Licensing shifts dictate architecture.
Migrating off VMware means more than swapping hypervisors. It involves storage re-architecture, staffing, backup compatibility, and rollback plans.
Mr.PlanB: Build the Plan B before your stack forces one on you.
11 Ledgers that score infrastructure software from public records. No vendor pays for a place.
--:-- Warsaw · Board 1 of 4Now boarding · independent reviews
320 cores Broadcom bills for a 304-core VMware estate, from a sample run of 140 VMs. Run the free VMware Exit Planner →
--:-- Warsaw · Board 2 of 4Delayed · renewal quote
The 3-2-1-1-0 rule: three copies, two media, one off site, one offline or immutable, zero errors after verification. Check yours in ten questions →
--:-- Warsaw · Board 3 of 4On time · if you tested the restore
Which Plan B is yours?
Open the Ledgers--:-- Warsaw · Board 4 of 4
Departures: Ledgers scored from public records
| No. | Destination | Remarks | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | VM Platforms | Fifteen virtualization platforms scored on capability since 2015, credibility, buyer risk, lock-in and AI, using public release records only. | Board → |
| 02 | Open-Source Backup | Sixteen open-source backup projects scored on capability since 2016, credibility, sustainability, lock-in and support, from public records only. | Board → |
| 03 | Enterprise Backup | Seventeen enterprise backup vendors scored on capability since 2016, credibility, commercial risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 04 | Monitoring | Twenty self-hostable monitoring platforms scored on capability since 2016, credibility, risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 05 | Cloud Kubernetes | EKS, AKS, GKE and 17 more managed Kubernetes services scored on capability, version lag, credibility, risk and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 06 | On-Prem Kubernetes | OpenShift, Rancher, Tanzu, NKP and 16 more on-prem Kubernetes distributions scored on capability, version lag, risk and AI, from public records. | Board → |
| 07 | Automation | Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, Ansible, Puppet, Chef, Salt and 22 more infrastructure automation tools scored on capability since 2015, credibility, commercial risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 08 | Enterprise Linux | RHEL, SLES, Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle Linux and nine more server distributions scored on capability since 2015, credibility, commercial risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 09 | Virtualization Storage | vSAN, Nutanix AOS, Storage Spaces Direct, Ceph, StarWind, DataCore, LINSTOR, PowerFlex and more shared storage platforms for VM clusters scored on capability since 2015, credibility, risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 10 | Firewalls | OPNsense, pfSense, VyOS, OpenWrt, MikroTik, FortiGate, Palo Alto, Check Point and ten more firewall and router platforms scored on capability since 2015, credibility, risk, lock-in, security record and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
| 11 | Object Storage | MinIO, Ceph RGW, SeaweedFS, RustFS, Scality, Cloudian, StorageGRID, ObjectScale and 15 more S3-compatible object storage products scored on capability since 2015, credibility, risk, lock-in and AI, from public records only. | Board → |
Free tools no sign-up
| No. | Tool | Remarks | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Hypervisor Advisor | Which hypervisor is best for me? Enter your workloads, get a ranked shortlist, topology and steps as a short video. | Run → |
| 02 | Monitoring Advisor | Which monitoring tool is best for me? Enter what you monitor, get a ranked shortlist, setup and steps as a short video. | Run → |
| 03 | Cloud Kubernetes Advisor | Which managed Kubernetes service is best for me? Enter clusters, nodes and needs, get a ranked shortlist, setup and steps as a short video. | Run → |
| 04 | Infrastructure Fact Checker | Is that licensing, backup or Kubernetes claim true? Get a % true score with the true and false parts marked and sourced. | Run → |
| 05 | VMware Exit Planner | Upload an RVTools export. Get Broadcom core counts, licence estimates against eight alternatives, migration waves and blockers. | Run → |
| 06 | VMware to KubeVirt Readiness | Upload RVTools, see which VMs can move to OpenShift Virtualization, Harvester or KubeVirt, the node count and a phased plan. | Run → |
| 07 | Kubernetes Backup Audit | Paste your Velero schedules, backups and PVCs. Get a 0 to 100 score, the coverage gaps with the exact fix, and a restore test plan. | Run → |
| 08 | Backup Runbook Generator | Answer ten questions and get a backup policy, a 3-2-1-1-0 check, a schedule, a storage estimate and config snippets for your tools. | Run → |
| 09 | Software Directory | Every product from our Ledgers with scores, pros and cons, alternatives and anonymous user reviews. | Run → |
| 10 | Backup Advisor | Describe your systems in one sentence and get a backup plan as a short animated video. | Run → |
The Challenge
Infrastructure gets painful when you only find the edge cases in production.
