Gartner published its 2026 server virtualization grid on 14 September. The placements are a clean map of who the market treats as a real VMware alternative.
- Nutanix was named a Leader and placed highest on Ability to Execute.
- Red Hat was named a Leader for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.
- HPE entered as a Challenger, less than two years after announcing a virtualization product.
- Platform9 entered as a Visionary with a 60-day migration guarantee.
- SUSE was named a Visionary, and a Visionary again in the Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure grid.
Broadcom’s VMware is reported to remain a Leader in the same report, which is the uncomfortable detail. The firm does not endorse any vendor. Use the grid to build a shortlist, then compare three-year costs on your own numbers.
Get the next one before it is old news
Independent analysis of cloud-native infrastructure, Kubernetes and data centre economics. No vendor spin.