I use it for my infrastructure, and we can also use it for our simulation environment and training. We can use VMware in a simulation environment to test the environment we need.
IT Infrastructure Engineer at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees
Makes my environment very reliable, and it is easy to manage and implement
Pros and Cons
- "It is a very dependable solution. Its performance is very good, and it is also easy to manage and implement."
- "They can lower the price of its license."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It makes my environment very reliable.
What is most valuable?
It is a very dependable solution. Its performance is very good, and it is also easy to manage and implement.
What needs improvement?
They can lower the price of its license.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
November 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with this solution for more than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. In my organization, we have about 2,000 users. Its usage is very extensive. We use it daily.
How are customer service and support?
Their technical support has been very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Microsoft Hyper-V.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to implement. It is a very good solution.
What about the implementation team?
I can implement it myself. On one server, it takes a maximum of one hour. We have a technical team of three people for deployment and maintenance. We have one manager and two engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price could be lower. There is the cost of one license, and then there is the subscription cost for support.
What other advice do I have?
It is a very fine and reliable solution. I would rate it a nine out of 10.
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.
Founder & Technology Advisor at EUC Solutions
Easy to set up and maintain, feature-rich, professional support
Pros and Cons
- "It is the number one virtualization-layer platform available, and a lot of people trust it."
- "To manage it properly, you have to know this product really well."
What is our primary use case?
The primary reason our customers use vSphere is to consolidate their workloads and realize the other benefits that virtualization provides. For example, they create HA or VM-level HA to facilitate DR.
Essentially, our clients use vSphere for all of the reasons that people use a virtualization layer.
I am a virtualization technician, doing software technology consulting for virtualization and VDI.
How has it helped my organization?
This is a solution that is normally very straightforward. It doesn't give you many surprises. It's very stable. However, one should have good knowledge when it comes to it because sometimes, you have to use the command line for troubleshooting. For unseen problems, you sometimes need to dig deep to troubleshoot.
What is most valuable?
vSphere is a robust and feature-rich virtualization platform. It is the number one virtualization-layer platform available, and a lot of people trust it.
Many other platforms now provide similar features but VMware was the first to provide enhanced recorders, DRS, fault tolerance, vMotion, and others. They pioneered these features and they are very stable.
VMware also provides software-defined storage, vSAN, which is built into the kernel. This is a plus point.
Other good features include DRS, HA, fault tolerance, vSAN, and vCenter is a very good management interface.
This platform is easy to maintain.
What needs improvement?
To manage it properly, you have to know this product really well. For the most part, it is very easy to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I began working with VMware vSphere in 2007 or 2008 when it was version 3.x.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is the most stable virtualization platform available.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In the three years that I have been running my consultancy, I've found that VMware is always part of a large project. Most of the time, I have had a good experience with it.
We have done multiple enterprise services projects using this solution. For example, we were working on a Horizon View PoC for a client.
vSphere is scalable; you just have to add to your cluster and it will increase. You can scale up or scale-out, like any other software. Basically, you can add to it as much as you want to.
I trust VMware products and I definitely want our installed base to increase. I want to enhance my own knowledge and skillset, as well. As we move forward and expand, I am equipping myself with more cloud knowledge and focusing on new technologies. One new product that I am looking at is Carbon Black. Throughout this, I will continue to promote VMware because they are a vendor that I trust.
How are customer service and support?
The VMware support is very professional. Most of the time we've used them, they were very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As a technology consultant working for customers with varying requirements, I work with other virtualization platforms. Two of these are Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy and there is nothing difficult about it. Initially, some people get stuck when they are setting up the supporting services, like DNS, but other than that, the setup is plain and simple.
The length of time required for deployment depends on whether your disk is an SSD. If so, then the copying will be fast. Also, if you have more memory then it will install quicker.
Regardless of how it is set up, you have to build the basic infrastructure to put in most of your workloads. Sometimes, you manage an existing one but most of the time, we have to deploy a VMware infrastructure.
