How sewing thread manufacturer AMANN is moving its global IT infrastructure across 10 countries from VMware to Proxmox Virtual Environment, migrating 650 VMs in 6 months without significant production downtime.
AMANN & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, based in Bönnigheim, Germany, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality sewing threads and embroidery yarns for the automotive, fashion, and technical textiles industries. Founded in 1854, the family-owned company employs around 2,800 people worldwide and generates 225 million euros in revenue. AMANN operates its own production facilities across Europe and Asia and today runs its IT infrastructure on 42 hosts in 10 countries.
Single vendor, limited flexibility
For a long time, AMANN relied on VMware for its virtualization, which over time became an increasing operational challenge. Licensing costs were rising, while a business-critical component of its global IT infrastructure depended on a single major US vendor.
For a company with locations in 10 countries, this represented a strategic risk: no control over pricing models or the future roadmap of its virtualization platform. AMANN generally favors open-source technologies, so a proprietary US solution didn’t fit its IT strategy. The company set out to find a better alternative, one that was more cost-effective without sacrificing functionality or operational reliability.
Strategic autonomy as the deciding factor
AMANN chose Proxmox Virtual Environment as the new virtualization platform for its entire global IT landscape. Two decisive factors drove this decision: independence and cost-effectiveness. With a European open-source solution, AMANN can run its environment more economically without compromising on feature scope or security.
Björn Müller, Teamlead Network & Server at AMANN, already knew Proxmox VE from a previous role. To him, the software was proven stable and battle-tested even before the project began.
The rollout: 3 phases, 1 flagship site as the blueprint
Before the actual rollout, AMANN ran a proof of concept together with Proxmox partner m.a.x. Informationstechnologie. The goal was to ensure there were no project blockers and that Proxmox Virtual Environment would be fully operational within AMANN’s existing system landscape. The result: the migration was feasible, without notable drawbacks.
The migration itself ran in 3 phases: first Europe and the US, followed by Asia in 2 further stages. AMANN started at its headquarters in Bönnigheim (DE) and quickly carried the lessons learned there over to the other locations. Two employees traveled on-site for the rollout, supported by local IT staff. The estimated effort came to around 300 person-days.
m.a.x. Informationstechnologie handled project planning, the proof of concept, architecture, migration, and overall project coordination. A particular focus was placed on knowledge transfer throughout the project, so AMANN’s internal IT team could build up expertise on the new environment directly. Following project completion, m.a.x. continues to support AMANN under a co-managed service framework, handling infrastructure monitoring and shared operational responsibilities.
Architecture: From Dell SAN to ZFS
Today, AMANN runs 42 Proxmox Virtual Environment hosts across 10 clusters, spread across Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic, Romania, the USA, India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Two high-availability clusters in Germany run on Dell SAN storage with 3 to 4 compute hosts each, securing critical workloads such as network access control, infrastructure and firewall management, and other security-relevant applications. At its regional sites, AMANN relies on local, ZFS-based storage.
For backup and disaster recovery, AMANN uses Veeam. In the largest cluster, the system currently backs up around 60 TB of VM data, with stable operation and performance comparable to the previous VMware setup.
A practical note on hardware: AMANN’s current server hardware was originally built for VMware. Proxmox Virtual Environment runs on this hardware without limitations. Only with the next hardware lifecycle will the company procure servers designed for Proxmox from the outset. A switch is possible without having to replace existing hardware right away.
One technical lesson learned from the project: Proxmox recommends enterprise SSDs over traditional HDDs. While HDDs were sufficient for ongoing operations, they created too much I/O load during active VM workload migrations, so AMANN upgraded to SSD storage accordingly.
The results after six months
Technical metrics
650 VMs migrated in 6 months during live operations with no significant production downtime.
42 Proxmox VE hosts across 10 clusters distributed across 10 countries.
~60 TB of VM data backed up via Veeam in the largest cluster, maintaining stable performance on par with the legacy VMware environment.
Business outcomes
Approximately 90,000 euros in annual savings compared to the VMware Enterprise License Agreement (ELA); renewing the VMware contract would have cost AMANN around 340,000 euros, according to the company.
Independence from a single vendor.
Direct knowledge-building within the internal IT team through close knowledge transfer during the project and ongoing support from m.a.x. under the co-managed service.
Around 650 virtual machines moved to the new platform over 6 months, in the middle of live operations.
By October, we’ll have migrated around 650 VMs in 6 months. I think that shows a migration like this is possible during live operation, without significant production downtime, if it’s well planned and the will is there.Björn Müller, Teamlead Network & Server, AMANN & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG
Björn Müller Teamlead Network & Server, AMANN & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG
About AMANN Group Since 1854, AMANN has been one of the leading manufacturers of high-quality sewing threads and embroidery yarns, headquartered in Bönnigheim, Germany. Working closely with its customers, AMANN develops solutions for a wide range of industries. AMANN Group manufactures in its own production facilities worldwide. Learn more: www.amann.com
About Proxmox Partner m.a.x. Informationstechnologie AG m.a.x. Informationstechnologie AG, based in Munich, Germany, has been helping companies make their IT secure, flexible, and cost-effective for more than 35 years. The ISO 27001 certified IT systems house combines in-depth technical expertise with personal customer support. As an official Proxmox Partner, m.a.x. it guides customers from architecture planning through implementation and migration to reliable operation. Its focus areas are virtualization, open-source technologies, cybersecurity, and managed services, with the goal of creating high-performance IT environments and long-term digital sovereignty. Learn more: www.max-it.de
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