Netcraft is an authorised Proxmox VE reseller with offices in Adelaide and Suva (Fiji). We design, build and operate Proxmox clusters for businesses across Australia and the Pacific Islands — from 3-node HCI deployments at SMBs to multi-rack production clusters running national ISP infrastructure.
Most of our Proxmox work falls into three buckets: leaving VMware behind after a Broadcom renewal shock, retiring an ageing Hyper-V environment, or building a new cluster from scratch. In each case we deliver right-sized hardware, Ceph or ZFS storage tuned to your workload, automated backup & disaster recovery, and 24×7 support backed by 30 years of Linux engineering.
We size Proxmox clusters against your actual workload — not vendor cheat-sheets. We pick the right CPUs (typically Intel Xeon for compute density), the right network fabric (10/25/100 GbE with proper redundancy), and the right storage (Ceph for HCI, ZFS for single-node, NFS or iSCSI to existing SAN). The result is a cluster that runs your real applications fast, not a synthetic benchmark.
After Broadcom’s 2024 licensing changes, many Australian businesses are evaluating alternatives. We have run dozens of vSphere migrations to Proxmox, often reusing existing servers and SANs, with zero data loss. Typical engagements move 50 to 500 VMs in scheduled waves over 4–12 weeks.
Proxmox + Ceph collapses compute, storage and networking onto the same hardware, replacing the traditional SAN/NAS layer. We have built HCI clusters from 3 to 24+ nodes, including stretched clusters across geographically separate Australian data centres for active/active disaster recovery.
Every cluster we deliver is paired with Proxmox Backup Server, configured for deduplicated incremental backups, encryption at rest, and off-site replication. We can integrate with our broader DR planning service for full RTO/RPO-driven design.
Engineer-led, hands-on training for your team — on-site at your office anywhere in Australia or the Pacific, or remote. Standard course covers cluster install, networking, storage, backup, replication and DR. Custom modules on request.
Engineers on-call 24×7 from our Adelaide and Suva (Fiji) offices for production Proxmox clusters, under our Gold and Platinum infrastructure support tiers. Business-hours tiers available for non-critical workloads.
Indicative comparison — we’ll size and price your specific environment as part of any engagement.
| Capability | Proxmox VE | VMware vSphere | Hyper-V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licence model | Open-source + paid subscription per socket | Per-core, bundled (Broadcom) | Bundled with Windows Server |
| Typical cost (per socket per year) | $ low | $$$ high | $$ medium |
| Live migration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in HA | Yes | Yes | Yes (with cluster) |
| Software-defined storage | Ceph (built-in) | vSAN (extra licence) | Storage Spaces Direct (extra) |
| Built-in backup | Proxmox Backup Server | Veeam / 3rd-party | 3rd-party |
| Web management UI | Yes (built-in) | Yes (vCenter) | Limited (Windows Admin Center) |
| REST API | Yes (full) | Yes (full) | Yes (PowerShell-first) |
| Container support | LXC built-in | VMware Tanzu (extra) | Windows containers only |
| Vendor lock-in risk | Low (open-source) | High | High (Microsoft stack) |
The Broadcom acquisition of VMware changed vSphere economics overnight. Many of our customers received renewal quotes 3 to 5 times their previous VMware bills. Proxmox VE subscriptions are a fraction of the cost and are priced per CPU socket per year: no per-core tier, no add-on licence for vSAN, no separate backup product.
Government, health and education customers across Australia and the Pacific increasingly need workloads that stay on national soil and run on platforms they fully control. Proxmox is open-source under AGPLv3, you own the data, you choose the hardware, and your support contract is with a regionally based business rather than a sales team in another time zone.
Proxmox also avoids vendor lock-in at the storage and VM level. Ceph and ZFS are both portable. VMs are standard QCOW2 or raw images, which import cleanly into KVM, OpenStack, or any cloud that accepts them.
Tell us about your current environment (vSphere version, host count, VM count, storage type and rough capacity) and we’ll come back with a sized Proxmox replacement quote and first-year support estimate. Most quotes land within 48 hours.
Yes. Netcraft is an authorised Proxmox VE reseller serving Australia and the Pacific from offices in Adelaide and Suva (Fiji). We sell Proxmox VE subscription bundles, build clusters on the right hardware, deliver training and provide 24×7 production support.
Yes. We have run multiple VMware-to-Proxmox migrations using both warm-import and live-migration approaches, depending on the storage and downtime constraints. We assess the existing vCenter, vSphere, vSAN and NSX footprint, design a Proxmox + Ceph (or ZFS) target, then migrate VMs in waves with zero data loss.
Proxmox VE subscriptions are typically 70–90% cheaper than equivalent VMware vSphere + vCenter + vSAN bundles, especially after Broadcom’s 2024 licensing changes. Most customers we have migrated have recovered the migration cost in the first 12 months of subscription savings, before counting hardware reuse.
Yes. Our engineers are on-call 24×7 for production Proxmox clusters under our Gold and Platinum support tiers, with the on-call roster shared between our Adelaide and Suva (Fiji) offices. Business-hours tiers are available for non-critical workloads.
Workload dependent. Most of our hyper-converged Ceph clusters run on dual-socket Intel Xeon with NVMe. If the budget’s tighter, single-socket Xeon with shared SAN or NFS does the job. Either way, we size against your real I/O — not whatever the vendor’s cheat-sheet claims.
Yes. Proxmox has feature-parity with Hyper-V for most production scenarios — clustering, live migration, replication, backup, snapshots and HA. We have moved customers off Hyper-V (typically motivated by Windows Server licensing or limited live-migration features) and onto Proxmox VE running on the same hardware.
Yes — engineer-led, hands-on, on-site or remote. Standard course covers cluster install, networking, storage (Ceph, ZFS, NFS), backup, replication and disaster recovery, with custom modules for your environment. Most teams are productive after a one- or two-day workshop.
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) collapses compute, storage and networking onto the same servers using software-defined storage (Ceph). With Proxmox + Ceph you replace a separate SAN/NAS with the same nodes that run your VMs, simplifying operations and reducing hardware spend. We have built HCI clusters of 3–24+ nodes for Australian customers.
Proxmox VE itself is open-source (AGPLv3). The optional commercial subscription provides access to the Enterprise repository (extra-tested updates), production support direct from Proxmox Server Solutions, and is what we recommend for any production cluster. Subscriptions are sold per CPU socket per year.
Yes. Proxmox Backup Server is included in our standard cluster designs. It does deduplicated, incremental, encrypted backups of Proxmox VE VMs and is dramatically faster than file-level backup tools for large clusters. We can also configure off-site replication to a second Proxmox Backup Server instance.
