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Senior System & Security Administrator at a legal firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Good application and services
Pros and Cons
  • "VMware vSphere has very good applications and services."
  • "Here in Egypt, we would like everything free. So if you give us the license for free, we would be thrilled."

What is our primary use case?

We use vSphere to create virtual machines, connect them with centralized storage, and manage the vSphere servers. Many of our customers use vSphere. It's famous in Egypt.

What is most valuable?

VMware vSphere has very good applications and services.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been working with vSphere for about three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

VMware vSphere is scalable.

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VMware vSphere
November 2024
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How are customer service and support?

VMware support is very helpful. Their team is very knowledgeable and useful.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up vSphere is very easy. It takes about three or four technicians to implement, including one manager and three admins.

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

We pay for an annual subscription. We recommend users pay for VMware support because you might need it. We cannot use it without the support license. Here in Egypt, we would like everything free. So if you give us the license for free, we would be thrilled.

What other advice do I have?

I rate vSphere 10 out of 10. I would recommend it to others. 

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
reviewer1260267 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Is user friendly, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "VMware vSphere is user friendly. It is scalable and stable."
  • "VMware vSphere needs to increase the datastore volume."

What is most valuable?

VMware vSphere is user friendly. It is scalable and stable, which are very important attributes for us.

What needs improvement?

The installation is a little bit complex.

VMware vSphere needs to increase the datastore volume.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for 10 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 solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is not overly complex. The integration project took two months, and the upgrade to version 6.7 took a lot of time.

For deployment and maintenance, you need a team of three or four admins and engineers.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with an integrator.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Hyper-V.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution and rate it at ten on a scale from one to 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.
PeerSpot user
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.
reviewer1407546 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Stable and reliable with very few people needed to manage everything
Pros and Cons
  • "You don't need too many people to manage the solution once it's up and running."
  • "The HTML 5 client has always lagged behind."

What is our primary use case?

The product is primarily used as a way to consolidate systems and leverage hardware resources more efficiently.

What is most valuable?

The solution has offered very good stability so far. It doesn't give us any issues.

You don't need too many people to manage the solution once it's up and running.

What needs improvement?

The HTML 5 client has always lagged behind. It would be nice if this wasn't the case. It's one of the key areas that they need to improve on.

In a previous company, I did not have a very good experience with technical support.

The main problem with the product is how it manages its snapshotting technology, which would need a complete ground-up rebuild. Likely, they won't put that in, however, basically, if you have an old snapshot, you want to get rid of it. It crushes the environment. This is due to the fact that all of your changes have to be written back to disk when you're deleting something versus just deleting it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've only been working with the solution for as long as I have been working for the company, which has been less than a year at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. It's quite reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's been good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've never tried to scale the solution. I can't speak to how easy or difficult it is to expand it out if a company needs to.

How are customer service and technical support?

While I've never had to reach out to technical support while at this company, I have had to use technical support in the past when I was at a different organization. It was no a very good experience. I wasn't satisfied with the level of support provided at all. They were pretty bad. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution was deployed by the company before I arrived. I wasn't a part of the process. Therefore, I can't speak to how easy or difficult it was or how long the deployment process actually was. I don't have any visibility or insights into that.

There are two main people that can go into the management console and perform maintenance duties as necessary.

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

I don't handle the licensing or payments process and therefore don't have visibility into how much the solution costs or what the payment structure is.

What other advice do I have?

We are just customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

It's my understanding that we are using the latest version of the solution, although I don't know the exact version number.

I would definitely recommend this solution to other organizations. For the most part, I've been very satisfied with its capabilities.

I'd rate the solution at 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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1381863 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Consultant
An easy-to-use and stable solution that can reduce the manual cost of your infrastructure
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very easy to use and very stable."
  • "The cost can be better."

What is our primary use case?

We have co-located our servers in different data centers, and these co-located servers are in a cluster. For storage, we are using vSAN, and for compute, we are using vSphere 6.7. We will be upgrading to version 7 in due course.

What is most valuable?

It is very easy to use and very stable.

What needs improvement?

The cost can be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost eight to nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. You can use a cluster with 216 nodes. I believe it can be scaled much more.

We use vSphere to create virtual machines and give them to our customers. Most of the applications are on it, so we have around 8,000 to 10,000 users on five different clusters. In terms of our plans to use this product in the future, we are currently thinking about whether to continue using this solution or not.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support could definitely be better. They can put more experienced and more intelligent people on support. I would rate them a seven out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

I won't say it is straightforward, but it is also not complex. If the hardware and net securities are there and you have the hardware configuration, then the installation takes 24 to 48 hours.

