SUSE CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen admitted during SUSECON 2026 that his company initially underestimated the urgent demand for migrations from VMware. The response to Red Hat’s licensing changes in mid-2023 and the development of the Kubernetes platform Rancher took priority. By 2026, however, SUSE is ready to offer a migration path to those leaving VMware, provided they need to modernize beyond legacy systems, according to Van Leeuwen.
SUSE is not the most logical, like-for-like alternative to VMware. Nevertheless, since late 2023, both purported drop-in replacements and less obvious infrastructure players have been eager to attract departing customers. Broadcom’s acquisition and consolidation of VMware have caused the plans of Nutanix, HPE, Scale Computing, Proxmox, hyperscalers, and many other vendors to change significantly.
However, when Van Leeuwen began as SUSE CEO on May 1, 2023, his priority had already been clear. The locking down of the Red…
