VMware Cloud Foundation Reviews

We use the solution for our infrastructure enterprise. We build networking, storage, and security using VMware Cloud Foundation. We also use the solution for our production.

The solution's most valuable features are automated provisioning, network, and storage. It is also easy to use.

We're just looking to set up a private cloud.

In our case, we don't use this extensively. The system belongs to a third party, so we have limited insight into the different ways they merge platforms and implement functionalities. We primarily purchase and pay for the license while the third party manages and maintains the platform. They integrate various functionalities into their management plane, likely using different tools.

We have little control over the tools they use to manage and control the platform. I've used VMware elsewhere and found it to be quite good, but in this instance, we have no say in their tool choices. The only thing they provide is the service we request.

We are the owners of the platform, but a third-party company is responsible for its support. They support the platform with their own tools, not VMware's. The only thing they have to do with VMware tools is purchase anything we request. We could request a task to be done, and they'll do it for us. 

If we recommend any areas where the platform isn't working, they have to use Huawei tools. We have no say over their use of vRealize Operations Manager or other VMware management tools. The virtual platform belongs to us. We pay for the license and everything else, but we have no control over how it's managed.

We are not really happy because we found that they don't use the full functionality of VMware. We paid for licenses for some solutions, like vRealize Operations Manager, but they don't use it. It's a waste of money.

I've worked in other companies where they provide that setup for different clients. So, we have set up private cloud solutions to provide workbooks for different clients. That's very good because you can keep them separate. 

You have one workbook for one client, another workbook for another client, and then the tools in your management area control everything. And everything's optimized. So that is very good with VMware.

The primary use case for VMware Cloud Foundation is to meet our requirements for host-level redundancy on both the primary site and the DR site. We were already using VMware on our old infrastructure and upgraded to new compute and solutions.

All features of VMware Cloud Foundation are valuable to us, as it covers every industry standard protocol and requirement protocol, and it assists in meeting our requirements for host-level redundancy on both the primary site and the DR site.

We are using VMware Cloud Foundation for virtualization within our on-premises infrastructure. We utilize it primarily for management through vSphere, vCenter, and vMotion, and it fits our current setup since we are not using a hybrid cloud environment.

We use VMware Cloud Foundation mainly for the virtualization part, and because it's a suite where everything is combined, we have vSphere and vCenter. Ever since they changed the license model, after the acquisition by Broadcom, it has become just VCF now. The number of tickets has gone down since the product is much more stable. This improved stability is helping us in a significant way.

Our clients use VMware Cloud Foundation for SDDC implementations. When it comes to data centers, traditionally, data center infrastructure components are standalone systems, like blade servers or rack servers sitting inside a rack. 

But with a software-defined data center (SDDC), you buy a larger hardware component from a vendor like HP, Dell, Nutanix, etc., and then virtualize that hardware to create a pool of VMs, storage, and other resources. 

This concept isn't confined to just compute and storage. You extend this understanding and capability to your network (e.g., software-defined SD-WAN or software-defined networks) and backup (e.g., software-defined backup running on backup appliances like HP StoreOnce). 

You define backup policies through software, specifying which VMs need to be backed up, how often, and the backup retention period. That's how we technically sell these software-defined data center concepts to our customers.

Another thing to consider with data centers is power consumption, which is directly related to the hardware configuration running in the data center. The capacity and power consumption of the hardware you buy from HP, Dell, Nutanix, Cisco, etc., affects your operating costs. Imagine kilowatts of power running over a period of years, so it's a significant cost factor. So, it's not just about the technical capacity but also the power consumption, which is a major discussion point.

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) simplified hybrid cloud integration. In the current environment, most customers have their applications and infrastructure running both in data centers and public clouds, like AWS and Azure. 

VCF brings the capability of having a private cloud solution on-premises that offers a similar experience to what hyperscalers' public clouds provide. This means everything is software-defined, whether it's compute, storage, network, etcetera. We can define a pool of resources and segregate those resources with a click of a mouse through software-defined business tools and policies.

We have various on-premise environments. To upgrade user lifecycle management of those standalone environments with repeated patch upgrades, hardware lifecycle management, and software lifecycle management. For all of these issues, we use VMware Cloud Foundation because it does everything. 

The interoperability checkings, and supportability matrix, it does internally and gives recommendations automatically on what type of hardware we're using. For example, it gives automatic recommendations of all the hardware lifecycle drivers, and firmware, including the software stack. 

VMware Cloud Foundation reduces time complexity for the VMware administrator.

It's a reference architecture. It's based on vSAN Ready Node, however, it basically is tied to VMware in the public cloud, so it has all the VMware components tied to it.

It's a hybrid-based solution, so it's installed on-premise. Basically, you can drag and drop resources without having to do any type of conversions, IP changes, or anything else, into AWS Azure, where they have the VMware workloads running as well as VMware partners that have their VMware public environments up and running. It's that reference architecture that gives you that complete elasticity to be able to transport workloads seamlessly to pretty much anywhere.

The solution can scale.

The stability is good.

You can grow in much smaller pieces through hyper-converged, and that's true of all systems. For my customers who had converged infrastructure, when they needed to add just a little bit of access capacity, it was a couple hundred thousand dollars at a minimum to add just a little capacity. This is due to the fact that they had to buy a bigger chunk of capacity, even though they only needed a little bit. Where, with hyper-converged or Cloud Foundation or Nutanix or whomever, you could grow much smaller chunks. You can grow in $20,000 increments versus $150,000 increments.

I use the solution in my company for our own public and private clouds. We have created our cloud services using these products.

It is a good product, and it actually meets most of the requirements that our company has in terms of creating a cloud, and so that is why we are using it.

The tool's UI is great. I think it is easy to deploy the tool. As we have a user support base, I think it is a good product for our company.