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Istio vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 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

Istio
Ranking in Service Mesh
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Tanzu Platform
Ranking in Service Mesh
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (11th), PaaS Clouds (9th), Cloud Management (17th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (3rd), Agile and DevOps Services (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

JETTI DINESH REDDY - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced microservice security and advanced traffic management and good authentification
When our developers are building the microservices, instead of imposing additional burdens or additional thinking on them, especially as part of network features such as traffic management, security, or observability, we deploy something from the infrastructure side, so developers need only focus…
DarshanChaudhari - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling
I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Istio can save you time in terms of network troubleshooting."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The most valuable features of Istio are the traffic management and the Sidecar they inject, which greatly helps secure the application."
"What I find particularly valuable about Istio is that it is free of cost."
"Istio's best feature is that it's easy to use."
"Istio provides tremendous value, particularly in offering TLS and authentication over microservice-to-microservice communication."
"What I find particularly valuable about Istio is that it is free of cost."
"The load balancing, service application, and monitoring of the life of the service are valuable features. We use it for authentication of call services, load balancing the calls among the service providers on service instances, and monitoring the health of the services."
"Defining security metrics has proven beneficial for customers in maintaining a safe environment."
"Tanzu Mission Control has quite a set of rich features when compared to OpenShift."
"The most popular feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is its graphical user interface for describing network policies on the Service Mesh, which is highly integrable with other tools commonly used in supply chains such as security."
"The initial setup is easy."
"We never experienced any problems with scalability."
"I have multiple Kubernetes environments within my environment. TMC gives me a single pane view, which is good for managing everything."
"There are a lot of services available in VMware Tanzu Application Service, such as databases and application servers. You have everything you need in one application and you do not need to search outside of the solution."
"The valuable feature I have found to be the management of Kubernetes clusters in a private cloud or public clouds, such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform."
 

Cons

"Istio's documentation is basic and would benefit from more examples."
"It would be good if the solution had more community forums."
"If someone doesn't understand Kubernetes, they'll have issues working with Istio."
"I've seen applications where they had such strict time constraints, they couldn't use Istio because it was too much overhead."
"Istio needs to be more mature and user-friendly."
"Istio has issues with performance."
"Reducing the latency between the control plane and the data plane would be beneficial."
"Based on my experience, the solution could be improved. They could simplify the learning process so that users can understand how its features work together, especially with components like Kibana. Learning about the different components is necessary. For instance, you need to understand the traffic flow, potential bottlenecks, and the architecture within Istio."
"The network control and security policies must be improved."
"Customers have noticed a considerable price increase after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom."
"I would like to see additional support for things outside of Cloud Foundry."
"VMware Tanzu Service Mesh could add better integration with other cloud platforms, such as vRealize Automation or VMware vCloud Director for cloud providers."
"Another area of improvement is pricing."
"The disaster recovery feature could be improved to provide better tracking of issues. I would also like to see the introduction of a dashboard view, for even further integration of all the areas that Mission Control looks at."
"The product should support integration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)"
"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We use the tool's open-source version, so there are no hidden fees or additional costs associated with it."
"It is on the less expensive side. It provides a significant saving for us in terms of cost and other things. It is open-source. We just download it from the open-source framework and use it."
"You can deploy Istio free of cost and don't need to pay for it."
"There are different licenses available. You have to upgrade your license if you want to scale the solution more."
"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."
"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."
"It is not the most expensive option, and I believe the capabilities align well with the value it provides."
"The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution"
"One of our Spanish customers told us that VMware Tanzu Service Mesh is a very expensive product for their data center."
"VMware Tanzu Mission Control is cheaper than Red Hat OpenShift."
"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Istio?
Istio provides a significant saving for us in terms of costs since it is open source. However, Istio can still come at a price. It has a steep learning curve and might require more manpower hours ...
What do you like most about Istio?
We use Istio for Service Discovery and routing traffic.
What needs improvement with Istio?
At the moment, there are no immediate improvements needed. Reducing the latency between the control plane and the data plane would be beneficial.
Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?
Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...
What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Application Service?
The solution is integrated very well with a lot of other systems. Also, its GUI is very good.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq
Find out what your peers are saying about Istio vs. VMware Tanzu Platform and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.