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Azure Stack vs VMware Cloud Foundation comparison

Microsoft and Broadcom are both solutions in the Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0, while Broadcom is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1. Microsoft holds a 23.9% mindshare in HCCP, compared to Broadcom’s 19.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
Azure Stack
Read 67 Azure Stack reviews
  • 3,290 Views
  • 3,224 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
VMware Cloud Foundation
Read 33 VMware Cloud Foundation reviews
  • 2,884 Views
  • 2,538 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Azure Stack and VMware Cloud Foundation compete in the hybrid cloud solutions category. Azure Stack has an edge due to ease of deployment and integration with Microsoft tools, while VMware excels in virtualization management.

Features: Azure Stack supports hybrid cloud integration, ease of use, and mirrors Azure's public offerings, providing local deployment solutions. VMware Cloud Foundation specializes in automation, lifecycle management, and unifying cloud operations, offering comprehensive data center solutions and strong virtualization management.

Room for Improvement: Azure Stack could improve by enhancing openness for third-party integrations, technical support, and simplifying complex features like Kubernetes services. VMware Cloud Foundation needs better integration support, cost reduction, and greater flexibility for third-party solutions, along with improved customization options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Stack integrates well in Microsoft-aligned environments despite mixed customer service feedback, while VMware Cloud Foundation offers smooth deployment in VMware environments but faces support efficiency challenges following the Broadcom acquisition.

Pricing and ROI: Azure Stack's pay-as-you-go model is flexible, with positive ROI noted, making it cost-effective against separate cloud setups. VMware Cloud Foundation is expensive but justified by its rich features, offering significant ROI savings in large implementations.

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To learn more, read our detailed Azure Stack vs. VMware Cloud Foundation Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Azure Stack vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
September 2025
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Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
Azure Stack showed mixed results, benefiting large user bases with quick returns, user-friendliness, and cost-effectiveness over alternatives.
Sentiment score
5.7
Transitioning to VMware Cloud Foundation offers 30-40% savings through reduced tickets and improved stability, despite limited immediate ROI.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
VMware Cloud Foundation allows cost and time savings by quickly deploying infrastructure requests and integrating automatic ticketing and backup services.
In terms of ROI, although VMware Cloud Foundation is expensive, it saves time in most cases, which indirectly saves costs for users.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Azure Stack support varies; enterprise customers with high-tier support report better experiences, while others face challenges.
Sentiment score
7.0
VMware Cloud Foundation's support is responsive and expert, though improvements in speed and product familiarity are desired.
The technicians handling the tickets do not seem very technical.
Any support we receive is through Dell EMC, as that's a policy from Microsoft itself.
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
There are times when support is unclear, and even VMware support personnel may lack familiarity with certain parts, causing difficulties.
Based on my nine years of experience with VMware, I would evaluate their technical support as effective.
The technical support from VMware Cloud Foundation deserves a nine out of ten rating.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
JitenderSingh - PeerSpot reviewerMohammedAbdulAleem - PeerSpot reviewerMangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
MI
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Azure Stack offers scalable solutions from small to large deployments, praised for flexibility despite some challenges in integration and scaling.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Cloud Foundation is versatile and scalable, highly rated but dependent on licensing and hardware for optimal performance.
Monitoring, changing plans, and consolidating things are necessary parts of the process to avoid excessive costs.
Our company seeks cost-effective and more flexible open systems, and we find it difficult to integrate with third-party hardware.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the scalability of Azure Stack as eight.
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
When more hosts are added, performance goes slow.
VMware Cloud Foundation supports scalability and company growth.
VMware Cloud Foundation is quite scalable, receiving a rating of eight and a half to nine out of ten.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
reviewer2160696 - PeerSpot reviewerMohammedAbdulAleem - PeerSpot reviewerJitenderSingh - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
MH
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Azure Stack is praised for stability and reliable support, offering strong service availability despite minor, manageable issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
Users rate VMware Cloud Foundation highly for stability, noting minor migration challenges but appreciate its reliable performance and regular updates.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
The stability of VMware Cloud Foundation is very high.
If one component fails to operate in a timely manner, the entire infrastructure can go down because everything is interconnected.
I am currently satisfied with the stability of VMware Cloud Foundation, though having started only two to three months ago, I am still in the monitoring phase.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
AA
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Stack users seek enhanced feature parity, cost management, integration, technical support, AI capabilities, and user-friendly interfaces.
VMware Cloud Foundation faces pricing, licensing complexities, integration challenges, and high costs, needing enhancements in customization and support services.
The precision of anonymous activity tracking should be improved, particularly in identifying the correct location because IP information is sometimes inaccurate.
Many resources get created in Azure Stack, and managing those resources can be challenging.
Management looks for a balanced product that utilizes existing hardware, fulfills external customer demand, and leverages the scalability of the cloud model.
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
VMware Broadcom needs to include auto resource allocation at the VM levels.
The maintenance cost has increased significantly, especially after Broadcom acquired VMware, with a shift from socket-based licensing to core-based licensing.
Each user needs deep knowledge of every aspect of virtualization.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
JitenderSingh - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2160696 - PeerSpot reviewerMohammedAbdulAleem - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
MH
Mangesh Parjane - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Setup Cost

