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BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

BMC Helix and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. BMC Helix is ranked #38, while Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1. BMC Helix holds a 0.9% mindshare in CM, compared to Broadcom’s 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of BMC Helix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
Read 5 BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management reviews
  • 494 Views
  • 267 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
VMware Aria Automation
Read 171 VMware Aria Automation reviews
  • 7,662 Views
  • 4,137 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and VMware Aria Automation are competing in the cloud automation and management space. VMware Aria Automation has an upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, although BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management may offer advantages in pricing and support satisfaction.

Features: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is noted for its robust integration capabilities, effective resource management, and strong multi-cloud portal, which makes it suitable for resource optimization. VMware Aria Automation, on the other hand, provides advanced orchestration, integration with several platforms, and a versatile automation framework, focusing on extensibility and detailed automation.

Room for Improvement: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management could enhance its automation capabilities and integration with newer third-party applications. It may also benefit from an intuitive user interface and expanded reporting features. VMware Aria Automation could improve by simplifying its deployment processes, enhancing its UI for administrators, and expanding support for more hybrid cloud solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is appreciated for its straightforward deployment process and reliable customer service, making it ideal for organizations seeking a quick setup. VMware Aria Automation provides extensive customization support, though its deployment can be more complex, appealing to those needing detailed setup options.

Pricing and ROI: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is considered cost-effective due to lower initial setup costs and favorable ROI outcomes. VMware Aria Automation, despite higher upfront costs, offers substantial long-term returns owing to its advanced automation capabilities and feature-rich offerings.

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To learn more, read our detailed BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
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:
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
Ranking in Cloud Management
38th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (45th)
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Cloud Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
171
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (6th), Network Automation (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (16th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 9.4%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Aria Automation9.4%
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management0.9%
Other89.7%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

VB
Helps design blueprints in a cloud environment but the support is a major problem
One of the major problems is that support is not so good. I used to have a support expert in Spain but they left two years ago. BMC doesn't invest a lot in network automation but network automation is a major point in CLM. There aren't any experts here in Europe, maybe they have in America, I don't know. The main problem is the support in Europe. We had a lot of problems with the people who got put on our cases. The agents that we were assigned to were not so capable. They wanted to replicate the problem. If you have an incident, it takes a lot of time to troubleshoot the problem. The incident support is not so good. The technicians don't know the platform well. BMC doesn't want to invest in CLM. Two years ago we had a lot of problems. Maybe BMC realized that CLM is an end of life product.
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Le Quang Long - PeerSpot reviewer
Significantly streamlined operations with good automation that helps with simplifying workflows
It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users. It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method. I do not meet many people to operate it live beforehand. It operates for both of my products, but as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can tie together your public and private cloud infrastructure into a "single pane of glass"."
"Automates Java EE Application Deployment from an SCM system."
"Assesses change impact or completes an audit using multiple dashboard views."
"Integrates role-based access control with pre-configured policies for CIS, DISA, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, NIST, and SCAP documentation and remediation."
"By allowing end users to request their own services, the request process for systems is much quicker and more accurate."
"CLM has a multi-cloud portal because they have the resources to implement in various environments in various ports."
"Supports unattended installs and image-based, script-based, or template-based provisioning."
"vRA provides that single pane of glass for our cloud tenants to deploy, monitor, access, and manage their VMs/guest operating systems."
"Instead of deploying a VM from a template and going through the process of configuring that VM, with vRA we're able to click once and it does everything: grabs an IP, joins it to the domain, loads whatever configuration agents are needed. It does all of that without manual intervention."
"It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users."
"If you do a deployment for a proof of concept, it is simple."
"Our customers don't have to manage HVAC and space and cooling and all of those things that they used to have to do. Today, all they have to do is provision a server and manage their users."
"It's extremely convenient to be able to spin something up and be able to work on other things, because it's already done it, making my workload lighter."
"I used the technical support during upgrades. They came onsite and are very technical. They are very good"
"It is a highly stable solution."
More VMware Aria Automation pros
 

