mCloud Migration

Important Announcement for existing VMware customers (VCS & VDC)

This is an important announcement for all existing customers using our VMware cloud platform. This includes our VMware Cloud Servers (VCS) and Virtual Data Centre (VDC) solutions. As you may be aware from previous newsletters or from updates on our website, Micron21 built a new virtual cloud platform called mCloud.

Previously, we’ve relied on VMware as a key part of our services.  But as licensing costs skyrocketed post-acquisition and customer satisfaction decreased globally (56% of organisations plan to reduce VMware use), we knew continuing down this road wasn’t sustainable. 

VMware, especially with hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), is a world leader. After evaluating many alternate hypervisors, both open source and commercial, we found that OpenStack and Ceph provided the greatest flexibility, control, cost effective infrastructure and the most resilience.

Micron21 has been carrying the increased costs of VMware as we have developed our mCloud platform, performed rigorous testing, converted VMware virtual machines to mCloud, and deployed mCloud into production for new customers or new environments. In anticipation of further VMware price increases, Micron21 is now in a position to commence migrations of existing customers to mCloud. This will be a mandatory migration of all customers on this platform to mCloud. Migration details have been provided below.

What mCloud means for you

1. Lower Costs, Same Great Service  

With mCloud, you’ll enjoy the same exceptional functionality without any surprise price hikes.  By moving away from expensive VMware licenses, we’ve significantly reduced future operating costs - ensuring our platform remains both competitive and affordable.  As noted, Micron21 has absorbed substantial price increases from our customers. This means that we are able to maintain customers current pricing or thereabouts. Due to the nature of the mCloud solution, customers are moved to the closest plan of equivalence. In many cases, this results in extra resources (CPU, RAM, Disk) becoming available for customer use. 

2. High Performance Infrastructure

mCloud utilises high-speed Intel Xeon Gold compute, NVMe SSD storage, and 100Gbps networking.

3. Self-Service Portal  

mCloud introduces a fully self-service portal to give you direct control.  From resource scaling to managing backend settings, you’ll have the power to make changes in real time when you need to.  

4. Improved Networking & Firewall Management  

You can configure your software defined network and fine-tune firewall rules directly from the dashboard, so you no longer have to rely on third-party interface.  However, if you still prefer a managed firewall, we’ve got that option too.

5. Unmatched Flexibility, Availability and Performance  

mCloud supports multiple cloud formats (public, private, and hybrid) allowing you to align resources with your specific operational needs.  You even bring your own hardware and gain the power of a cluster, a unique model to Micron21.  The platform comes packed with features like high-speed NVMe storage tiers, software defined networking, multiple availability zones.  In fact, we’ve built Australia’s first operational stretch cluster spanning three data centres and the first public cloud capable of doing so. 

6. Strengthening Security Standards  

Security is baked into mCloud at every level.  The platform operates under strict ISO certifications (27001 / 27002 / 27017 / 27018 standards), is IRAP-assessed, and provides data sovereignty assurances.  Plus, we’ve integrated our world-class DDoS protection, so you’re safeguarded from cyberthreats (base level protection).  

Migration Process

Micron21 will be performing the migration using the following process:

  1. Notify customers of the proposed migration dates & times.
  2. Perform a pre-stage migration of your VM from VMware to mCloud. This occurs while your VM is running using snapshot technology, resulting in zero. modification or impact to your VMware VM.
  3. At the allocated time, a cutover migration is performed which powers down the VMware VM and finalises its migration to mCloud. This requires an outage window of at least 30 minutes, but in some cases it can run longer.
  4. The existing IP address is ported to mCloud.
  5. The new mCloud virtual machine is started and testing is performed.
  6. In the event of an issue, the mCloud VM is stopped and the old VMware VM is started with its original IP address.

Micron21 plan to commence moving VMs off the VMware platform from Monday 22nd December, 2025 and will continue migrations over the coming months.

All customers will receive direct correspondence from the Support team in regards to their migration dates, but please treat these initial dates as indicative, as some rescheduling of customers may be required.

If you have any questions on the contents of this announcement, your migration to mCloud, or the platform in general, please do not hesitate to contact our Support team: support@micron21.com.

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