A single person can basically manage it, although this depends upon the deployment size. If it's a huge deployment, then it requires a good design and it requires proper planning. You need to know your capacity requirements, for example.
If you understand the environment and the design then maybe you can segregate the work into two or three people. Sometimes if it's a small project, a single person can do it. It all depends on the files and complexity of the solution you are providing to the customer.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy this product ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing model is not complex.
It is a perpetual licensing but there is also an annual maintenance cost. The price of the solution depends on the features that you want. You can have a very basic setup or you can choose a more advanced set of features. The more features that you want and the more extensive your requirement is, the more you have to pay.
What other advice do I have?
In Pakistan, for the most part, organizations are still catching up in terms of the cloud. There are no large data centers because cloud providers do not exist locally. Neither AWS nor Azure has a presence.
The closest data centers to us are Singapore and Dubai. As such, the cloud is not very popular yet and most of our customers have on-premises deployments. We do expect this to change.
My advice for anybody who is implementing this product, or any piece of software, is to have a reasonable level of knowledge in advance of the deployment. That is key in IT.
If you are a consultant, as opposed to an end-user, then you need to have a deep knowledge of the product because there are circumstances where you have to go beyond the normal configuration. Sometimes you have issues that can only be resolved if you are well-equipped with the knowledge.
I also recommend that people plan their deployment. VMware is a wonderful product and it will definitely provide you with the functionality to meet your technical requirements. You will be a very satisfied customer while using it, but the key is to know the product and plan things properly.
Overall, this is a good product and I do not feel that there is much missing. It is the best virtualization platform available.
I would rate this solution a ten 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.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VMware Software Engineer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable with good performance and helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The pricing of the product is reasonable."
- "The latest version of the solution has a few bugs."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for virtualization.
What is most valuable?
The solution offers a very stable performance.
It's a scalable product.
The solution is extremely reliable. It's an excellent product.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
Technical support has always been great.
The pricing of the product is reasonable.
What needs improvement?
The latest version of the solution has a few bugs. This may be due to the fact that they moved to web-based management. There are some problems in that web-based management, however, it's a minimal issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for seven or eight years at this point. I've used it for a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and very reliable. The performance has been great. In the version we are using, there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.
I'm not sure of the exact number of users, however, we do have the solution installed on 4,000 machines.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been excellent. They are helpful and responsive. We have no complaints. Their level of service is always good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward and not overly complex. Although it took us a couple of weeks before we installed it, the deployment only took about one day or one and a half days.
We had three engineers that handled the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the initial setup ourselves. We did not need the assistance of an integrator or consultant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There's a yearly licensing fee, however, it isn't overly expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Up until now, we use the product on-premises, however, currently, we are developing a hybrid cloud. We are moving to the cloud solution and the base, the transition system is, VMware vSphere.
While we use the solution's 6.7 version, the latest version is version 7.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. I've been very happy with the capabilities of the product.
I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations.
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.
Lead QA Analyst at Loomis Express
Reasonable cost, scalable, and useful for creating ThinApps
Pros and Cons
- "Overall, it is a pretty good solution. We do not have to worry about upgrading the versions that people use for our in-house software. We just create ThinApps, and as soon as they log in, they always get the upgraded version. This part really works well for us."
- "We've been using vSphere on Windows 7, and it had less fluff associated with ThinApp. Currently, with Windows 10 version that we have, it adds a lot of bulk to ThinApp. We have offices spanning across Canada from the east coast to the west coast. A ThinApp that is roughly around 400 MB in size would take minutes to open up. With Windows 7, the same ThinApp used to be close to 75 to 80 MB in size. So, I'm really not happy with the extra fluff that is bundled in Windows 10. It really messes things up for us at times."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to create ThinApps.
How has it helped my organization?
We do not need to deploy the software to each and every client machine. They just can access ThinApp, and they are good to go.
What is most valuable?
Overall, it is a pretty good solution. We do not have to worry about upgrading the versions that people use for our in-house software. We just create ThinApps, and as soon as they log in, they always get the upgraded version. This part really works well for us.
