We use it as a distributed firewall and for security purposes.
System Engineer at GIP SIB
It is scalable by design
Pros and Cons
- "It has reduced the number of people on the network team along with the system engineer involved in the security process. So, it is valuable."
- "From a distributed firewall perspective, it's a solid solution."
- "We would to have a reverse proxy. This would add great value to the solution."
- "We would like better integration with the standards on the market. For example, with OSPF, their integration in NSX is very low. It's not a full OSPF integration. It is too thin from a protocol perspective."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It has reduced the number of people on the network team along with the system engineer involved in the security process. So, it is valuable.
We can't go without NSX, so it's invaluable from this perspective.
What is most valuable?
Its flexibility and integration with other VMware solutions are NSX's most valuable features.
The microsegmentation feature is very useful.
What needs improvement?
We would to have a reverse proxy. This would add great value to the solution.
We would also like better integration with the standards on the market. For example, with OSPF, their integration in NSX is very low. It's not a full OSPF integration. It is too thin from a protocol perspective.
The product need to be improved. It is too complex.
Buyer's Guide
VMware NSX
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware NSX. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability used to be perfect. Now, it is okay.
From a distributed firewall perspective, it's a solid solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable by design, so it's perfect.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good. We have encountered several problems with NSX, and every time, support has found the solution to resolve the issue.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In our company, we were starting a hosting solution, so it was by design. We have worked with VMware products for a long time, so it was natural to buy NSX.
How was the initial setup?
It was a complex setup.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not consider anyone else.
If someone is looking for security in a vSphere environment, I don't know of another solution in the market besides NSX.
What other advice do I have?
We had to buy new hardware in order to introduce NSX into our data center.
We don't use load balancing with this solution.
We don't use vCloud Director.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

IT Specialist at Systems and Information Technology Ltd
Seamlessly scalable, secure, and supported network virtualization experience
Pros and Cons
- "It operates on a logical level, providing a comprehensive and centralized way to manage your network resources."
- "One aspect that needs improvement is the need for further automation."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary focus is to create a layer that effectively connects to the remote site. This involves optimizing and accelerating the VXLend component, which is highly popular in our setup. We usually configure VXLend to enhance disaster recovery capabilities, specifically for applications that operate within the same subnet. This approach ensures that in the event of a disaster, such as a WAN failure or when external layers are inaccessible, there's no need to change IP addresses. It allows users to connect seamlessly from any location since the servers maintain the same subnet, and data replication occurs between the data centers. The result is minimal disruption and no requirement to modify configurations during these critical scenarios.
What is most valuable?
Traditional network management often involves dealing with individual components separately while VMware NSX offers a more streamlined approach. It operates on a logical level, providing a comprehensive and centralized way to manage your network resources. This not only simplifies management but also enhances scalability. It enables us to create and adjust policies dynamically, allowing for real-time updates and enforcement so we can effectively oversee our entire data center from a single point of control.
What needs improvement?
One aspect that needs improvement is the need for further automation. We are already operating in a software-defined data center environment, and while the product is mature, there's room for enhancing automation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It provides robust stability features. I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides excellent scalability capabilities. When it comes to micro-segmentation, it allows you to scale naturally. You can distribute firewall and load-balancing functionalities efficiently as your network grows. It also offers seamless integration with the physical network infrastructure, making it easy to extend your virtualized network into the physical world.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support from VMware is exceptional. Recently we encountered a critical issue where one of our virtual machines failed to start and was displaying a blue screen. Despite the urgency of the situation, we logged a support case, and within twenty minutes, we received a response. A support representative promptly called us, established a remote connection, conducted a thorough analysis, and successfully resolved the problem.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Cisco, but I find VMware to be a superior solution. The primary reason is the seamless integration that VMware offers, especially within a data center environment. When working within a data center, VMware's virtualization capabilities are all that we need. We no longer require separate hardware, edge products, load-balancing solutions, or firewall products. Everything can be fully integrated into a unified system and it allows us to accomplish everything from one console and one central point of control, making it a highly efficient and streamlined solution.
How was the initial setup?
When it comes to VMware, there are two primary options: NSX-V and NSX-T. NSX-V is known for its user-friendliness and effectiveness. Setting up SD-WAN connectivity with NSX-V is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is significantly high and it can be a hurdle for many potential users.
What other advice do I have?
I would highly recommend VMware for a wide range of users, spanning from large enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses. It's an ideal choice for those who require disaster recovery solutions or cloud extensions. Its versatility and capabilities make it a valuable choice for anyone looking to scale their infrastructure, whether it's within a data center or by extending into the cloud. I would rate it eight out of ten.
