Many hospitals are exploring domestic alternatives to VMware virtualization (ESXi/vSphere), vSAN, and even full-stack infrastructure. As a sector critical to public welfare, hospitals place particularly high expectations on alternative solutions in terms of supporting key business operations, stability, security, and migration reliability.
- The alternative solution should provide comparable capabilities to VMware in virtualization and storage features.
- Since hospital operations run 24/7, the solution must deliver efficient and stable infrastructure support for core clinical systems—including HIS, EMR, LIS, PACS, integration platforms, and their associated databases.
- With hospital data centers divided into internal and external network zones, the solution should provide comprehensive data protection that meets the computing, storage, and network security requirements of each zone.
- Migrating VMs from VMware to a new platform should be reliable and stable, ensuring that the transition does not disrupt hospital operations.
As a competitive full-stack alternative to VMware, SmartX Enterprise Cloud Platform (ECP) offers four solutions that allow healthcare institutions to replace VMware vSphere, vSAN, Tanzu, NSX, and other components at their own pace, achieving cost reduction and efficiency gains.
To date, SmartX has helped hospitals of all types and scales across the country shift from VMware to SmartX ECP. These replacements include VMware virtualization, vSAN, and full-stack data center infrastructure, supporting a variety of application scenarios such as core clinical systems, databases, disaster recovery, Dev/Test, and DMZ environments. Below, we will share 15 hospitals’ VMware replacement stories.
VMware Virtualization Replacement
Many hospitals have now adopted the SmartX native Hypervisor – ELF to replace VMware virtualization, supporting core clinical systems and databases, including HIS, EMR, LIS, PACS, and integration platforms. This approach not only reduces virtualization licensing costs but also modernizes IT infrastructure.
The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University
As one of the earliest Modern Medicine hospitals in China, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University originally relied on blade servers and physical machines to support its core hospital systems and databases. However, with rapidly growing business demands, the hospital faced challenges such as limited data center space, lack of scalability, and high infrastructure costs.
Since 2018, the hospital has adopted the SmartX ECP, building a heterogeneous ECP cluster using servers from multiple vendors. In the initial construction phase, the hospital chose to deploy SmartX ECP integrated with VMware virtualization, which supported legacy systems such as PACS at the old campus.
After years of stable operation, the hospital validated SmartX ECP‘s capabilities as a VMware alternative in the production environment. As a result, when constructing the new campus, the hospital decided to use SmartX native Hypervisor – ELF to build a new cluster, supporting business systems such as ERP and HIS middleware, and successfully transitioning from VMware virtualization to domestic virtualization.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University
As a century-old institution founded in 1910, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University initially relied on a traditional infrastructure of physical servers or VMware virtualization combined with all-flash active-active storage to support its core hospital applications. However, as healthcare IT systems rapidly evolved and expanded, the hospital faced challenges such as limited data center space and the fast-growing number of VMs.
Starting in 2018, the hospital adopted HCI as the core strategy for its IT modernization. Leveraging the SmartX ECP, the hospital gradually deployed over 300 VMs to support a wide range of application systems, including the ESB integration platform, PACS, HIS, critical care systems, internet hospital, as well as administrative, research, and teaching applications. This transformation significantly enhanced the hospital’s cloud capabilities and clinical service efficiency.
>>More Resources: The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University IT Infrastructure Transformation of a Top Comprehensive Hospital
Xuanwu Hospital of the Capital Medical University
Xuanwu Hospital of the Capital Medical University is a Grade 3A (top-tier) general hospital specializing in neuroscience and geriatrics. Considering the needs for digital transformation, horizontal scalability, system stability, and the requirement of domestic technology adoption, the hospital introduced SmartX ECP (with ELF) to gradually replace its existing VMware virtualization clusters.
