Gen 10 ????

[TTECS]

Well I have finally been forced to look at Gen 10. I am in a regional area so I do not like to install "the latest" of anything as it nearly always has teething problems.

I have a lot of servers in remote loccations in SME roles. The usual config is a DL380 running ESXi and a small server running CentOS used as a NFS NAs to back up to.

I have been doing this for years an do "batch updates" where a generation of systems is replaced. It started with Gen 6, then 7 8, 8,2 and 9 for the DL380s iniutially running ESXi 5.1 then 5.5u3. The NAS boxes were ML110g6, g7 with P212 then Microserver Gen 8 & 8.2 with P222.
Things work great, I try to keep them all the same (there are over 100 of them) so I can hold my own spares etc.
All my Gen7s are gone, there are maybe 5 or 6 gen 8s to go. I have been testing ESXi 6.5 now with update 1 and was planning to start a rolling upgrade in 2nd qtr starting about November.
So here is Gen 10......
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is compatible.
I can't run ESXi 5.5 so I will have to install 6.5 at least 6mths to a year before I had planned.
The Microservers cannot run cached controllers and do not have ILO so are no better than a cheap chinese NAS at 10 times the price.
None of the HDDs can be moved in emergencies. Of course I can depend on HPe support which, if I am lucky, will respond in two or three days. 

So what do I do? If I have to completely trash all of my systems to allow me to remain self supporting should I look at other vendors? I chose HP because they seemd to understand that not everyone lives in a large city with a local engineering team but I suspect they have forgotten this.

In case it is not obvious I am rather pissed off with the direction that HPe is going.