The feature I find the most valuable is that vSphere doesn't break unless integrated with Veeam or vCenter.
Senior Distributed Platform Administrator at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Can run for 50 years on its own without crashing
Pros and Cons
- "Tech support is very knowledgeable."
- "Sometimes it's impossible to prevent problems from happening. With vSphere, you never know where the problem is going to come from, but you will always know that there is a problem. This is the problem."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
When you run vSphere on its own, that thing can run for 50 years without crashing. The problem starts when you start integrating it to clusters, migrating the virtual machines, doing the DRS, and applying the resource pool. The problem is with the memory.
Sometimes it's impossible to prevent problems from happening. With vSphere, you never know where the problem is going to come from, but you will always know that there is a problem. This is the problem.
I would make integration much better and improve speed. I would also make the errors more visible to the user.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable.
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842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Tech support is very knowledgeable.
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.
Owner at Computech Associates
Feature-rich, stable, scalable, and useful for running multiple virtual machines from a single server
Pros and Cons
- "This product is useful for running multiple virtual machines from a single server so that people can utilize the hardware resources in their organization. Its ability for backups is also valuable. In case of a disaster, you can recover the entire server from the images. It is easy to use. In terms of features, whatever they are providing is more than sufficient for us. We are not exploiting this product up to a hundred percent."
- "Its price should be better. Their support should also be more customer-friendly, and they should train people like us so that we know more about the latest technologies and features. If there is some program and drive from their side to teach us, it is definitely going to help us. Pricing and support are the most important features for mid-level companies. We are not implementing this solution for big tech companies."
What is our primary use case?
We are a service provider, and we give services to our customers. Whenever we provide the solution, we give the latest version available at that time.
What is most valuable?
This product is useful for running multiple virtual machines from a single server so that people can utilize the hardware resources in their organization. Its ability for backups is also valuable. In case of a disaster, you can recover the entire server from the images. It is easy to use.
In terms of features, whatever they are providing is more than sufficient for us. We are not exploiting this product up to a hundred percent.
What needs improvement?
Its price should be better. Their support should also be more customer-friendly, and they should train people like us so that we know more about the latest technologies and features. If there is some program and drive from their side to teach us, it is definitely going to help us.
Pricing and support are the most important features for mid-level companies. We are not implementing this solution for big tech companies.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been dealing with this solution for seven to eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. Very few people are using this product because of less awareness in our area. We are based in a small town in India where we don't have IT and IT companies. IT is a part of the production process. There are very few people who are using this service.
How are customer service and technical support?
They should be more customer-friendly.
How was the initial setup?
Its installation is almost straightforward. The basic installation is easy, but it also depends upon the customer requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is slightly higher for India. It is a little bit expensive on a monthly basis when considering the value of the Indian rupee.
What other advice do I have?
There is no other perfect solution as compared to this solution. If you want to go for virtualization, there is no other stable and sustainable option.
I would rate VMware vSphere an 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
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VMware vSphere
March 2025

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842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sr. IT & Business Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It has an intuitive user experience that simplifies and helps operational management
Pros and Cons
- "vSphere has enabled an enterprise class virtualization environment with a central point of monitoring and management stretched over multiple datacenters (multi-site use), adding all the features of clustering for high-availability and failover, VM migration, and operations."
- "vSphere brings the features required for an enterprise class system with a lot of supporting components: An intuitive user experience that simplifies and helps operational management."
- "As we introduce the DevOps culture, we need to make sure that the principles and tools used to support this approach can be easily integrated and interoperated with the vSphere environment with no (or less) redundancy in tools and functionality."
What is our primary use case?
I have been a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) since 2008 and did several projects for server consolidation on-premise and migration to vSphere-based cloud. Currently, I am working on project to build a private cloud on-premise with Cisco FlexPod (Multipod environment stretched over two datacenters). The Cisco FlexPod includes Cisco UCS (computing), Cisco ACI (networking), VMware vSphere (virtualization), and NetApp (storage).
How has it helped my organization?
vSphere has enabled an enterprise class virtualization environment with a central point of monitoring and management stretched over multiple datacenters (multi-site use), adding all the features of clustering for high-availability and failover, VM migration, and operations.