What needs improvement?
We've been using vSphere on Windows 7, and it had less fluff associated with ThinApp. Currently, with Windows 10 version that we have, it adds a lot of bulk to ThinApp. We have offices spanning across Canada from the east coast to the west coast. A ThinApp that is roughly around 400 MB in size would take minutes to open up. With Windows 7, the same ThinApp used to be close to 75 to 80 MB in size. So, I'm really not happy with the extra fluff that is bundled in Windows 10. It really messes things up for us at times.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It includes a lot of fluff from Windows 10, which is not at all needed. That's the worst part of it. Otherwise, it works fine.
We have to create an image before and after we deploy the software, and that part takes a while.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is simple in terms of scalability. There are no issues.
The whole team uses vSphere to create ThinApps that are used by all of our employees. We have close to 5,000 users. So, we are using it quite extensively.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't used their tech support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were deploying all of the in-house software to client machines, but we didn't find it practical enough. Considering that we have offices all across Canada, we needed a solution that allowed us to create a new version of the in-house software and then deploy it remotely. That's where vSphere came in. We do not need to deploy to individual clients. It is just a link that is shared on their desktop, and they can access it straight away.
How was the initial setup?
It is very simple. You just need one person. It takes seconds.
It doesn't require maintenance. Every time we need to upgrade the software or we have a different or higher version, we just create a ThinApp. It takes seconds for the users to get it. It is a very simple process. They just need to close the existing software and reopen it, and they get the updated version.
What was our ROI?
We have definitely seen a return on investment. Previously, if a plant's PC goes down 4,000 kilometers away, we had to ship that machine to our head office to repair it and then send it back. We don't have to do that now because we are using vSphere. We just can upgrade all of our software with ThinApps.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Considering the number of users, it is pretty reasonable. I am not aware of any costs in addition to the licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
I do not prefer the newest version because of the bulk that it adds to ThinApp, especially with Windows 10 operating system. If they can find a way around that, it would be really good.
Considering the returns and the number of users for the ThinApps that we create using vSphere, I would rate VMware vSphere a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Administrator at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees
User-friendly, easy to manage, and straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is user-friendly. It is easy to convert, create, and manage systems."
- "On the older version of VMware vSphere, possibly version four, we had a feature that allowed us to backup Ziploc machines. It has not been available in the newer version such as six or seven. I have been looking for another solution to accomplish the backups but they should bring back this plugin-type tool to allow older backup capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
We have implemented VMware vSphere a lot which is used for Server Virtualization. It has reduced the number of equipment that we need to use in the data centers servers, such as HP, IBM, Dell, and many others. We can use this solution for many use cases, even storage.
How has it helped my organization?
We have been able to reduce the amount of time between implementations and the number of systems needed which has allowed us to focus that time somewhere in our organization.
What is most valuable?
The solution is user-friendly. It is easy to convert, create, and manage systems.
What needs improvement?
On the older version of VMware vSphere, possibly version four, we had a feature that allowed us to backup Ziploc machines. It has not been available in the newer version such as six or seven. I have been looking for another solution to accomplish the backups but they should bring back this plugin-type tool to allow older backup capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is easy to scale.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use Microsoft Hyper-V.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward.
I have recently implemented version seven and I am monitoring the differences from five to seven.
What about the implementation team?
We have found sometimes when we have some instability it is difficult to get support for the specific issue.
What was our ROI?
We have saved money from reducing the number of systems needed, the time it takes for someone to do implementations, and the electricity used for the systems.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to those wanting to implement the solution is to make sure they read and know exactly what the solution does, and if there were updates from the previous version they have used, understand the changes before implementing.
I rate VMware vSphere a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Flexible, feature rich, and improves business operations
Pros and Cons
- "I have found the solution to be flexible, and the vCenter and vMotion useful."