SmartX ECP clusters now support critical systems, including the standby HIS database, IIH infrastructure (Redis), PACS front-end, anesthesia management, and data quality monitoring. Notably, DR for the HIS database is achieved through Oracle ADG, ensuring protection for the primary database appliance. The ECP cluster has been running stably for over three years, and the hospital reports high satisfaction with SmartX’s professional and responsive support services.
>>More Resources: Xuanwu Hospital: Leveraging HCI to Support Critical Systems and Accelerate Digital Transformation
Beijing Jishuitan Hospital
The main campus of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital had long relied on a traditional infrastructure of physical servers or VMware virtualization combined with centralized storage to support its core clinical systems and databases. With the launch of new services at its new campus, the hospital aimed to introduce a domestic virtualization solution and explore the feasibility of replacing VMware.
After thorough validation, it chose the SMTX Halo Appliance (with ELF) to host its Internet medical services in the DMZ, including online consultation, registration, and video diagnosis. The infrastructure has since been expanded multiple times to accommodate the hospital’s full range of business systems.
This VMware replacement not only reduced virtualization licensing costs but also enabled a distributed transformation of hospital IT infrastructure, laying a solid foundation for future innovation and rapid service deployment.
Zigong First People’s Hospital
As a pilot institution for IT Application Innovation (ITAI) in Sichuan Province, Zigong First People’s Hospital faced two major challenges in transforming its traditional VMware virtualization architecture: the “choke point” of FC SAN switches ITAI transformation and high hardware costs.
To achieve its ITAI goals while minimizing transformation expenses, the hospital adopted a “cloud-native + domestic HCI” approach. It first containerized applications on the openEuler operating system, then deployed SmartX ECP (with SMTX Kubernetes Service) on Hygon C86 servers. This unified platform manages both containerized applications, such as HIS and EMR, and databases running in the virtualized environment. The transformation not only enabled a full domestic replacement of the infrastructure but also doubled resource utilization and network efficiency.
>>More Resources: From VMware to SmartX ECP: The Cloud Native Journey of Zigong First People’s Hospital
Yulin Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Yulin Hospital of TCM originally ran its hospital-wide systems on a traditional architecture built on VMware virtualization. During the construction of the new campus data center, the hospital aimed to adopt a domestic virtualization solution to avoid the high costs of VMware virtualization.
Ultimately, the hospital chose to deploy SmartX ECP in both internal and external network zones, providing stable support for all clinical systems, including HIS, EMR, HRP, Rational Drug Use, and OA, as well as multiple Oracle RAC databases for the HIS system.
The solution also effectively reused existing servers and integrated them under unified management, reducing construction costs while simplifying O&M.
>>More Resources: Reuse Existing Devices with SmartX HCI: 4 Customers Achieve IT Infra Transformation at a Lower Cost
Lezhi Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Lezhi Hospital of TCM originally relied on a VMware virtualization combined with centralized storage to run its core hospital systems. In light of the risks associated with VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom, the hospital began exploring domestic alternatives.
After an extensive evaluation, the hospital ultimately deployed SmartX ECP active-active clusters in its data center as the core foundation of its private cloud. It now supports nearly all core application systems and databases, including HIS, EMR, the integration platform, and PACS. It also supports the new operating system for coordinate software, Anolis OS 8. The hospital utilized SMTX Migration Tool to smoothly migrate workloads from the legacy VMware environment.
By unifying virtualization, storage, and networking through the SmartX ECP, the hospital has significantly improved infrastructure reliability and data security.
Top-Tier Military Hospital
A top-tier military hospital originally adopted a Nutanix HCI solution (paired with VMware virtualization) to support its internal network application systems. However, as Nutanix adjusted its service strategy in China, the hospital began experiencing frequent delays in IT support.
With the maintenance service for the Nutanix cluster also nearing expiration, concerns about service gaps impacting business continuity and IT operational efficiency prompted the hospital to replace the Nutanix cluster with ELF-based SmartX ECP. The new SmartX ECP cluster now supports part of the internal network applications as well as the newly launched outpatient service systems. VMs hosting internal services were efficiently migrated to the SMTX OS cluster using the SMTX Migration Tool, with the hospital IT team completing the migration independently in a simple and streamlined process.