Teams hit the same wall over and over: hidden licensing price hikes, complex storage gotchas, and fragile automation scripts that break during maintenance. Mr.PlanB gives you the practical runbooks to avoid those traps.
Storage decisions dictate restore speed.
Judge ZFS, Ceph, and PBS by how quickly you can recover when disks fail. Synthetic IOPS benchmarks alone are not enough.
Automation without guardrails creates chaos.
Helper scripts are only useful when you know exactly what they do under the hood and how to recover when something fails.
Scroll walk-through
Move down the rack and watch the operator workflow come into focus.
This section maps the site like a corridor inside a live data hall: you move from detection to recovery, and the module in the center of the screen shows its details.
Module 01
Detect
Monitoring breakpoints, cluster health signals, and the operational blind spots teams miss under pressure.
Signal: 24/7 operator lensWalk-through0%
Core Tracks
Five operational tracks to keep your infrastructure resilient and recoverable.
01
Detect
Spot weak links before the incident review writes the story for you.
Signal: 24/7 operator lensExplore track
02
Model
Map the trade-offs around VMware, Kubernetes, storage, and platform choices.
Signal: decision-ready comparisonsExplore track
03
Migrate
Turn escape plans into staged moves that a real team can actually execute.
Signal: platform changeoversExplore track
04
Automate
Make infrastructure repeatable so your team does not improvise on production day.
Signal: repeatable workflowsExplore track
05
Recover
Design backup, restore, and storage systems around how recovery actually goes.
Signal: recovery-first designExplore track
The Difference
How Mr.PlanB compares to vendor whitepapers and scattered forums.
DimensionVendor / Forum TakesMr.PlanB Practical Guides
Problem framingGeneric SaaS marketing copy and scattered forum threads.Advice grounded in real outages, hard constraints, and recovery windows.
Migration guidanceOversimplified one-click checklists that ignore production edge cases.Pragmatic, staged migration roadmaps that account for rollback safety and downtime limits.
Storage decisionsFeature checklists disconnected from real restore stress.Recovery-first trade-offs comparing ZFS, Ceph, and backup appliances under real workloads.
Automation adviceCopy-pasted snippets with zero context on failure modes.Idempotent, readable automation patterns your team can safely maintain.
Learning curveImpenetrable vendor manuals or shallow surface tutorials.Conversational guides that respect your time and stay technically precise.
Signals
Clear, focused guidance.
hands-on tracks
from early detection through full disaster recovery
languages
English, German, and Dutch documentation
planners
interactive health checks and migration calculators
direct contact
reach out directly when your team needs a second pair of eyes
Real Scenarios
Six common infrastructure challenges we help you solve.
VMware exit planning
Clear, step-by-step migration roadmaps that account for licensing price shocks, tooling gaps, and cutover risk.
Proxmox cluster design
Build resilient, production-ready storage, networking, and high availability without falling into homelab traps.
Kubernetes reality checks
Sort through cloud-native complexity to find what makes sense for your team and workloads.
Backup & disaster recovery
Design storage and retention around actual restore speed and recovery point objectives.
Monitoring & observability
Replace noisy, fragmented alert dashboards with actionable signals that wake you up only when it matters.
Team runbooks & onboarding
Document practical architecture patterns so new engineers can operate the stack without inheriting panic rituals.
Access & Advisory
Choose how you want to work with Mr.PlanB.
Field Notes
FreeIn-depth guides, benchmark comparisons, and practical tutorials.
- Unrestricted access to all articles and guides
- Architectural comparisons for Proxmox, K8s, and storage
- Direct, practitioner-focused writeups
Operator Tools
Free BetaInteractive planners to evaluate your current setup and migration paths.
- Proxmox Cluster Health Check
- Stepwise VMware migration planner
- Actionable checklists and exportable roadmaps
Advisory & Help
CustomDirect advisory when your team needs an experienced second opinion.
- Architecture reviews and migration sanity checks
- High-risk storage cutover planning
- Direct escalation when you need a real Plan B
Get Started
When your infrastructure gets messy, the next best move should feel clear.
Explore our in-depth guides, test your cluster with our planning tools, or reach out directly when you need an extra set of experienced hands.