- "There was a time we lost the password for the ESXi and we had to do a hardware reset. At this point, we had to fill up the ESXi from the bottom up. I am not sure if there was another solution to this problem but it took a long time."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution to build the AD database for the server.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has been very helpful to our organization. For example, if we need to run 10 servers there is a high cost attached if we buy the physical server, but if we use this solution we can buy a very large server then control everything. The most valuable feature has been the ability to utilize the vMotion when we have a problem. It has been invaluable for us when we had a problem with a broken host that we were able to redirect our traffic to a different host to keep the business operational.
What is most valuable?
I have found the solution to be flexible, and the vCenter and vMotion useful. When we have a server that is down we can use the vMotion to use another host. Additionally, the backup feature and graphics are very good. The documentations are clear and easy to understand.
What needs improvement?
There was a time we lost the password for the ESXi and we had to do a hardware reset. At this point, we had to fill up the ESXi from the bottom up. I am not sure if there was another solution to this problem but it took a long time. We were told it would only be a few hours to resolve but in fact, it took one day. Having to explain this downtime to management was not the best experience.
In an upcoming release, there could be a better ability to manage and control the synchronization of the power in the vSphere.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good for everything we have been using the solution for. We have three IT users using this solution, if we upgrade our hardware we might increase usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support agents are not clear about the issues that are being discussed. They cannot address the problem or estimate the time correctly. In one particular issue, we needed to raise our ticket to the management level because they told us it would take two hours to be operational but the downtime was one day and one night. They should have first checked the vSphere technical aspects.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is very easy. It was not complicated at all.
What was our ROI?
This solution has kept our business operating and has saved us money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is an annual cost for the use of this solution.
The price is a little high in developing countries. If they were able to reduce the price they would receive more customers now and even more in the future.
What other advice do I have?
I rate VMware vSphere an eight 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.
Manager at SSMS
Easy to use and straightforward to implement with a nice dashboard
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very straightforward to implement."
- "Technical support could be faster in terms of response times."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is primarily used for management. It offers easier control at multiple branches.
What is most valuable?
The product is stable.
The flexibility of the solution is very good.
The product is very easy to use.
The product offers a very nice single dashboard for complete management.
The solution is very straightforward to implement.
We found the scalability to be very good.
What needs improvement?
The solution doesn't seem to be missing any features currently.
It would be ideal if the integration capabilities were a bit more robust.
Technical support could be faster in terms of response times.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for about five or six years. It's been a while at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is very good. We haven't seen any issues with expanding it if we need to.
There are about 15 to 20 users on the solution at this time.
While we don't have current plans to increase usage, if the business grows, we likely will.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is quite good. They are helpful and knowledgeable. That said, their response times need to be better. We would like them to respond faster to queries.
Other than that, we are satisfied with their level of service.
How was the initial setup?
The product is not overly complex to set up. It's very simple and straightforward. A company shouldn't have any issues with the implementation.
We have an admin team that can handle any maintenance required.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are looking for opportunities with Nutanix. We are looking at it now.
That said, we did not evaluate any other products before choosing this solution. However, many years back, we did look into Citrix.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the latest version of the solution at this point. I cannot speak to the exact version number off-hand.
We are not integrating the solution at this time.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. I would recommend the solution to other companies.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head Of Infrastructure & Cloud ops at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Helps with large scale deployments and maintenance
Pros and Cons
- "Also, the automated builds are being done through it, and we don't have to manually do it anymore. All of my AIS platforms are completely automated now with the VM suite."
- "It could be more composable. At present, a fluid pool is not available to us. It would be great to have the flexibility."
What is most valuable?
VMware vSphere gives us a complete landscape to manage the infrastructure in one view. With the REDOPS automation in place, it is easy for us to manage our VMs on top of it.
Also, the automated builds are being done through it, and we don't have to manually do it anymore. All of my AIS platforms are completely automated now with the VM suite.
What needs improvement?
It could be more composable. At present, a fluid pool is not available to us, and it would be great to have the flexibility.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with VMware vSphere for more than eight years.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support has been good. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, I would rate technical support at 4.5.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
VMware vSphere helps with large scale deployments and maintenance. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at nine.
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.
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