Okestro Leverages VMware Shift to Push AI Infrastructure

Okestro, a South Korean cloud infrastructure provider, reported a 99.5 percent year-over-year increase in winback revenue for the first half of the year. This surge is directly linked to Broadcom’s recent changes to VMware licensing policies, which have forced many enterprises to seek alternative virtualization solutions. The company has successfully doubled its winback customer base during this period, capitalizing on the immediate demand for stable replacements to existing systems.

Beyond the initial migration, Okestro is positioning itself as a provider of full-stack software that supports containers, hybrid cloud environments, and AI inference. The strategy aims to retain customers by offering expanded infrastructure capabilities rather than just a one-time swap of virtualization software. Financial sector revenue saw a particularly sharp rise of 216 percent, while private sector revenue, including manufacturing, expanded approximately fifteen times.

Shifting Focus Beyond Virtualization

The criteria for selecting virtualization solutions have evolved significantly since the licensing overhaul. Initially, enterprises focused on verifying performance and stability through benchmark tests and proof-of-concept exercises. However, the priority has shifted toward the ability to flexibly expand infrastructure after the initial migration. Companies now look for providers who can support not just replacement virtual machines, but also subsequent needs such as containers and graphics processing units.

Okestro has been involved in these evaluation processes for public, financial, and private sector customers since the early stages of the demand wave. The company is now leveraging this experience to guide customers from basic virtualization to more advanced cloud-native and AI infrastructure. This approach allows enterprises to integrate diverse technologies into a cohesive operational framework, addressing both immediate replacement needs and long-term expansion goals.

Integrating Advanced Infrastructure Components

To support this expansion, Okestro offers a suite of self-developed tools that connect different layers of infrastructure. For instance, more than 60 percent of customers using the company's server virtualization solution have subsequently added container management or cloud management platforms. In the financial sector, clients have used these tools to build container environments and integrate virtualization with cloud resources, creating a unified management layer.

The company also provides DevOps solutions to automate development and deployment processes, which are critical for modern software delivery. By linking AI inference operations platforms with GPU resources and AI models, Okestro enables enterprises to extend their infrastructure into a unified operating framework. This integration allows for smoother management of complex workloads that span multiple technology stacks.

Strategic Growth Through AI Expansion

The foundation of this strategy is Okestro's full-stack AI infrastructure software, which combines virtualization, cloud-native, and DevOps solutions tailored to each customer's specific configuration. The company plans to continue responding to virtualization migration demand while simultaneously expanding its cloud-native and AI businesses. This dual approach leverages the customer base and deployment experience gained in the winback market to drive broader adoption of its advanced technologies.

Kim Beom-jae, CEO of Okestro, noted that the key question has shifted from whether VMware can be reliably replaced to how infrastructure will be expanded after migration. By providing proven virtualization capabilities alongside AI infrastructure tools, Okestro aims to give customers the flexibility to decide which technologies to adopt and when. This strategy positions the company as a key partner in the ongoing transformation of enterprise IT landscapes.