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In this Deep Dive session, Replicated's Chuck Antonio, Alex Parker, and Martez Killens discuss how virtual appliances—especially in the form of traditional virtual machines (VMs)—offer a flexible and predictable path to software delivery across varied enterprise environments.
A full recording is below:
Simplifying Installs with Virtual Machines
A virtual appliance is a pre-packaged VM image (like an OVA or AMI) that includes your application and all its dependencies. This delivery format allows software vendors to ship ready-to-run images that customers can deploy on their existing virtualization platforms—vSphere, AWS, Azure, and others—without managing complex infrastructure or integrations.
These virtual appliances are particularly valuable in environments where infrastructure is tightly controlled, or where Kubernetes expertise is limited. They're also ideal for air-gapped environments, proof-of-concept demos, and regulated industries where deterministic behavior and security hardening are essential.
Use Cases in the Wild
We've seen vendors use virtual appliances in a variety of scenarios:
- Highly regulated industries: Pre-hardened OS images can simplify compliance for finance, healthcare, and government customers.
- Edge deployments: Shipping a virtual appliance to run on remote or disconnected environments—sometimes even as part of a hardware appliance.
- Proof of concept demos: Rapid installs (often under 20 minutes) ensure sales engineers and customers can start evaluating the software without complex setup.
- Vendor-owned environments: For vendors who want full-stack control over how their app runs, virtual machines ensure consistency across customer sites.
Automating Image Creation
Creating a virtual appliance from your Helm chart or containerized app doesn’t have to be hard. At Replicated, we’ve developed recipes that spin up a temporary VM, install your app, harden the OS, and export a machine image ready for AWS, vSphere, or other platforms.
These tools are designed to reduce the operational overhead of building and distributing virtual appliances, so you can spend more time improving your application and less time wrangling infrastructure.
Meeting Customers Where They Are
Every enterprise is different. Some want to deploy via Helm in their existing Kubernetes clusters. Others require self-contained VM images they can plug directly into secure, air-gapped networks. Virtual appliances offer the broadest compatibility, especially when the goal is predictable, repeatable installs across a wide range of customer environments.
Building Virtual Machines with Replicated’s Embedded Cluster
For vendors looking to deliver a consistent Kubernetes-based runtime inside their virtual appliance, Replicated’s Embedded Cluster can be included in the image. This approach gives you the benefits of Kubernetes without asking your customers to manage it. The result is a VM that boots directly into a production-grade application environment, complete with preflight checks, a guided admin console, and upgrade workflows—all driven by Replicated.
This pairing of Embedded Cluster and a VM image allows you to ship a true appliance experience: one that runs anywhere, installs reliably, and scales with your customers.