What is most valuable?
vSphere brings the features required for an enterprise class system with a lot of supporting components: An intuitive user experience that simplifies and helps operational management, e.g. provisioning and monitoring the status of the VMs and the underlying resources capacity.
What needs improvement?
As we introduce the DevOps culture, we need to make sure that the principles and tools used to support this approach can be easily integrated and interoperated with the vSphere environment with no (or less) redundancy in tools and functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Highly recommended virtualization product for mid/large sized organizations
ESXi is highly recommend for virtualization these days for mid/large sized organizations due to its increased reliabilty and lot of other features.
Pros:- -
1. VMWare ESXi is virtualization product that allows us to partition a single physical server into multiple virtual machines.
2. VMWare ESXi hosts can be with Windows, Solaris, Linux and Netware, any or all of which can be used concurrently on the same hardware.
3. VMWare ESXi has been proved as leader in cloud enterprise class solutions.
4. VMWare ESXi takes virtualization higher and deeper with rich storage automation and more advanced virtual networking tools.
5. VMWare ESXi allows dynamically to modify cpu, memory, disk and network configurations.
6. VMWare ESXi hosts can be accessed using vsphere client as well as in browser.
7. VMWare ESXi is good for production applications as well as for testing environment.
8. 24*7 support is available from VMWare for all kinds of support issues.
9. VMWare ESXi supports advanced features like state capture, live migration, high availability, dynamic resources etc.
Cons:-
1. License cost is little expensive.
2. Free version allows server memory upto 32GB.
Alternate Vendors:
Oracle VM, Hyper-V, AWS !!
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable vitrualization software for implementing virtual servers
VMWare server is freeware server and provides very good environment for testing. It is used to be one of the good product, but now it has come to EOL.
Pros:-
1. VMWare server is cost saving virtualization product that allows us to partition a single physical server into multiple virtual machines.
2. VMWare server works with Windows, Solaris, Linux and Netware, any or all of which can be used concurrently on the same hardware.
3. VMWare server takes virtualization higher and deeper with rich storage automation and more advanced virtual networking tools
4. VMWare server allows dynamically to modify cpu, memory, disk and network configurations.
5. VMWare server provides web management console for easier management.
6. VMWare server is normally implemented in staging environment before implementing in production environment.
7. VMWare supports advanced features like two processor SMP systems, state capture, live migration, high availability, dynamic resources etc.
Cons:-
1. The support and updates for VMWare server are no longer available. You need to rely on google.
2. VMWare server does not fully control the scheduling of hardware resources because the complete control falls into the underlying operating system.
3. OS needs to be installed separately before installing VMware.
4. GUI is not much attactive & not of much high quality.
Alternate Vendor:- Oracle Virtual Box !!
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Kindly give a good looking GUI for VMware products
Sr. IT Technical Engineer & Solutions Architect at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Video Review
It gives us simplicity of deployments, speed-to-market with our application portfolios, and gives our developers quick provisioning or stand-up with no hand-holding.
What is most valuable?
The self-service portal, number one, the ease of deployments, the ability track and monitor how quickly you can provision a virtual machine guest, and the Chargeback model affiliated with that.
How has it helped my organization?
The simplicity of deployments, the speed to market with our application portfolios, the ability to give our developers the ability to quickly provision or stand up in an environment without having somebody to hold their hand.
What needs improvement?
Some of the features I would like to see, future enhancements of the vSphere product which starts with Virtual Center. The ability to manage more than a single host because right now, they're a challenge, because we have so many deployments, we can only manage one Virtual Center per one VMware host box. That's a limitation of the product. We would love to be able to see, we have various locations scattered throughout the US and international. We would love to see Virtual Center being able to manage more than one host at a single location because right now, we're challenging with having to login to Virtual Center at each location, instead of a single pane where the Oracle exist under one Virtual Center, our motto.
For how long have I used the solution?
We currently use the vSphere EXSi along with their vCAC products. We are currently evaluating their vRealize products and we are also evaluating the vCloud Air.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Some of the advantages of the stability of their product is how robust VMware is, in a sense. The ability to scale on a fly. Without having to touch the system, you can literally increase the compute resources on the fly. I mean, we've been running their products since 2002. I have not had any major issues or outages since, and we've deployed this solution globally.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my impressions of some of the capabilities and scalability of the vSphere products, it allows you to, without having to invest in a large hardware portfolio, it gives you the opportunity to scale on the fly through consolidation efforts.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were challenged a couple of years, several years back with figuring out ways to cut cost and save money through ingenuity and automation and innovation, and this is one of the tools that was recently released in the early 2006. That's when VMware, I want to really feel like they really ironed out their niche and made this product usable and feasible for our infrastructure. By doing so, we saved a ton of money.
