The Alain Afflelou Group migrated its entire IT infrastructure from VMware ESXi to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor. A rapid deployment carried out in 2024, driven by uncertainties surrounding Broadcom’s acquisition of the virtualization champion and rising costs.
With nearly 1,500 retail locations spread across 19 countries (primarily France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal), the eyewear and hearing devices group faces a unique IT complexity. Its largely franchise-based model complicates the unification of IT environments. The IT department, led by Ludovic Tassy since 2006, relies on strong internal expertise and trusted partners to support growth.
It is in this context that the decision to part ways with VMware became necessary. “The move to Nutanix marked a turning point: we were able to flip our infrastructure without disrupting users, while gaining performance and visibility,” notes the CIO.
Three weeks to migrate everything
The migration was completed in three weeks with the support of integrator SPIE, leveraging Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and the Move tool. Result: nearly 200 virtual machines and 200 TB of data migrated without any service interruption.
The new environment rests on two clusters of three nodes each and a witness site. The gains are evident: application performance has doubled to tripled on certain processing lines, backup compression has improved by 20%, and governance has been simplified thanks to Prism features that facilitate automation and operational oversight.
For Nicolas Crochet, Technical Manager & Infrastructure Division, Nutanix has proven to be the best response to the company’s challenges, combining technological maturity, ease of use and operational efficiency. This choice gives the IT department a more agile infrastructure and reduces dependence on the economic models imposed by traditional market players.
Heading to 2026: data center and optical-audio convergence
The Alain Afflelou Group has already extended this deployment into Spain and is preparing several complementary projects for 2026: a redesign of core networks and the relocation of a data center.
These developments sit within a broader ambition: to harmonize point-of-sale software and consolidate data in order to support the convergence of optical and audio activities and to strengthen service quality for franchisees and end customers.
