Alinsco Insurance Completes Zero-Downtime VMware Exit with VergeOS

VergeIO, the VMware alternative for organizations seeking unified infrastructure, announced that Alinsco Insurance has completed a full migration from VMware on Dell VxRail to VergeOS across its Fort Worth headquarters and international locations.The migration occurred during normal business hours with zero downtime and no scheduled maintenance windows.

Alinsco Insurance, a TX-based auto insurance company serving millions of drivers since 2003, faced an urgent infrastructure decision when Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware created uncertainty around licensing costs and renewal timelines. After evaluating VergeOS as a contingency plan, Alinsco made it its primary platform within weeks of initial testing.

“We made VergeOS our Plan A,” said Darrin Kirby, CIO, Alinsco Insurance. “Through testing, we quickly realized VergeOS was the way forward.”

Zero-Downtime Migration During Business Hours
Alinsco’s IT team implemented a node-by-node migration strategy that maintained normal business operations throughout the project. Using VergeOS’ built-in VMware migration capabilities, the team backed up VMs to a temporary VergeOS environment, removed nodes from VxRail one at a time, installed VergeOS on each node, and then inserted them into the growing VergeOS cluster.

“All that was done during the day, with no maintenance window,” said Bryan Dore, Director of IT, Alinsco. “No one even knew that it happened.”

The company continues running on its existing VxRail hardware, with third-party maintenance from Park Place Technologies providing global coverage and 4-hour response times. Performance on the same hardware improved noticeably after migrating to VergeOS.

“That’s a huge benefit to us-being able to keep running on this older gear, which quite frankly runs faster with VergeOS than it did with VMware,” Kirby added. “Why do we need to upgrade hardware?”

Reduced Costs and Simplified Operations
In addition to eliminating VMware licensing costs, Alinsco eliminated StorMagic licensing fees at remote sites, and VergeOS networking capabilities replaced the need for separate solutions like NSX, further reducing complexity.

Alinsco implemented a multi-layered data protection strategy using VergeOS-native snapshots and replication, including hourly local snapshots, 45-day immutable snapshots, and 90-day cross-site replication between Fort Worth, TX, and Mexico.

The unified VergeOS interface streamlined daily operations. “It’s very hands-off, actually,” said Dore. “On a day-to-day basis, it’s very easy to perform tasks such as creating, cloning, or recovering a virtual machine.”

Support That Sets the Standard
Alinsco ranks VergeIO as its top vendor for support quality. Response times average under 2 minutes, with escalations resolved in 1 to 2 hours. This experience contrasts with support calls lasting over eight hours with previous vendors.

For organizations considering a similar move, Kirby offers straightforward advice: “It’s a no-brainer. I’m not really sure what anyone would be afraid of. There is just absolutely no downside. So what are you waiting for? You could actually do this tonight if you wanted to.”