Why Ansible & Terraform Can't Fix Bare Metal: VMware Migration Secrets | Rob Hirschfeld, RackN
In this follow up episode of the VMblog Expert Interview Series, VMblog again sits down with Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN, for a deep dive into what it actually takes to succeed at infrastructure lifecycle management, and why so many VMware migration projects are stalling out.
Key Topics Covered:
The Process Problem Nobody Talks About
Most infrastructure teams focus on their tools — Ansible, Terraform, Cobbler, Foreman — but Rob argues the real issue is the process underneath. The teams that succeed with Digital Rebar aren't the ones looking for a better provisioning tool; they're the ones willing to rethink the entire end-to-end process.
Layer 0, Layer 1, Layer 2 — Why It Matters
Rob breaks down a critical distinction: Ansible and Terraform are Layer 2 platform tools, designed for environments where operating systems already exist. They were never built to handle the heterogeneity, firmware drift, BIOS/RAID updates, NIC discovery, and out-of-band communication demands of bare metal. Forcing them into that layer creates fragile, complex systems that one vendor update can bring crashing down.
The DIY Trap
"Build it ourselves" is the most common objection RackN hears — and Rob explains exactly why that approach breaks down at the bare metal layer, leaving teams with months of custom scripting and a solution too brittle to touch.
VMware Migration Reality Check
Teams that kicked off VMware migration projects 12–18 months ago are now hitting a wall. Rob explains why platform teams — even skilled ones — keep getting stuck, and why pushing them harder isn't the answer. The fix is a stable, API-driven, vendor-neutral bare metal automation layer underneath the platform stack.
A Real-World Retail Turnaround
Rob shares a compelling case study of a large retail chain that had spent nearly a year trying to get their OpenShift Virtualization project off the ground. After bringing in RackN and Digital Rebar, they went from zero production clusters to multi-site hub-and-spoke deployments — in two weeks.
What Infrastructure Leaders Should Do in the Next 30 Days
Stop pushing top-down on deadline pressure. Instead, examine whether your team has a repeatable, API-driven, multi-vendor bare metal automation platform. If they don't, that's your bottleneck — not effort or timeline. Fix the foundation first, and everything above it accelerates.
The Hidden Upside
Companies that solve the bare metal layer don't just unlock better VMware or OpenShift outcomes — they unlock AI platform deployments, multi-vendor flexibility, and hardware cost savings that in some cases cut spend by 50%.
Be sure to check out the RackN case studies mentioned in this interview for real-world cost savings data and deployment stories. https://rackn.com/case-studies/
Watch our previous video interview: • Bare Metal Is the Third Rail of VMware Mig...
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