Cons

"The installation and configuration can be tricky due to it being built on Remedy."
"Needs integrations with other providers to provide a custom public cloud environment."
"One of the major problems is that support is not so good."
"The solution could be lighter. As an administrator, I would like to simplify the number of services I need to deploy. They took a significant step in that direction by removing all the Windows dependencies that we had in the past, but there are still a lot of services consuming resources."
"We have seen some issues with upgrades or installations. This means we have to raise a call every time with VMware."
"Broadcom has acquired the tool, which could lower its pricing. Many customers are moving away from VMware infrastructure towards enterprise systems like Azure or AWS. This shift could be due to two main reasons: pricing and uncertainty about the future, especially regarding how Broadcom will handle licenses and strategy."
"I want to see HTML5. I want to get rid of JavaScript... we have a lot of issues with Java crashing when we're using vCenter. I obviously don't want that to happen with the vRealize Automation and Orchestrator side."
"The integration is a bit tight. I need the right package to use it properly. The new automation processes for VMware are messy, and support could be better."
"I would like to see a simpler way of provisioning it. As is, we can automate the provisioning of a VM, however, when it comes to the external IPs, that is outside of VMware. But that has to be automated as well. If there was a way for us to have the virtual machines connect to switches that are external to VMware, that would be great. That way, it would handle the entire workflow from creation and provisioning of a VM to the connectivity to the external IP addresses which allow our customers to have access to the VM. Currently, that IP configuration has to be done manually."
"The solution is intuitive, but not necessarily user-friendly. In particular, it's the documentation. It's a lot of going-through-the-weeds types of scenarios. There is just an abundance of information, so it's a matter of understanding how the objects or the relationships exist, and then, obviously, being able to access that information and knowing how to make use of it."
"Most of the time the upgrade experience has been good but sometimes things break after upgrading. For example, some API codes stopped working."
More VMware Aria Automation cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The tool is expensive since it is an enterprise product."
"Better pricing is always handy, but I feel it's at the right price point."
"It made the provisioning of the virtual machines easier and faster. We can react more quickly to customers' demands."
"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."
"So much can be done with the Open Source side, and especially for smaller shops. I personally think the pricing for Enterprise is hard to justify."
"I'm very interested in the integration with Puppet. However, my organization doesn't have the funding for something like Puppet right now. If VMware would integrate that feature set (Puppet) into vRA. That would be very awesome."
"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"The solution has helped to increase infrastructure, agility, speed, and provisioning in the time to market."
More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise130
 

Questions from the Community

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What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?
vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...
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Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?
When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...
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Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?
I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cloud Management
October 2025
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management reportDownload BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Automation
October 2025
VMware Aria Automation reportDownload VMware Aria Automation product report
 

Also Known As

BMC CLM
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

BMC's cloud management platform drives digital innovation with agile, full-stack service provisioning across cloud and traditional platforms. BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management scales easily while integrating with essential compliance and governance policies to reduce risk.

BMC Helix

VMware Aria Automation is a cloud management tool that allows companies to simplify their cloud experience through a modern automation platform. The solution is designed to deliver self-service clouds, multi-cloud automation with governance, and DevOps-based security and infrastructure management. It helps organizations improve IT agility, efficiency, and productivity through its various features. 

VMware Aria Automation has multiple use cases that include the following:

  • Self-service multi-cloud: VMware Aria Automation can be used to deliver consistent self-service consumption. Another use case in this area is for delivering infrastructure across VMware Clouds as well as public clouds.

  • Multi-cloud governance: The solution can be used to manage cost, performance, networking, configuration, and security at scale for multi-cloud environments. VMware Aria Automation offers all this with an everything-as-code approach.

  • DevOps for infrastructure: Through VMware Aria Automation, companies can enable a powerful infrastructure as code platform with support for iterative development and infrastructure pipelining.

  • Kubernetes automation: Users can utilize VMware Aria Automation to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters and namespaces with support for vSphere with Tanzu.

  • Security operations: VMware Aria Automation facilitates event-driven automation to deliver full-service IT system compliance enforcement and vulnerability remediation.

VMware Aria Automation Features

VMware Aria Automation has various features that allow users to easily perform operations. Some of the solution's capacities include:

  • VMware Cloud agnostic template: This feature allows organizations to use a single cloud template to deploy with Infrastructure as a Code. Deployment options include VMware Cloud as well as major public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.

  • Extensibility and customization: This VMware Aria Automation feature allows users to get full extensibility and customization. This can be achieved through Aria Automation Orchestrator, Action-Based Extensibility (ABX), and built-in integrations with common third-party tools.

  • Self-service multi-cloud: This feature enables users to request and provision infrastructure resources. It can be done across clouds using a unified and consistent Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consumption layer, idempotent REST API, and self-service catalog.

  • Centralized policies and governance: VMware Aria Automation offers a feature for users to manage multiple clouds with templatized cloud and policy definition, automated remediation, and cloud environment visibility.

  • Configuration management: Through this feature of the product, day 1 and 2 control can be achieved for virtualized and cloud environments. This can be done with intuitive configuration automation, compliance enforcement, and vulnerability remediation.

  • Infrastructure pipelining: Through this feature, organizations can access user-friendly release automation pipelines. They can be specifically tailored for CI/CD in infrastructure use cases.

VMware Aria Automation Benefits

VMware Aria Automation offers its users various benefits. Some of the biggest advantages that the solution brings to companies that utilize it include:

  • VMware Aria Automation provides faster time to market for companies through offloading manual tasks with advanced workflows and agile templating.

  • The solution offers high levels of security and control.

  • This product is suitable for beginners, as it offers a self-service consumption experience for users.

  • VMware Aria Automation accelerates innovation through Infrastructure as Code and DevOps principles.

  • The product provides users with flexibility, as it is compatible with the most popular public cloud solutions.

  • The solution offers fast deployment because of all natively integrated functions.

Reviews from Real Users

Awais J., CTO/CEO at a tech services company, likes VMware Aria Automation because it saves a lot of time, provides more visibility, and has extensive automation capabilities.

An IT consultant at a government rates VMware Aria Automation highly because the product gives you flexibility to analyze and consume resources.

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

JDA Software, Morningstar, Orange Business Services, Wipro
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Buyer's Guide
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
September 2025
Free Report: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
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