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
Buyer's Guide
VMware NSX
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware NSX. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
General Manager at Oplee
Has a straightforward setup process and enables efficient network management
Pros and Cons
- "The product has valuable features for security and network extension."
- "The network-extending capabilities for the physical environment need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product for disaster recovery purposes. It helps us expand the network and security for workloads running inside the environment. In the cloud, specifically with Azure VMware Solution or AWS, VMware NSX provides protection-related capabilities.
How has it helped my organization?
Regarding network management, it enables the ease of creating a network configuration for any application.
What is most valuable?
The product has valuable features for security and network extension. We can secure customer environments by effectively managing and securing traffic and facilitating seamless network extension. We can address challenges related to workload migration, where we often need to relocate workloads between environments due to changes in licensing or applications. The DFW, i.e., Distributed Firewall, is the most beneficial feature for network security and micro-segmentation.
What needs improvement?
The network-extending capabilities for the physical environment need improvement. Instead of virtualization, the ability to add physical servers to the network could be enhanced.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using VMware NSX since 2018. We have worked with different versions depending on the customer's requirements. We are working with the latest version as well.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have medium to enterprise-level customers for VMware NSX. Regarding scalability, we can add new nodes or servers to the cluster. It automatically extends in a horizontal scale-out approach when the nodes are added.
I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We open a case and await the engineer's reply on escalation. It is a process similar to that of other vendors.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. The implementation time ranges from days to weeks, depending on the business use cases per customer requirements. It involves the assessment of design, deploying, and verifying the same. I rate the process an eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product pricing ranges from medium to expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
VMware NSX has played a significant role in supporting your organization's efforts in automated network provisioning and creating multi-tenant networks, especially when integrated with vRealize Automation or other automation tools. We were able to create an automated orchestrated workload and manage IP assignments.
I rate the product a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Senior Consultant at Arwentech Private Limited
Has the ability to provide advanced security at the micro-level, focusing on securing applications and workloads
Pros and Cons
- "One significant advantage of VMware NSX is the ability to provide advanced security at the micro-level, focusing on securing applications and workloads rather than just the network structure or virtualization-based network security."
- "The feature it can improve is essentially application-based load balancing with intelligent load distribution for applications that require redundancy and high availability."
What is our primary use case?
We're moving towards hyper-converged solutions with VMware, including NSX and vSAN. This direction has promising prospects in the market.
What is most valuable?
One significant advantage of VMware NSX is the ability to provide advanced security at the micro-level, focusing on securing applications and workloads rather than just the network structure or virtualization-based network security.
What needs improvement?
I believe we need to attain a certain level of maturity and work closely with multiple customers to make substantial improvements and achieve notable results. The feature it can improve is essentially application-based load balancing with intelligent load distribution for applications that require redundancy and high availability. This feature operates at a micro-level, specifically focusing on the payloads of applications.
To clarify further, I believe that if NSX offers this functionality along with robust security measures for application payloads, it would greatly benefit customers. Instead of investing in additional devices or appliances for load balancing and security, organizations would likely prefer to leverage NSX's integrated capabilities in this regard.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for the past six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
As for stability, the customer I mentioned earlier is extremely satisfied with the product's stability.
How are customer service and support?
VMware doesn't have a physical presence in Pakistan. They recently initiated their operations here. However, we do have interactions with their team based in Singapore, and I must say they are quite supportive. The customer hasn't raised any complaints regarding their support. The time required for deployment can vary based on the size of the infrastructure, but typically, it can be accomplished within a two-week timeframe.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
One of our prominent clients is a major university in Pakistan, and they expressed dissatisfaction with their current solution, Sentra for SCI. They expressed a desire to transition to VMware, specifically NSX, as they are seeking hyper-converged integrations with both cloud and on-premises solutions.
How was the initial setup?
Regarding the initial setup, VMware products, including NSX, are generally straightforward to set up and deploy, so complexity hasn't been an issue.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The implementation of VMware NSX can be cost-intensive, especially if an organization is looking for a comprehensive solution. The costs can vary based on factors like the level of conversation and discounts obtained during negotiations. Some government organizations, for instance, may find the prices relatively high, leading to concerns about budget hikes, especially when deploying the solution across the entire organization.
Regarding maintenance and support, they are typically included in the standard licensing costs for enterprise-level businesses. While these costs can be significant, many companies opt for standard licensing to ensure they have access to necessary support and maintenance services.
What other advice do I have?