Azure Stack pricing varies widely, with mixed cost perceptions influenced by deployment specifics, service requirements, and regional complexities.
VMware Cloud Foundation pricing is seen as high but is justified by reliability and features, impacting affordability variably.
If Microsoft lowers the price, more small businesses would be able to adopt the Enterprise E5 license.
For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Stack report
The cost has become very high, especially after Broadcom's acquisition, altering the licensing model to a more expensive core-based system.
When comparing prices of both clouds, AWS is cheaper because they offer a free section for practice.
The price is quite higher than some other vendors.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
JitenderSingh - PeerSpot reviewer
MH
MI
AA
 

Valuable Features

Azure Stack offers scalable, flexible solutions with integration, AI tools, and hybrid cloud features, enhancing deployment and development efficiency.
VMware Cloud Foundation excels in automation, scalability, and user-friendly management, enhancing efficiency with seamless integration and advanced features.
They allow me to track all user activities.
I am very much impressed with Azure Stack, especially regarding security, complete compliance, data sovereignty, and data security.
We wanted to proceed with an integrated solution from the same cloud provider, so we are using Azure Stack.
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The solution now offers auto-deployment of VMs.
All features of VMware Cloud Foundation are valuable to us, as it covers every industry standard protocol and requirement protocol.
VMware Cloud Foundation allows for extensive customization, aligning with our customer requirements.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware Cloud Foundation report
JitenderSingh - PeerSpot reviewerMohammedAbdulAleem - PeerSpot reviewerreviewer2160696 - PeerSpot reviewerNarasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
AA
MH
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Stack
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (2nd)
VMware Cloud Foundation
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms category, the mindshare of Azure Stack is 23.9%, down from 29.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Cloud Foundation is 19.5%, down from 24.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure Stack23.9%
VMware Cloud Foundation19.5%
Other56.6%
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

MohammedAbdulAleem - PeerSpot reviewer
Security and compliance shine but integration and pricing need work
The difficulties we face involve the lack of support, which is one reason the product isn't selling well in the market. Perhaps it relates to our sales team's strategy, but management looks for a balanced product that utilizes existing hardware, fulfills external customer demand, and leverages the scalability of the cloud model. An improvement for Azure Stack would be in third-party integration; it feels very restricted and closed concerning hardware. For example, I have Dell EMC hardware, but I want to integrate it with other major hardware such as Cisco, IBM, Lenovo, or Supermicro, and I can't do that. They should also improve third-party integration regarding security and new services such as AI as a service. I expect more towards AI-enabled models, and GPU as a service is also not offered.
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Narasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Stack?
For hybrid cloud operations, the seamless transition it enables is key. Most enterprises have a lot of workloads on-premises, and they want a smooth way to move into the cloud. Some things are on...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack?
Maintenance is included as part of the overall cost.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Azure Stack?
The difficulties we face involve the lack of support, which is one reason the product isn't selling well in the market. Perhaps it relates to our sales team's strategy, but management looks for a b...
See all answers
What do you like most about VMware Cloud Foundation?
VMware Cloud Foundation provides us with the vSphere dashboard through which we can manage, monitor, schedule, and spin up your virtual machines. We can manage, monitor, and get reports of your inf...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Cloud Foundation?
Regarding pricing, VMware Cloud Foundation includes normal licensing costs. Since VMware's move to Broadcom, the pricing has increased significantly. Compared to Nutanix, which many people consider...
See all answers
What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?
Regarding improvements in VMware Cloud Foundation, stability has significantly improved, and many issues have been resolved. The efficiency, stability, scalability, and advanced level features have...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

AWS Outposts vs Azure Stack Logo
AWS Outposts vs Azure Stack
Compared 34% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs Azure Stack Logo
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs Azure Stack
Compared 11% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Azure Stack Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Azure Stack
Compared 3% of the time
Red Hat OpenShift vs Azure Stack Logo
Red Hat OpenShift vs Azure Stack
Compared 3% of the time
VMware Software Defined Data Center vs Azure Stack Logo
VMware Software Defined Data Center vs Azure Stack
Compared 3% of the time
More Azure Stack Competitors
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 13% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 11% of the time
Microsoft Azure vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Microsoft Azure vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 10% of the time
AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 8% of the time
Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Cloud Foundation Logo
Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Cloud Foundation
Compared 7% of the time
More VMware Cloud Foundation Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Azure Stack
October 2025
Azure Stack reportDownload Azure Stack product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Cloud Foundation
September 2025
VMware Cloud Foundation reportDownload VMware Cloud Foundation product report
 

Overview

Information not available
Microsoft

VMware Cloud Foundation makes it easy to deploy and run a hybrid cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation provides integrated cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, networking, and security) and cloud management services to run enterprise applications in both private and public environments.

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

Weblink, Fathym, Sage, CFD Support Ltd, The UberCloud Inc.
ricoh, dell technologies, sky
Buyer's Guide
Azure Stack vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
September 2025
Free Report: Azure Stack vs. VMware Cloud Foundation
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Stack vs. VMware Cloud Foundation and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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