NeoTel’s clear choice: Proxmox VE delivers what Nutanix couldn’t

NeoTel Telefonservice GmbH & Co KG, based in Vienna, provides telecommunications services to businesses across Austria. As an application service provider, the company delivers reliable technology for everyday communication, where performance and availability are critical. Over time, the virtualization setup became increasingly difficult to manage, slowing down both operations and innovation.

Before adopting Proxmox VE, NeoTel operated a manually managed KVM environment based on virsh command line management. This approach had worked well for years but eventually reached its limits as infrastructure and demands grew. Virtual machine migrations were cumbersome, maintenance required downtime, and there was no central management interface to simplify daily tasks.

According to Walter Schober, CEO and CTO of NeoTel, the goal was clear: “We wanted to move from a complex, manually managed setup to a platform that offered transparency, simplicity, and control. It had to fit our technical mindset while keeping us independent.”

Simplifying infrastructure without losing flexibility

The existing setup provided stability but lacked the scalability and ease of management that NeoTel needed. The IT team wanted a web-based framework to handle routine tasks quickly, perform maintenance without interruption, and remain hardware independent and cost-efficient.
“Openness was essential for us,” Schober explained. “We wanted to understand what was happening inside the system instead of relying on black-box technology. Open source was the only direction that made sense.”
NeoTel’s strategy was to find a platform designed to evolve with the company, avoid vendor lock-in, and align with its in-house expertise.

Why Proxmox VE outperformed Nutanix

To make an informed decision, NeoTel’s engineers conducted an extensive evaluation of two virtualization platforms: Nutanix and Proxmox VE. Both were tested in parallel under real operating conditions. The team analyzed how each solution handled VMs, storage, and network configurations while assessing ease of management, stability, and scalability.
The differences soon became evident. Nutanix offered a polished interface but came with strict licensing models and limited flexibility. During the evaluation, NeoTel also discovered that certain expansions and feature updates in Nutanix required additional licenses, which made long-term planning less predictable. While this approach may suit some enterprise environments, it did not align with NeoTel’s goal of maintaining full control and cost transparency.
Because the team already had strong experience with Debian and KVM, the learning curve for Proxmox VE was short. The engineers were able to experiment freely, building and rebuilding test environments without license restrictions. This unrestricted testing allowed them to identify the best possible setup for production use.

As the evaluation progressed, Proxmox VE proved to be the more flexible, stable, and cost-efficient choice. The team decided to move forward with it and phase out Nutanix entirely.

Operational agility redefined

NeoTel’s final decision to standardize on Proxmox VE was driven by three key factors: control, transparency, and long-term value. The migration was carefully planned and executed on Dell servers, which had already proven reliable in previous deployments. From the beginning, the system performed stably and provided measurable improvements in efficiency.
The web-based interface simplified day-to-day management, while integrated backup and snapshot functionality brought new confidence to maintenance and recovery. Restoring VMs or individual files became fast and predictable.
Schober summarized the team’s impression clearly: “With Proxmox VE, we can scale freely, at our own pace, and without unpredictable licensing costs. It gives us independence and flexibility. That’s exactly what we were looking for.”

The implementation also showed the strength of the huge community and support structure of Proxmox. When NeoTel encountered an issue related to a kernel update, the problem was quickly identified and resolved. This experience reinforced trust in both the platform and the support ecosystem behind it.

Efficiency and freedom in daily operations

Since moving to Proxmox VE, NeoTel has experienced a significant improvement in operational efficiency. Daily administration, maintenance, and testing have become faster and easier, with new VMs deployed or migrated between data centers in just a few clicks.
Backup and restore processes have become significantly more reliable. By integrating Proxmox Backup Server, NeoTel ensures safe file-level restoration and efficient recovery from unexpected incidents. Together with Proxmox VE, it provides a reliable and consistent backup strategy that helps maintain the high availability demanded by NeoTel’s customers.
The switch to an open-source platform has also brought financial and strategic benefits. Without restrictive licensing models, NeoTel can allocate resources where they have the most impact. The transparency of the system means the company can plan upgrades and maintenance independently, free from vendor constraints.
“Proxmox VE gives us the right balance of simplicity, reliability, and freedom,” Schober said. “It lets us innovate without barriers and build a stable foundation for the future.”

A proven platform for growth

Proxmox VE has become the standard infrastructure for NeoTel’s data centers. Every new facility is built on the open-source virtualization platform from day one, ensuring consistency, scalability, and operational continuity.
Internally, the decision is seen as a milestone in the company’s evolution. NeoTel has gained complete control over its private cloud, improved efficiency across the board, and established a foundation that will support future growth.
“Proxmox is the backbone of our private cloud,” Schober concluded. “It represents everything we value in technology: openness, independence, and trust. Choosing it was one of the smartest decisions we’ve ever made.”

Walter Schober
CEO, NeoTel

About NeoTel Telefonservice GmbH & Co KG
Founded in 2005, NeoTel is an owner-managed Austrian telecommunications company based in Vienna. Its services range from SIP trunking and gateway solutions to full-service white-label telephony outsourcing, with a strong focus on innovation and reliability.