The deployment of NSX security can be somewhat challenging, and it requires a thorough understanding of the organization's specific needs and objectives. To effectively implement NSX security measures, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of the applications, payloads, and various components within the network environment.
As external service providers, it's essential to work closely with the organization and gain a deep understanding of their deployment requirements. This includes identifying the specific areas and layers where NSX security measures need to be implemented. By having a comprehensive grasp of each aspect and layer of the network, we can ensure a more effective and tailored security deployment.
I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Information Security Engineer at CEntral bank of Libya
Scalable, stable, and has a high bandwidth
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the high bandwidth."
- "A room for improvement in VMware NSX is that it has some security vulnerabilities, which means my company has to apply the patches every once in a while."
What is our primary use case?
I use VMware NSX for virtualizing networks for VMware virtual machines.
How has it helped my organization?
VMware NSX improved my organization because it's more flexible than network hardware and provides many solutions, such as firewalls and load balancers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the high bandwidth.
What needs improvement?
A room for improvement in VMware NSX is that it has some security vulnerabilities, which means my company has to apply the patches every once in a while.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have two years of experience with VMware NSX, and I've worked with the solution in the last twelve months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VMware NSX is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware NSX is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have no experience contacting VMware NSX technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I didn't use a previous solution before I used VMware NSX.
My company went with VMware NSX because the infrastructure within the company is VMware.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for VMware NSX is not that complex. It's in the middle, so I'd rate it as five out of ten.
I'm trying to remember how long the deployment of the solution took, but it didn't take up a lot of time.
What about the implementation team?
A third party helped my company with VMware NSX implementation.
What other advice do I have?
I have experience with VMware NSX.
I'm using the latest version of the solution.
Sometimes, VMware NSX requires maintenance. The third-party was responsible for the first time, and then the vendor took over the subsequent maintenance activities.
VMware NSX has about three hundred users in the company.
I don't know if there's any plan to increase usage for the solution.
My rating for VMware NSX is nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
General Manager at SIEC SISTEMAS
Reliable, with high availability and good connectivity
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very stable and reliable."
- "There were some issues with finance and other accounting."
What is most valuable?
The stability or the high availability in connecting two or more servers has been pretty good. This is to maintain the operations in the possible highest stability. That was a very important part of this project since you have to move all virtual machines to the new infrastructure. It took a very, very long time to understand how the old architecture was arranged and how to migrate to our new architecture.
What needs improvement?
There were some issues in finance and other accounting. The applications there are very old. To move these applications, we had to use some controls or web services for programming in a new program, for example, in Python or visual C#. You have to move these applications to new programming software. It was very, very complex to move them. However, we ended up doing it very well.
ESX servers are a part that they don't implement. The client that this part of the VMware is important. You can implement more virtual machines using ESX server infrastructure. However, they couldn't complete this part since, for some arrangements in the contract, they don't put it in the contract. They need to buy new licenses to complete the project.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve been using the solution for six to eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn’t crash or freeze. The performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have maybe 2,000 users using the solution. We use them to move to new infrastructure.
How are customer service and support?
I have experience using help desk support to understand all the users' needs. We were in the area of quality control, so all the requirements that the users or the managers were indicating to me, we had to transfer to the area of programming and they would say, “okay, I'll let you know if I can do it or not.” I was the go-between. It worked very well. Support was offering quality service.
What about the implementation team?
I am able to help clients set up the solution. I’m an integrator.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The original cost started at $1,500. The solution is paid monthly. All the institutions have to pay monthly for the services in the cloud. They have to pay $30,000 every month for this service every three years.
What other advice do I have?
I am not a reseller. I am an integration company. More prominent companies contract us and we work for them.
I’d rate the solution nine out of ten.
VMware is a very, very good product. It's used a lot here in Ecuador in a lot of enterprises and institutions.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Competency Leader - Virtualization at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
End-to-end visibility, good integration, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility."
- "VMware NSX can improve the migration tools from the older environments to the new environment. For example, the NSX-V has become a legacy solution, it's out of support, but customers are able to keep using it. For migration purposes, it's better for them to provide a proper tool. It will be easy to migrate from an old environment to a new one."
What is our primary use case?
We use VMware NSX for micro-segmentation.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility.
What needs improvement?
VMware NSX can improve the migration tools from the older environments to the new environment. For example, the NSX-V has become a legacy solution, it's out of support, but customers are able to keep using it. For migration purposes, it's better for them to provide a proper tool. It will be easy to migrate from an old environment to a new one.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used VMware NSX within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of VMware NSX is very high.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware NSX can scale to any sized organization, small or large.