How was the initial setup?
The efforts required to set up vSphere is extremely simplistic. In our market, we have a large turnover from time to time, so it's easy to train and educate those on setting up the vSphere products from the ground up. It's very simplified. The installations are very easy.
What about the implementation team?
Typically, what we do is the installations are done by our own premise resources with little or no experience, so that goes to show you how easy and simplistic the product is to install and or to manage overtime.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There were other competitors out there that we've evaluated that just fell short of this implementation because of their feature set or some of their security vulnerability.
What other advice do I have?
I have not tested Virtual Volumes. That's why I'm here, to learn more about the Virtual Volumes feature along with the NSX platform. I'm excited about it because we have a huge SAN infrastructure where we would like to be able to move workloads from point A to point B and I think that's a good starting point.
I've seen a lot of hypervisors out there, but 10, hands down, in the market.
If I were to recommend this particular product to some of my peers or co-workers or somebody else in another industry, I would clearly state the reliability, the stability, and the ease of use, is which they would fall in love with and they're always innovative. I mean, that's what we love. Every year, we come back to the conference and you learn something new. There's always some good takeaways.
Typically, I would like to hear from the source. I always find myself as an IT technical resource. I tend to like to talk to the people that's actually doing the work and I like to read some of the guys that have the hands-on experience. I don't go out and read a bunch of documents or books per se. I like to engage with the resources that have actually deployed, implement it, because those are your viable resources that have the hands-on experience.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior System Analyst at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
WAN management has some stability issues, but it has given us a substantial increase in server density.
What is most valuable?
- Virtualization
- Clustering
- High Availability
- All the core functionalities
How has it helped my organization?
Allows for substantial increase in server density, reduced spin up times, allows for more remote site management. Recoverability in a server crash situation is substantially improved as well.
What needs improvement?
User interface and management. The ability to manage the underlying infrastructure is very poorly thought out and implemented. They moved from a C client to a web interface, but still require critical functions to use the client.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for seven years, since it was ESX v3.5.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
WAN management of sites has some intermittent stability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate it fairly high, as much as I complain about the changes their back end team make, their front end support, and sales guys are very communicative.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Microsoft Virtual Server before ESX3.5 was released. We switched because it was not an enterprise grade option.
How was the initial setup?
The setup for the current datacenter was complex, not because of VMware but because of the hosting limitations provided.
What about the implementation team?
We had it initially set up by a vendor team, and I spent four months afterwards fixing their work. I would advise that you verify in advance the skills and knowledge of the implementors.
What was our ROI?
No attempt to calculate ROI has been made on the current environment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am attempting to build an environment around ROBO licensing, which I would advise anyone who has remote offices to investigate. It should cut our costs bytwo-thirds when I am finished.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No evaluation was done.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Systems Engineer with 51-200 employees
We have 750 machines and 50 ESXi hosts that are all consolidated, sharing memory and computing.
Valuable Features
- Virtualizing everything
- HA
- DRS
Improvements to My Organization
When I came, it was already being used, but it helps with consolidation of our 750 machines. We have 50 ESXi hosts, and they’re all consolidated, being able to share memory, computing.
As a partner we have VSPP (VMware Service Provider Program in which we pay per memory usage).
Room for Improvement
The web client needs to be moved from flash-based to HTML5. I would like an app as well for remote access.
Stability Issues
I've had hardly any issues. The ESXi host can stay up and running, and the hardware compatibility is very good, and we're moving towards a virtual appliance (vCenter).
Scalability Issues
It's easy to scale.
Customer Service and Technical Support
I rarely contast them as I had a terrible experience. The made me take down all the linked nodes, and I need to escalate if I want resolutions.
Initial Setup
It's extremely easy, and you can set it up in less than a day. We do nesting virtualizitions and labs all the time.
Other Solutions Considered
Go ahead and buy it. I always go with VMware.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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That's correct. These days open source programs are more popular and they also provides features similar to paid products.