What about the implementation team?

We have a team of infrastructure users who are experts in VMware. They do the installation. Two persons can do the deployment.

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

It is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend this solution to others. It is a very good product. It is very stable, so your infrastructure uptime can be better. The manual cost of your infrastructure can be less if you use vSphere.

I would rate VMware vSphere an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Cloud Professional Architect at FPT Software
Real User
It helps us in the management of thousands of VMs in the coverage UI

What is our primary use case?

  • Cloud computing service (IaaS)
  • Private/hybrid cloud
  • Virtualization infrastructure
  • Virtualization desktop infrastructure.

How has it helped my organization?

  • High availability causes downtime service because it is needed to reboot VMs.
  • Fault tolerance is limited by the four vCPUs.
  • The service provider is not easy to integrate via API like OpenStack.

What is most valuable?

  • vCloud Director, because we may use it as the dashboard for providing cloud services.
  • vCenter 
  • vSphere, because it helps us in the management of thousands of VMs in the coverage UI.

What needs improvement?

The SDK/API to help SPs (service providers) provide the pay-as-you-go business model in cloud service.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Deputy Manager IT at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
It is a centralized platform for hypervisoring that speeds up the migration between the nodes
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a powerful solution that enables us to take a snapshot and clone any version of machine."
  • "This solution should have a better backup policy. Furthermore, there should be an ability to expose the universal machine. In the current version, you need to shutdown and use an offline virtual machine to backup."

What is our primary use case?

It is a powerful solution which enables us to take a snapshot and clone any virtual machine. It is also a centralized platform for hypervisoring that speeds up the migration between the nodes. 

What is most valuable?

It has a very high speed, which is a nice feature. 

What needs improvement?

This solution should have a better backup policy. Furthermore, there should be an ability to expose the universal machine. In the current version, you need to shutdown and use an offline virtual machine to backup.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a very stable product.

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

We previously used Hyper-V, and we found a lot of problems with taking snapshots of our virtual machines. It also was not very stable. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very easy. There were guidelines, and we simply followed the steps. The deployment took around three days. 

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

It is expensive. Other solutions on the market are free. We had to plan with VMware how many hosts that we needed in order to determine the price. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Engineering Manager at Turnkey Cyber Solutions
User
We are distributed across the nation and are primarily all remote employees. I was able to build our private cloud with the tool.

What is our primary use case?

  • Enterprise Infrastructure.
  • We are distributed across the nation and are primarily all remote employees. I was able to build our private cloud with the tool.

How has it helped my organization?

We are distributed across the nation and are primarily all remote employees. I was able to build our private cloud with the tool.

What is most valuable?

Virtualization of our environment has made our carbon footprint, the real estate necessary and the ease of deployment in time savings significant.

What needs improvement?

The thick client had features that were removed from the HTML5 web console and it has caused a learning curve deficiency. Training could be more customer-centric.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
ITProfes763a - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Professional with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
We have seen a significant lift in terms of delivery of applications
Pros and Cons
  • "Its most valuable features are reliability, for sure, and quickness in getting the job done. I can spin off 100 or 200 machines in the matter of half an hour."

    What is our primary use case?

    I'm building a VDI center and a second-tier user. In terms of mission-critical apps, we use it for our executive pool of users to secure their everyday work. Sometimes we use it for distance education programs as well.

    It has been performing pretty well.

    How has it helped my organization?

    We have seen a boost in performance in terms of delivery, but in everyday work, it's just like any other. Our delivery lift is probably more than 50 percent.

    In terms of delivery, very often we would have requests for adding some new applications which were not previously there. And in previous deliveries, we would have to lose a day or so to prepare the application. Today it takes me about two hours at the most.

    What is most valuable?

    Its most valuable features are reliability, for sure, and quickness in getting the job done. I can spin off 100 or 200 machines in the matter of half an hour.

    What needs improvement?

    If I could talk to the engineers I would probably suggest a little bit different approach. There's a process that includes base-lining, then installing the program, and then doing the differentiation. That kind of approach for delivering applications, in my opinion, is way quicker. That approach would take me not more than half an hour to prepare any application. That's a feature I would like to see.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We haven't had any stability problems.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    From my point of view, it scales really well; in terms of storage, I don't know.

    What other advice do I have?

    Test it, give it a try, and see how it goes. Definitely try it.

    For me, the most important criteria when looking for a vendor are

    • reliability
    • ease of use
    • customer support.

    I would rate it at eight out of 10 because there is still room for improvement. However, we are not using the full extent of the product so I might be wrong. There is some room for improvement in the ease of use.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: November 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.