Our recent clients had approximately 1,000 users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have not had any problems with the support from VMware NSX.
I rate the support from VMware NSX a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other network virtualization tools and the main difference is VMware NSX is tightly integrated with the Hypervisor layer. We've been able to have end-to-end visibility of the virtual machine traffic, and we have been able to see the flow. The other solution will be agent-based.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of VMware NSX is very easy.
I rate the setup of VMware NSX a four out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of VMware NSX is very good compared to other solutions.
I rate the price of VMware NSX a five out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I rate VMware NSX an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner / Integrator
Senior Technical Consultant at The Instillery
Provides Microsegmentation And Good Security Features For North-South And East-West Traffic Across Your SDDC
What is most valuable?
The ease in which to install this product and make it work straight away without minimum changes in your physical network and is simply astonishing. The only thing you need to do when installing this product is change your MTU to 1600 (jumbo frames). It provides microsegmentation and good security features for north-south and east-west traffic across your SDDC. The performance you obtain at the virtual layer and traffic crossing for your VMs gets improved dramatically because the traffic doesn't leave the hypervisor. I'm not a network guy myself but NSX makes it really easy to understand how the virtual network pins together and how you can manage the traffic and security within your VMware deployment without the hassle of changing VLANs, adding unnecessary protocols for discovery, etc.
Encapsulating the traffic using VXLAN is a great addition. It extrapolates the number of VLANs that you can stretch to an almost infinite number of VXLAN (millions of VXLANs). In abstract, you are dealing with numerous VLANs every time you want to send traffic from one VM to another, basically VMs on different hosts within the same datacenter will be connected to the same logical switch and traffic is advertised via unicast traffic from the NSX controllers to let every body know in the environment "who is who" to minimize the amount of multicast traffic.
How has it helped my organization?
We haven't installed this in our environment yet. We have a major lab to provide our Ci-Dev team a sandpit to test apps and its security when deploying a three-tier application on our customers and test every single connection and performance before handing over the application to the customer.
What needs improvement?
The upgrade process is okay overall, but we have encountered issues every time when upgrading with the ESXi hosts VIB installation packages not being properly deployed, and after upgrading NSX manager, the ESXi hosts still uses the old version. This causes additional steps to manually remove those old VIBs from the ESXi, reinstall them, and try again. In some cases, we had to uninstall and install them from scratch NSX and restore from backup, which in a real world scenario won't be desirable to do. You would like to have an in-place a seamless upgrade from one version to another, especially if you are changing minor versions (e.g., 6.3.1 to 6.3.2).
For how long have I used the solution?
Six months now.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
The upgrade process is okay overall, but we have encountered issues every time when upgrading with the ESXi hosts VIB installation packages not being properly deployed, and after upgrading NSX manager, the ESXi hosts still uses the old version. This causes additional steps to manually remove those old VIBs from the ESXi, reinstall them, and try again. In some cases, we had to uninstall and install them from scratch NSX and restore from backup, which in a real world scenario won't be desirable to do. You would like to have an in-place a seamless upgrade from one version to another, especially if you are changing minor versions (e.g., 6.3.1 to 6.3.2).
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
A very stable product, it is more mature than it was four years ago when it first came out. The performance you get with this product is near-line rate.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
If you have a large environment, the sprawl of Distributed Logical Routers or logical switches can be hard to manage, but you will have the same issues in a physical network.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
We have a direct line with VMware support and with the specialized engineer who provides support on NSX. We haven't had to open a support call yet, but the engineer we've dealt with is very capable and knowledgeable on the product.
Technical Support:Excellent. VMware engineers are top of the line. I haven't met one engineer who doesn't know the product well that they support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Nope, never used a network virtualisation product before.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward. Just a couple of install media and .ovf files and you're done. The interesting part comes after installation when you need to define your virtual network architecture and how you're going to deploy rules and connectivity for your VMs.
What about the implementation team?
In-house deployment. We're a large VMware shop and know VMware products well.
What was our ROI?
Not applicable for this product yet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We got the licenses from VMware as part of the NFR agreement, but you will require a medium infrastructure to deploy this initially. Lot of memory and CPU are required to have the product run smoothly
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No, there are no other products in the market that provide network virtualisation as far as I know.
What other advice do I have?
Download the installer, try it, and you will love it. Some hardcore network administrators will say it is not the same, and of course is not the same, but it is a new way to do things in the network space. It is the way of the future when deploying large networks in Software Defined Data Centres.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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