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AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Outposts
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Cloud Foundation
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms category, the mindshare of AWS Outposts is 8.5%, down from 15.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Cloud Foundation is 13.8%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Cloud Foundation13.8%
AWS Outposts8.5%
Other77.7%
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

AD
Strategic Cloud Consultant at Shell
Seamless and simplified migration of applications with significant low latency
The most valuable aspect is that it comes in a rack form factor which makes it incredibly easy to use and deploy various AWS services. You can start with foundational services like EC2, and then expand to container management with ECS and Kubernetes with EKS. You can also take advantage of EBS for storage needs, manage databases using RDS, and ensure load balancing with ALBs. It essentially brings a comprehensive range of AWS services to your on-premises environment in a convenient rack format.
Narasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
VMware Administrator at Infosys
There is progress in performance and stability, but further advancements are needed for end-user satisfaction
VMware Cloud Foundation's best features include its advanced capabilities, security purposes, and performance levels. The solution offers efficient licensing options. Previously, vSphere essential was available, but now it has moved to VMware Cloud Foundation 8.0. It includes advanced features such as lifecycle manager, patching level, and cluster level patching options. The solution now offers auto-deployment of VMs. Previously, I had to use the content library, right-click, and create VMs manually. With VMware Cloud Foundation, auto-deployment is possible by simply right-clicking and assigning a specific DHCP IP, enabling physical to vCenter level communication for automatic VM deployment. The workload portability feature in VMware Cloud Foundation provides good workload balance. For instance, in a cluster level with four to five ESXi hosts, each host has minimum resources allocated for CPU and memory, resulting in significantly reduced utilization at the VMware Cloud Foundation level.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"If you compare with the full bundle of these services, you can see the difference, and this is enough for these locations in private data centers because the main reasons why the customers want to have it on their side are for the low latency and the security of their critical data."
"The most valuable aspect is that it comes in a rack form factor which makes it incredibly easy to use and deploy various AWS services."
"The most valuable aspect is its ability to provide interfaces for events."
"With AWS, we've had seamless integration and support for many of our applications."
"We expanded the projects over a year and a half, and we used the solution to save around 30% of our customer operations costs with both customers."
"AWS can manage services when deployed on customer sites due to Outposts' capability of being installed in on-premises environments."
"AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure, and API to our on-premises data center or co-location facilities."
"Outposts allows you to isolate your private environment from the public cloud provider while enabling almost all the features that are available on public cloud services. That is the beauty of this service. It's an infrastructure that you can put in your data center and seamlessly connect to the public cloud."
"We are able to use the product to create virtual machines, automate everything, and give customers their own self-service portal so they can edit their services to do whatever they want, which is a really awesome and flexible feature."
"The scalability is very good, and autoscaling, scalability, and metering in any department are good, so a department can meter how much they're using, which is very helpful, and a business can calculate how many resources are being consumed by each department and how much it's costing."
"The fact that it automates a lot of manual processes in a net new environment build is most valuable."
"The most valuable area is the ECS environment which includes many features."
"Technical support is helpful."
"They have in release 4.0 features from vSphere and Cloud Suite. It's a complete data center."
"The main features are the separation between the management plane and the workload. You can use NSX to provision between the different areas of the network, like west-east or north-south."
"A valuable feature of VMware Cloud Foundation is its ability to manage everything from a single console, including network, virtualization, and storage management."
 

Cons

"It would be beneficial to have the option for capacity expansion."
"Depending on the installation process, we have found some bugs and issues with the solution when the same platform is not used."
"Also, it would be beneficial if AWS allowed for more granular and customizable pricing options."
"The platform needs to spend more time investing in strengthening its governance and information tools and consider the real needs of its customers."
"It would be great if it could support Glue services."
"The pricing model needs improvement because right now it's very expensive. All of these solutions are very expensive and it prevents other customers or owners of data centers from buying it."
"The product is heavy to ship and can be difficult to handle logistically."
"Outposts supports elastic coordinator services, but not elastic container services, which is the native service for containers in AWS. That is something missing in this product."
"VMware Cloud Foundation can improve the process of upgrading. For example, if you want to upgrade or migrate any component it is very complex."
"There may be room for improvement in the resource allocation feature. VMware Broadcom needs to include auto resource allocation at the VM levels."
"After the acquisition, prices have been going up."
"I would like to be able to connect the APIs."
"They should provide integration with Azure VMware Solution."
"The tool's price tag is high."
"They need to offer more support for Mac."
"We would like the ability to write to both sites at the same time, in a synchronous fashion."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While the longer-term pricing is suitable for enterprise contracts, it can be on the higher side, especially when organizations don't utilize all the services included in the bundles."
"Customers should consider the high cost, which can range from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands depending on the components."
"The pricing of Outposts needs to be evaluated from the standpoint of what's cost-effective at your company: How are you going to use it? How much money will it save for your products or applications? Is it worth it? I would say it's probably too expensive for small or medium-sized companies. However, big companies might find it to be highly cost-effective depending on their respective cloud strategies."
"AWS Outposts is a cheap solution."
"The tool's price is slightly on the higher side, but I guess you think there is no one-to-one comparison with other tools. The licensing part has become easier, while earlier, it was quite complex."
"VMware Cloud Foundation is overpriced, but I think we get what we pay for."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved and made more flexible."
"The price of VMware Cloud Foundation is a bit high. However, it comes with a lot of useful features and can handle a lot of operational complexity. Overall the price can be seen as being fair for what it offers."
"There is an annual license required to use the solution."
"VMware Cloud Foundation is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"If our customer has the option to buy a server for $4,000 or $5,000, but VMware asks for two-person licensing $7,000 to $8,000, which is more than the hardware price. So sometimes, the customer cannot pay for it because it's too expensive."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with AWS Outposts?
Outposts is not a simple solution to implement as it needs to be shipped from the US and involves high delivery costs and running costs. The product is heavy to ship and can be difficult to handle ...
What advice do you have for others considering AWS Outposts?
I rate AWS Outposts a nine out of ten, indicating room for some improvement.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Outposts?
Customers should consider the high cost, which can range from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands depending on the components.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Cloud Foundation?
The price for VMware Cloud Foundation is not cheap, as the market is competitive with AWS cloud. When comparing prices of both clouds, AWS is cheaper because they offer a free section for practice....
What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?
In VMware Cloud Foundation, areas that have room for improvement include the experience between VMware Cloud Foundation and the cloud. I prefer working with the cloud due to my study with the archi...
What is your primary use case for VMware Cloud Foundation?
Regarding my experience with application migration between on-premises and public clouds using VMware Cloud Foundation, I have used it for storage deployment.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Philips, Morningstar
ricoh, dell technologies, sky
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Outposts vs. VMware Cloud Foundation and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
904,054 professionals have used our research since 2012.