>>More Resources: SmartX vs Nutanix: Product and Performance Comparison, Migration Approaches and Use Cases
Xinjiang Changji People’s Hospital
Xinjiang Changji People’s Hospital previously relied on physical servers and VMware virtualization combined with centralized storage to support its clinical systems. However, as the infrastructure aged, both computing and storage resources were nearing exhaustion. Even with expansion, the hospital would still face high VMware licensing fees and costly storage hardware investments. To address these challenges, the hospital sought to adopt a new HCI solution capable of taking over workloads from both VMware and physical servers, eliminating storage single-point failure, and achieving greater cost efficiency across its IT environment.
With the help of SMTX Migration Tool, the hospital successfully migrated its VMware VMs to the SmartX native virtualization platform. The new setup, built on a three-node SmartX ECP cluster, now supports all major business systems except PACS, including the HIS application and databases (cache database in primary-standby mode), EMR, LIS, and the integration platform. The system has been running stably for over a year, fully demonstrating ELF’s capability as a VMware alternative.
vSAN and Full-Stack Replacement
An increasing number of healthcare institutions are using SmartX ECP to replace VMware virtualization and vSAN, while integrating Everoute, SMTX Backup & Disaster Recovery, and SMTX Kubernetes Service (SKS) to achieve full-stack domestic infrastructure.
A Provincial People’s Hospital
A provincial people’s hospital initially relied on VMware virtualization and vSAN to support its healthcare service systems. As a provincial pilot for healthcare ITAI, the hospital planned to adopt a domestic solution and realize the IT localization and VMware replacement at the same time.
After an extensive evaluation, the hospital deployed a SmartX ECP cluster based on Hygon servers to run its OA management platform along with several newly developed application systems, including an epidemiological investigation platform, a privacy computing platform, a standardized oncology platform, and so on.
During the migration process, the hospital used both SMTX CloudMove and SMTX Migration Tool, selecting the appropriate tool based on the needs of each workload, to smoothly migrate services from multiple virtualization platforms to the new SmartX ECP cluster.
After approximately one year of stable operation, the hospital has decided to further expand the SmartX cluster to support additional application systems.
A Provincial Top-Tier Hospital
A provincial top-tier hospital previously built its IT infrastructure using VMware virtualization with vSAN and Horizon, as well as Nutanix HCI. However, with the ongoing ITAI initiative, the hospital aimed to adopt domestic solutions to support its integration platform and virtual desktop environment for the new campus.
After evaluating product stability and reliability, the hospital chose SmartX ECP to replace vSAN, enabling a unified architecture that supports dual virtualization platforms and advances its ITAI:
- Built a SmartX ECP cluster based on SmartX native hypervisor – ELF and Kunpeng-CPU servers. The hospital also adopted SKS to host containerized applications, achieving unified management across virtualization and container environments.
- Deployed SmartX ECP clusters integrated with vSphere, supporting the hospital-wide integration platform and the new campus VDI systems. Both ELF and vSphere clusters are centrally managed through CloudTower for unified operations and management.
Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University
Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University had long relied on VMware vSphere and vSAN to support its core IT systems. However, in light of the risks introduced by VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom and the growing demand for IT localization, the hospital urgently needed a stable, autonomous, and controllable alternative solution. The solution also needed to support unified management across multiple campuses and enable seamless business migration.
After a thorough evaluation, the hospital selected SmartX ECP (with ELF) and deployed it on domestic servers. Using the SMTX Migration Tool, the hospital successfully migrated over 40 VMware VMs in the production environment—including application systems for anesthesia, financial services, and more—to SmartX ECP without any service interruption. To further enhance data protection, the hospital also deployed Everoute distributed firewall and SMTX Backup & DR.
Through proof-of-concept (POC) testing, the hospital verified that the performance and stability of the SmartX ECP platform fully meet the requirements for replacing VMware, while also reducing O&M complexity by 50% and improving business continuity.
