VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE compete in the virtualization category. VMware vSphere appears to have the upper hand in enterprise environments due to its high availability and sophisticated tools, whereas Proxmox VE stands out for its open-source flexibility appealing to smaller businesses.
Features: VMware vSphere provides robust virtualization capabilities with features such as vMotion, DRS, and high availability, enabling efficient resource management. It integrates well with Windows Server Active Directory, offering a comprehensive virtualization stack. On the other hand, Proxmox VE supports both KVM and container-based virtualization, offering ease of deployment and flexibility, making it well-suited for versatile use cases with cost-effective solutions.
Room for Improvement: VMware vSphere could improve on competitive pricing and better container integration as these aspects become increasingly important. Its licensing complexity is often a barrier for small to mid-sized businesses. Proxmox VE could enhance its GUI for better user experience, refine backup solutions, and improve documentation and integration capabilities for advancing larger deployments.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware vSphere is often complex to deploy, requiring specialized knowledge, but it offers substantial customer support for problem resolution. Proxmox VE, by contrast, is noted for its user-friendly deployment, suitable for those with tighter budgets or a need for rapid deployment, and primarily relies on community support unless official support is purchased.
Pricing and ROI: VMware vSphere is critiqued for higher costs and intricate licensing models. However, it provides high ROI in large-scale deployments due to its stability and advanced capabilities. Proxmox VE offers significant pricing advantages as a free open-source solution, making it attractive to smaller businesses seeking flexibility and customization without expensive licensing.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
If we have issues, the support tends to be unreliable
Recently, support has been less friendly and slower, especially after the company was acquired by Broadcom.
VMware vSphere is highly scalable in terms of the number of users and the number of servers it can handle.
It is a highly scalable solution.
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
While they are generally stable, if outages occur, they tend to be due to brands like HP or Dell, not VMware vSphere itself.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
I would rate the stability of VMware vSphere as eight out of ten.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Many customers are trying to avoid it due to its high cost.
The solution is too expensive.
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
The tool is highly available, which is crucial for implementing critical applications requiring 24/7 availability.
The vSphere application is free and very useful, ensuring effective management and improvement in operations.
Proxmox VE is a complete virtualization management solution for servers. It is a powerful open-source platform and supports two virtualization technologies - KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for virtual machines and LXC for containers. Proxmox VE has a central user interface that allows you to manage not only VMs and containers, but also storage resources, network configuration, and high availability for clusters. It is enterprise-ready and is valued for its scalability and maximum flexibility, enabling you to virtualize very demanding workloads. Proxmox VE makes it possible for you to easily install, manage, and monitor hyper-converged (HCI) data centers.
Proxmox VE Key Features
The Proxmox VE platform has many powerful features, including:
pen-source software, high-available clusters, command line, fencing, a web-based management interface, flexible storage options, REST API, live/online migration, storage replication stack, software defined storage, virtualized networking, backup and restore, two-factor authentication, role-based administration, and VM templates and clones.
Proxmox VE Benefits
Some of the biggest benefits of Proxmox VE are:
Reviews From Real Users
Here is some feedback from some of our users who are currently using the solution:
A PeerSpot user who is a director at a tech services company says, “The most valuable features of Proxmox VE are the ease of containerization. Overall the solution is generic, feature-rich, and has compatibility.”
Another PeerSpot user who is a head of IT operations at a tech services company mentions that "In addition to the virtualization, the firewall and the routing functions that it provides are valuable."
Deepen D., director and CTO at TechnoInfotech, expresses that "The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage container, LVM, and everything else work out of the box."
VMware vSphere is a versatile virtualization platform known for its ease of use, flexibility, and high availability. It supports seamless migration, optimal resource allocation, and centralized management, making it highly suitable for diverse infrastructure needs.
VMware vSphere is widely adopted for its virtualization capabilities that enhance hardware efficiency and ensure minimal downtime through features like High Availability and Distributed Resource Scheduler. Despite criticisms about high licensing costs and limited fault tolerance, it remains a preferred choice due to its stability, scalability, and robust integration options. Users appreciate its efficiency in managing virtual machines and hosting enterprise applications, although challenges with web client performance and hardware compatibility are noted. Organizations often look for better integration with cloud services and enhanced automation and scalability.
What are the core features of VMware vSphere?VMware vSphere is implemented across sectors like healthcare, finance, and education for server virtualization, data center management, and private cloud creation. Its use in facilitating business-critical operations ensures high availability and efficient resource use, supporting both development and production environments.
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