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it_user801585 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Consultant at Oriental Weavers
Consultant
A solution that offers good system protection, very good scalability and fair pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability of the solution is very good."
  • "The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution across all of our systems.

What is most valuable?

The system offers good protection that we as users can trust.

What needs improvement?

The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases.  

The solution should also make little improvements and tweaks to performance, reliability, redundancy, and DR systems. There should be better recovery offered to protect and ensure the application of systems and backups.

More information about administration features, like the replication feature, should be provided.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is okay, but it could be better.

Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM VirtualBox
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Oracle VM VirtualBox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is very good.  

How are customer service and support?

I've heard technical support is good, but I've never reached out to them for assistance.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't too complex.

What about the implementation team?

I handled the implementation myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We're satisfied with the pricing the solution offers.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
e-Learning Systems Developer Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall.

Valuable Features:

Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall. Running Virtualboxes with individual stacks clarifies use cases and minimizes risk while users test different partial solution elements. 

Virtualboxes can also run in different physical machines so that the relative demand of processing power can be met while maintaining optimal usage of each physical machine. This ensure that the risk of overloads is minimized during peak demand times.

Improvements to My Organization:

It's helped us utilize spare capacity on servers and test new platforms and frameworks. It has also improved the staging of our apps before implementations.

Room for Improvement:

Managing virtual machine stacks on an individual and stacked basis needs work. It also lacks the ability to perform auto-recovery switchover.

Moreover, they should define Virtualbox stacks as groups of virtual machines working together as solutions. It would also help if they could define auto-backup/mirroring and failover configurations.

Use of Solution:

I am still evaluating the methodologies with the current free versions.

Deployment Issues:

We've had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues:

We've had no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues:

There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.

Initial Setup:

I set it up myself and tried to configure it to the extent of my knowledge.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM VirtualBox
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Oracle VM VirtualBox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user104151 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Vendor
We're able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware.

Valuable Features

Being able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware is the most valuable feature for us.

Improvements to My Organization

With this solution, we need to have less hardware and we're able to to perform faster testing.

Room for Improvement

I've had networking issues when I travel with my laptop. Switching VMs from NAT to bridge is a nuisance.

Use of Solution

I've used it for five years.

Deployment Issues

We have had no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues

We had no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues

We've not scaled it at all. I just run three different versions of Linux and three on Windows at different times.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

I've not had to use customer service at all.

Technical Support:

I've not had to contact technical support.

Initial Setup

The setup is always straightforward.

Implementation Team

I implemented it myself.

ROI

It saved me five whole computers.

Other Solutions Considered

I've not had to look at any other solutions as it does exactly what I need without fuss.

Other Advice

Go for it, and make sure to add plenty of RAM to the host.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
IT Analyst with 51-200 employees
Vendor
I value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.

What is most valuable?

The ease-of-use and versatility are among the good qualities of this solution. I also value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.

How has it helped my organization?

We can test and evaluate software and systems in a controlled environment before the roll-out to production.

What needs improvement?

It would be great to have a hypervisor version of VirtualBox running on servers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I’ve been using VirtualBox since it was launched many years ago by Innotech.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We found no problems deploying it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

VirtualBox is a very stable product and we found no problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has been able to scale to our needs without any issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have never ever had the need to use technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We tried VMWare VMPlayer in the beginning, but VirtualBox outperformed it and so it became our choice.

How was the initial setup?

It’s a very simple and straightforward process.

What about the implementation team?

It was an in-house implementation.

What was our ROI?

We use the personal licensing option as we use it on a few machines.

What other advice do I have?

In my opinion, this product is the best available option for testing virtual appliances and operating systems. I use it also as a means of running multiple virtual machines without changing my business desktop environment. We recommend VirtualBox as an excellent product for evaluating new systems or softwares.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sr. Director at LogiCorner Info Tech.
Real User
Leaderboard
Allows us to run multiple operating systems at the same time
Pros and Cons
  • "The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster."
  • "The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."

What is our primary use case?

We use Oracle VM VirtualBox in combination with Oracle Database. We also run Tomcat inside VirtualBox.

Within our organization, there are five people using this solution. 

What is most valuable?

The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster. 

What needs improvement?

The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive.

Currently, when pilot testing VMs, sometimes we have to test them on the cloud — this is complicated. In the next release, it would be nice if there was a convenient way to migrate the VM images from the local server to the cloud server.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Oracle VM VirtualBox is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Although we haven't needed to scale out, I'd imagine it's quite scalable. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was quite straightforward. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated VMware.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. It's easy to use. Everything you need to know can be found with a simple Google search — the whole process. 

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Systems Engineering at Atlantica Digital
Consultant
It is stable and I can use it in an environment with several resolutions
Pros and Cons
  • "I think VirtualBox has good stability because I use it in an environment with several resolutions."
  • "The technical support needs to improve."

What is our primary use case?

I use Oracle VM VirtualBox mainly for testing guest environments and to test beta machines before they go in production environment. I also simulate configuration before the production environment to test some optionality.

What is most valuable?

I have found that cost metric manager is an interesting implementation of the network environment and it enables me to reproduce production environments.

What needs improvement?

The technical support needs to improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for seven or eight years now on private cloud.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think VirtualBox has good stability because I use it in an environment with several resolutions. VirtualBox is able to use the full functionality and the powerfulness of the server I installed VirtualBox on this environment. So I, at the moment, I'm satisfied with the stability of the VirtualBox environment. I'm able to run several guest environments on one node.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable because I can run several guest environments on one node.

How are customer service and technical support?

I very rarely need support in VirtualBox because I utilize the documentation provided by Oracle. In my experience, I have never opened a service request for VirtualBox functionality because I find myself to work around what I need to run my environment. This is also due to the fact that I use VirtualBox in a lab environment and not in a production environment. So, for me, the technical support is not critical. 

What other advice do I have?

I will rate this solution an eight out of ten due to its environmental guide. For the next release I think the developer should work on reliability and security. But it is a good product. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user486537 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Sales Consultant at FOEX GmbH
Vendor
The most valuable feature for me is the ability to use it as a client or a server to test our APEX environment and the plugins that we create.

Valuable Features:

The most valuable feature for me is the ability to use it as a client or a server to test our APEX environment and the plugins that we create. It also runs very quickly and doesn’t use up much battery power on a MacBook.

Improvements to My Organization:

Since I usually work from my home office, it increases efficiency because I don’t have to connect to the company’s database to run tests. I can do everything locally.

Room for Improvement:

The initial configuration was a little tricky. Setup could be simpler.

Use of Solution:

I have used the product for half a year.

Initial Setup:

Again, the initial setup is complex.

Other Advice:

Take care configuring the network. It’s tricky to get everything running, but there are certain benefits to look forward to after you do.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1035 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Free, Amazing and Powerful, Cross-platform Virtualization Software

Valuable Features:

1. It is a free software 2. Performance is at a very good level 3. If there is a problem it can be fixed easily because it has a good community website.

Room for Improvement:

If the user faces a problem he has to read a large amount of docs to fix them.

Other Advice:

Oracle VM Virtual box is a very good tool for me. The main reason is that it is a free product. Also, if I face a problem, I can fix it because the community website provides very good support. You do not need to have a high level of skills to work with it. As a student and a programmer, I have to use it with different operating systems. I have to check my codes in several operating systems. For that, Oracle VM is a very useful tool. On my laptop, I am running Ubuntu on OracleVM.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user516753 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user516753Works at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Real User

Virtual Box is a free and great product to create a OS and use it. Wonderful features compared to VMWARE.

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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle VM VirtualBox Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle VM VirtualBox Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.