Looking ahead, Huashan Hospital plans to reutilize eight existing vSphere servers to expand its SmartX ECP cluster in phases. With CloudTower, it will centrally manage multiple resource pools to support future business growth.
Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center
Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center previously operated its IT infrastructure mainly on VMware vSphere with vSAN and Nutanix HCI. However, following VMware’s transition to a subscription-based licensing model and the growing momentum of ITAI, the hospital aimed to gradually shift from VMware to domestic virtualization platforms, laying a solid foundation for future ITAI initiatives.
After extensive evaluation of multiple HCI solutions, the hospital selected SmartX ECP, powered by its native hypervisor – ELF, for superior performance and stability. Using the SMTX Migration Tool, the hospital has already migrated part of its VMware VMs to the SmartX ECP cluster. The SmartX technical team also supported the hospital in developing a comprehensive VMware replacement plan, assessing existing clusters, and designing a phased migration roadmap.
Moving forward, the hospital will adopt a “small-step, fast-move” approach to migrate VMs hosting core clinical systems, PACS, Dev/Test, and backup systems to SmartX ECP clusters—achieving a full domestic replacement of its VMware-based infrastructure.
Jiangsu Province Hospital on Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine
Through a two-phase project, Jiangsu Province Hospital on Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine has achieved complete replacement of VMware vSAN and vSphere.
- In the first phase, the hospital replaced the vSAN with SmartX ECP (integrated with vSphere). This cluster now runs all core business systems and databases except for the HIS. While maintaining compatibility with vSphere usage habits, SmartX’s self-developed distributed storage, ZBS, delivers higher performance and stability compared to vSAN, offering healthcare institutions a flexible alternative to VMware solutions.
- After fully validating the performance and stability of SmartX ECP, the hospital proceeded to the second phase by building active-active data centers using SmartX ECP with ELF virtualization. This new infrastructure supports all critical business systems, data warehouses, and databases—excluding only the shared HIS and EMR databases—with a high-performance, highly reliable active-active architecture. This transition not only helped the hospital reduce VMware licensing costs but also significantly enhanced the overall infrastructure reliability.
>>More Resources: Four Case Studies Disclose How to Replace vSAN and VMware HCI with SmartX HCI
Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Huzhou
The Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Huzhou had long relied on VMware virtualization with centralized storage to support its production business systems, and VMware virtualization with vSAN to run its VDI clusters.
Considering the construction plan of the new campus and the ongoing trend toward ITAI, the hospital aimed to introduce a new domestic infrastructure solution to support the new campus systems, while ensuring a smooth migration of existing systems from the old campus to the new cluster.
After learning that SmartX ECP offers vSphere-integrated deployments, the hospital conducted comprehensive evaluations of SmartX ECP as a VMware alternative solution. Based on PoC results and feedback from other provincial top-tier hospitals, the hospital found that SmartX ECP performed better—a finding further confirmed after deployment.
Currently, the hospital has built two SmartX ECP clusters (integrated with VMware virtualization) on the new campus to host all business systems except HIS. It also replaced vSAN with SmartX distributed storage for higher performance and reliability. Additionally, business systems from the old campus—both virtualized and physical—were smoothly migrated to the new SmartX ECP clusters using VMware vMotion and the SmartX P2V migration tool – CloudMove.
Learn more about the four VMware replacement solutions with SmartX ECP and feature comparisons between key components of SmartX and VMware:
Your VMware Exit Plan: Four Solutions to Consider Based on SmartX ECP
Replacing VMware vSphere with SmartX ELF: Higher Availability with Optimized Performance
Replacing VMware NSX with SmartX Everoute: Comparable Capabilities with Simpler Operations
Replacing VMware Tanzu with SmartX SKS: Streamlined Operations and Superior VM-Container Management
Three Performance Comparisons Disclose Why You Should Choose SmartX HCI as a VMware Alternative
