Many IT teams are watching the unfolding VMware situation and feeling that it looks less like change and more like a reckoning. Enterprises are facing steep licensing changes, skyrocketing costs, and a creeping sense that control is slipping away. Organizations have thousands of virtualized hosts that need to find a new home.
That’s why we built vJailbreak, to give IT teams a fast, low-risk way to escape the VMware ecosystem and move to Platform9’s scalable private cloud platform. And now, we’ve taken it a step further.
Introducing Full Cluster, In-Place Migrations, No Swing Gear Required
With our latest release, vJailbreak becomes the first migration tool in the industry capable of performing in-place, full cluster conversions from VMware vSphere to Platform9 Private Cloud Director.
What doesn’t happen:
- No lift-and-shift replatforming
- No disruptive downtime
- No expensive “swing” hardware
Instead, vJailbreak orchestrates a rolling host migration process: VMs are drained to spare capacity, each node is converted in-place, and rejoined to your Platform9-managed cluster—all while services stay online.
What does happen:
- Minimal VM outage.
- Your infrastructure stays intact.
- Your team stays sane.
And when you’re done, you’re not just off VMware—you’re on a modern, open platform built for the next decade of IT.
What’s New in vJailbreak
Here’s what we’re delivering in this release:
In-Place Cluster Conversions
Transform entire VMware clusters node-by-node, using the gear you already have. You no longer need swing space to migrate, or suffer through outages. vJailbreak temporarily relocated your VM then converts your ESXi server to a Private Cloud Director server automatically.
Warm Migrations
VMs stay live during migration. vJailbreak moves each VM to spare capacity, redirects users, and gracefully shuts down the original; minimal disruption, minimal downtime..
Fine-Grained Control
You can apply as much or as little automation to the process as you want. The whole process can be automated, or you can set migration windows, isolate and even remap networking and storage during the migration.
It’s All About Conversion
If your team has decided to migrate off VMware—or maybe it’s been decided for you—the daunting task ahead is to convert your virtualization stack into… something else. Something that runs. Something that works. You need a solution that lets you migrate without business disruption, and that’s a monumental ask.
This release of vJailbreak makes it easy to convert running instances from VMware to Private Cloud Director, with built-in controls and validation to ensure a smooth, interruption-free transition. During migration, vJailbreak dynamically maps each VM’s network and storage, preserving connectivity and data integrity. The migration workflow is designed to be intuitive and flexible—giving you visibility and control at every step. Here’s what it looks like in action:
[Caption: “Figure1: vJailbreak Migration form – Select source and destination clusters, choose which VMs to migrate, and map networks and storage with full visibility. Fine-grained controls let you assign flavors, remap interfaces, and track progress in real time.”]
But this isn’t just about migrating VMs—it’s about repurposing your entire infrastructure. With Cluster Migration, vJailbreak moves beyond individual workloads and converts entire ESXi servers to Private Cloud Director hosts, all without requiring swing gear. It safely relocates active VMs in the cluster and reimages the ESXi host as a Private Cloud Director host. Then VMs are shut down, converted to work in the Private Cloud Director ecosystems, and then migrated—reusing the hardware you already have in place. The diagram below shows how vJailbreak orchestrates rolling cluster migration. Each ESXi host is drained, converted, and brought back online under Private Cloud Director—with all VMs preserved and repositioned automatically.
[Caption: “Figure2: Cluster Migration Workflow — vJailbreak relocates VMs from each ESXi host, converts the host to a Private Cloud Director hypervisor, then returns VMs to the newly converted node. This rolling process continues until the entire cluster is modernized—without requiring swing gear or downtime.”]
Industry-Validated, Not Just Marketed
Don’t just take our word for it. Independent analyst firm PivotNine ran real-world migration tests and came away impressed:
“We were surprised by just how quickly the development of features is progressing… the effort and risk have been reduced so substantially that a migration business case can be justified for a much wider range of environments than other alternatives.”
Their full report dives deep into the vJailbreak experience and the kinds of workloads it supports — from self-contained apps to 3-tier systems with external storage to raw device mappings. Spoiler: it’s faster and easier than you think.
Ready to Break Free?
If you’re ready to say goodbye to VMware complexity (and pricing), it’s time to meet the new vJailbreak.
