommended

 Possibly suitable with conditions (refactoring, containerization, etc.)

Use Cases and Targeted Platform:

Conclusion: Think Beyond Lift-and-Shift

Choosing the right platform on Oracle Cloud is more than just rehosting — it’s about architecting for the future.

• Use OCI Native VMs as your modernization foundation
• Use OCVS where VMware continuity is critical
• Use OKE or OpenShift when you’re ready for container-native evolution

Beyond technology choices, CTOs increasingly weigh broader business and operational factors:

• Cloud economics – reduce TCO through efficient resource utilization and pay-as-you-go models.
• Ease of management – leverage managed OCI services to simplify operations.
• Portability – ensure workloads are not trapped in proprietary formats.
• Avoiding vendor lock-in – maintain flexibility to evolve your architecture.
• Ease of scaling – quickly adapt to changing demands.
• Smaller, more efficient teams – reduce operational overhead through automation.

VMware-based solutions often struggle in these areas, making OCI’s native and cloud-native platforms a more future-ready choice.

Cloud transformation is not a single event — it’s a strategic journey. The most successful organizations continuously evolve their platforms, ensuring each step aligns with business goals, performance needs, and long-term agility.

Additional Resources

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 

Oracle Kubernetes Engine(OKE) 

OpenShift on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

OCI Cloud Economics

OpenShift Virtualization on Oracle Cloud

Oracle Cloud VMware Solution