Why do we organize this event?

Virtualisation is at the heart of modern IT infrastructure - but the landscape is shifting. Rising licensing costs and growing concerns about vendor lock-in are prompting IT teams to look beyond the familiar names.

Enter Proxmox VE, a complete, open-source server management platform for enterprise virtualization. It is rapidly gaining popularity in Belgium for its cost-effectiveness (no licensing fees), and it provides enterprise-grade, high-availability clustering and software-defined storage for organisations of all sizes.

This session will go beyond the obligatory explanation of what Proxmox is, how it works in practice, and where it fits in a professional IT environment. It will focus on migration from VMware to Proxmox, giving practical tips for a successful migration. 

This meetup brings together IT professionals, sysadmins, security students and professionals, software developers, architects, and everybody who is curious about the future of virtualisation. 

This is a knowledge event - no sales pitch, just honest insight from people who work with it daily. At Howest, we also teach it to our students, and it is a cornerstone of our educational infrastructure. 

Free to attend. Seats are limited but registration is required.

Programme (19:00 - 20:30h)

19:00 - Welcome & introductions (by Thierry Cornette, Head of business development, Mind OSS)

19:05 - What is Proxmox VE? (by Jasper Nuyens, CEO Linux Belgium)

• A clear, technical introduction to the platform: its open-source roots, the web-based management interface, ...
• How it compares to VMware and Hyper-V at a conceptual level.
• Proxmox demonstration
• No marketing - just what it is and how it's built

• A tour of the features that make Proxmox stand out in a professional context:

  • Integrated clustering and live migration

  • High availability without complexity

  • Built-in backup with Proxmox Backup Server or Bareos

  • Storage backend considerations: Ceph, ZFS, NFS, iSCSI, choosing the right backend for the workload
  • The subscription model vs. the free community version

19:25 - From VMWare to Proxmox (Jasper Nuyens)

• Migration strategy: phased approach, VM classification tiers, wave-based execution (Dev → Test → Acc → Prod), application owner validation
• Migration of Windows VMs: VirtIO driver pre-staging, activation/licensing pitfalls, legacy versions (Server 2008 and older)
• Migration of Linux VMs: initramfs rebuild, interface renaming, device paths, legacy versions

19:40 - What can organisations do with this? Concrete use case from the field 

20:00 - Considerations before you start (Jasper Nuyens)

Honest reflections on what to think about before adopting Proxmox: hardware requirements, the learning curve, community vs. enterprise support, and how to assess if it fits your context. HA practices: vSphere HA/DRS vs Proxmox HA, differences, what translates and what doesn't. 

20:15 - Open Q&A Questions from the audience, open discussion

20:25 - Closing & informal networking

Wrap-up and opportunity to continue conversations over a drink.

Speakers:

Jasper Nuyens is Founder and CEO of Linux Belgium. Linux Belgium is dedicated to empowering organizations with the resources they need to make the most of Linux.

Thierry Cornette is Head of business development at Mind OSS. Mind provides services, as well as support and training in the field of Linux, Cyber Security and (free) open-source software for embedded systems.

OpenSource-Enterprise.com is a joint initiative by Linux Belgium and Mind OSS, focused on bringing structured support, education and consultancy for open source software into the enterprise market.