Episode #13
Ep. 13 - The hypervisor Odyssey: Are you letting a good crisis go to waste?
The hypervisor landscape is changing. Licensing costs are rising. AI is reshaping enterprise IT. For many organizations, it feels like two major waves colliding at once. In this episode of Let’s Solve IT!, Matt Brown sits down with Spencer Sells, Vice President of Global Technology Alliances at NetApp, to discuss why today’s virtualization disruption shouldn’t simply be viewed as a cost crisis—it should be viewed as an opportunity. Drawing inspiration from The Odyssey, they explore how IT leaders can navigate uncertainty, make more intentional technology decisions, invest in their teams, and build platforms that will support the next decade of innovation. The conversation also examines why successful IT transformations depend as much on people as technology and why organizations that neglect training, experimentation, and culture risk falling behind. In this episode you’ll learn: Why the hypervisor disruption is about more than licensing costs How leading organizations are approaching VMware and alternative platforms Why AI and virtualization are creating simultaneous transformation challenges The importance of investing in people, not just technology How to encourage experimentation while maintaining governance Why “not making a decision” is still making a decision Practical leadership advice for IT managers navigating change Whether you’re evaluating your virtualization strategy, preparing for AI adoption, or leading an IT organization through change, this episode offers practical guidance for turning disruption into opportunity. You are not alone. Let’s Solve IT. Learn More: IT case studies | NetApp Connect with us! https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmattbrown https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencersells The hypervisor odyssey: Spencer Sells of NetApp on turning IT crisis into strategy Episode overview In this episode of "Let's Solve IT!," host Matt Brown talks with Spencer Sells, Vice President of Global Technology Alliances at NetApp, about two crises hitting IT organizations at once: the disruption in the hypervisor market following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, and the rapid rise of AI. Playing off the movie blockbuster, "The Odyssey," Matt and Spencer frame the hypervisor shift as an odyssey, with changes forced by a licensing and pricing shock rather than a genuine technology gap. Spencer argues IT leaders should not let this crisis go to waste and should instead use it to build their next platform deliberately. Throughout the conversation, Spencer Sells returns to one argument: IT platforms are enabling tools, but the people running them, described repeatedly through the metaphor of "rowing the boat," determine whether an organization succeeds through the transition. Spencer Sells advises IT leaders to budget time for staff training, address the psychological effects of change directly, and get hands-on with new technology themselves to build credibility and empathy with their teams. Spencer shares data from his customer conversations: about 20 to 25% of customers plan to stay on VMware by Broadcom and move to VCF, while about 60% are actively evaluating or blending in new hypervisor or Kubernetes platforms. Spencer cites a specific operational example: a NetApp account team planned to migrate a customer off VMware by Broadcom in a single month, a timeline Spencer says grossly underestimates the work required for staff training, networking changes, data protection, monitoring, support-level planning, and CMDB integration. Key takeaways The following points summarize the operational guidance Spencer gave for IT leaders navigating the VMware by Broadcom transition and the concurrent adoption of AI. IT organizations face two simultaneous disruptions: the hypervisor market shift caused by Broadcom's VMware acquisition and pricing changes, and the emergence of AI as a business-critical technology. About 20 to 25% of customers Spencer Sells has spoken with are staying on VMware by Broadcom and moving to VCF, judging the risk of switching too high. About 60% of customers Spencer Sells has spoken with are actively evaluating or blending in new hypervisor or Kubernetes platforms. IT leaders should treat the hypervisor disruption as an opportunity to build a platform intended to last ten to fifteen years, not just a reaction to cost increases. Migrating a critical hypervisor platform requires more than swapping licenses; it requires new skill sets, new tooling, and new integrations across networking, data protection, monitoring, and CMDB systems. One NetApp account team planned to complete a VMware by Broadcom migration in one month; Spencer Sells says this timeline underestimates the training and integration work required. Rewarding only reactive "firefighting" work while ignoring steady operational work creates a culture that produces more crises over time. Investing in staff training during a platform transition boosts morale by signaling that the organization is investing in each employee's future, not leaving them behind. Senior IT leaders should personally use new tools, such as building an MCP server, to gain credibility with their teams and better understand the challenges of the transition. Individual contributors facing pressure to learn new platforms or AI tools should treat the moment as a career opportunity rather than an obstacle. Topics and themes This episode addresses the operational, financial, and human dimensions of the current hypervisor market disruption and its overlap with AI adoption. The VMware by Broadcom acquisition: changes to product strategy, licensing, and pricing that triggered what Spencer Sells calls a "hypervisor crisis." Hypervisor and Kubernetes platform migration: the technical complexity of moving critical workloads, including differences in networking, multi-pathing, and offloads between platforms. IT staffing and skills investment: training current staff on new hypervisor, Kubernetes, or AI tools rather than treating platform changes as purely a licensing decision. IT budget constraints: flat IT budgets, reduced staffing levels, and the effect of unexpected license cost increases on planning. Organizational culture and crisis management: the risk of rewarding only reactive problem-solving over steady, proactive operations. Change management for IT teams: addressing employee anxiety about learning new platforms, including hypervisors, Kubernetes, and AI tools. Leadership behavior during technology transitions: the value of senior IT leaders gaining hands-on experience with new tools such as MCP servers. AI adoption alongside infrastructure change: the compounding effect of AI's emergence occurring at the same time as the hypervisor market disruption. Notable quotes "I understand the stress and anxiety on what may feel for many like a thankless job of keeping the lights on." (1:21) "Don't just run from something, run to something or row to something." (4:38) "It is the people themselves and how motivated they are, how supported they are, and their skillsets that allow your IT operations to do what you need it to do." (5:31) "You will not do it. You will not accomplish it. You are grossly underestimating the time required for the people aspects, the skills, the migration time, as well as the research you need for all of the other tooling." (8:05) "If you are only rewarding those people who run into the fire and you don't think about and reward the people who are just rowing regularly and keeping things going, then you are subtly creating a culture where I suspect you're going to have many more crises than you would need." (8:46) "We're going to back you. We're going to give you the time, give you the training, but you got to get your rear in gear and get moving on." (10:15) Hypervisor, VMware, Broadcom, virtualization, enterprise IT, AI, artificial intelligence, IT leadership, cloud strategy, Kubernetes, infrastructure modernization, NetApp, Spencer Sells, Matt Brown, enterprise technology, digital transformation, IT operations, technology leadership, Let’s Solve IT, platform modernization, IT strategy