VMware vSphere Reviews and Pricing

it_user183474

Senior System Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 26, 2015

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The web GUI isn't a worthy replacement for the standalone one but it is cheap and fast to deploy new servers

What is most valuable?

Cheap and fast to deploy new servers.

How has it helped my organization?

Faster server deployment.

What needs improvement?

Standalone GUI dismissed, the web GUI isn't a worthy replacement.

For how long have I used the solution?

Seven years.

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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As long as the network and storage attached are running fine, you have nothing to worry about.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Monitor your RAM usage closely and you will be fine.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

Very good.

Technical Support:

Very good.

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

No previous solution used.

How was the initial setup?

Pretty straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

In-house by following the manuals and training from the vendor it went by the book.

What was our ROI?

Very high as each new virtual server saves us thousands budget wise.

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

I don't know but the licensing model is pretty harsh, so don't start if you only want to virtualize a couple of machines

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, it was the only well-functioning solution on the market at the time.

What other advice do I have?

Give Hyper-V a chance and look very well into the pricing model. Make sure your storage and network is prepared for a high load with a small footprint

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user99459

Infra Director with 51-200 employees

Jul 28, 2014

Enables combining many physical servers but is pricey

Use of Solution:

I have been using the solution for 7 years.

Valuable Features:

Reliability, Flexibility, High Availability; Vmware enables virtual servers to instantly move from 1 physical server to another with no user downtime.

Improvements To Organization:

Enables combining many physical servers to a few or one.

Room For Improvement:

The price could be lower.

Deployment Issues:

No issues with deployment.

Stability Issues:

No issues with stability.

Scalability Issues:

No issues with scalability.

Customer Service:

Very good customer service.

Technical Support:

Very good technical support.

Previous Solutions:

Yes, we previously used Citrix Xenserver and Microsoft HyperV.

Initial Setup:

It was straightforward, but you need training first.

Implementation Team:

We implemented through an in-house vendor team.

ROI:

1-3 years depending on how many physical servers are eliminated.

Setup Cost:

Our setup costs/every day costs are several thousand dollars.

Other Advice:

Do a pilot / proof of concept first, and test -- take a non-ciritical server, convert it to a virtual server and let it run for a few weeks - then a 2nd, then a 3rd. If it all works, well, then do more

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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VMware vSphere

March 2025

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it_user4524

Founder & Principal Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 1, 2014

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VMware's vSphere is THE industry leading virtualization platform - today

Valuable Features:

- Increase the flexibility and agility of the infrastructure to move at the speed of business by decoupling the server from the hardware - Server consolidation has driven the virtualization industry shift, and vSphere leads the charge. - Virtualization overhead is the smallest of any hypervisor on the planet. - Supports over 90 operating systems, whereas other vendors cannot even come close - Centralized management and built-in performance statistics collection make management easy - Complementing tools, such as Site Recovery Manager, vCenter Operations Manager, vShield, and vCloud Director just increase the power of the stack. - Add in the licensing for the operating systems and the applications running virtualized, plus the cost of management tools. The competition costs the same.

Room for Improvement:

- The entry point for small business is fairly high. They are working on this currently. - Capacity management for top-tier business critical servers - Currently VMware has a tremendous amount of products that complement the vSphere suite. Some of the products are complementary, and some compete with each other. This product list is sometimes hard to navigate. - Security access granularity for end users can be complex.

Other Advice:

VMware's vSphere is currently THE industry leading virtualization platform. I have been using VMware vSphere and its predecessors for almost ten years now. The core hypervisor continues to lead the industry. At the present time, you cannot go wrong with VMware's vSphere suite. However, competitors are rapidly closing the gap, so watch the market closely over the next few years. I implement business-critical applications on vSphere for all sizes of business almost daily, and am proud to be a virtualization enthusiast. At the moment, VMware vSphere is my hypervisor of choice - without reservation.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Sep 16, 2014

Does anyone know what is the correct number of JVMs per virtual machine? Thank you.

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it_user6696

Director of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 27, 2013

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Very stable and contributes to high uptime. Reduced our data center power and cooling costs.

Valuable Features:

vSphere is an excellent product to virtualize computing workloads. It helps with consolidation of servers and datacenters, and increases utilization of computing resources. The product is very stable, and contributes to high uptime for critical workloads. Additional benefits from a virtualized datacenter include reduced power and cooling costs.

Room for Improvement:

Many features have been added over the years which makes it difficult to deploy without formal training. License costs are fairly high, especially compared with substitutes that are quickly catching up in performance and features.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

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Sep 15, 2013

It is worth noting that most good products come with a license to authorize their use.

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sumodirjo

Senior Site Infrastructure Engineer at Kurungsiku

Aug 7, 2012

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Old, almost dead, but still great software to play with, but not for your production environment

Valuable Features:

Unlike VMware workstation where we have to log in to desktop to run VM(s), with VMware Server we can run VM on the background. It also have a web based management interface so you don't have to install a software on your desktop to manage VMware server. It’s still quite useful virtualization software that you can use for free if you want to spend extra mile patching some files before you can compile support for your kernel.

Room for Improvement:

VMware server already reaches its end of support on June 30, 2011. Since it’s not supported anymore, and new support for newer OS, if you use a new Linux distro, you have to patch some files before you can compile support for you running kernel.VMware itself suggest its users to move to VMware Player if you only need to run small number of VMs on your desktop, or VMware vSphere Hypervisor if you want to run on dedicated machine.

Other Advice:

Not the best choice if you want to start learning virtualization. You better choose VMware Player, or VirtualBox if you want to run virtualization software on your desktop or VMware vSphere Hypervisor and XenServer Free edition if you want a free virtualization software on a dedicated machine.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user1122

Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 11, 2012

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Free Hypervisor from VMWare

Valuable Features:

ESXi has one major benefit that outweighs the others; IT'S FREE!Yes, it has plenty of other benefits, like running a wide variety of different virtual operating systems in virtual machines (it supports every platform but OS X, and that can technically still be "hacked" onto it).It's incredibly robust, has excellent resource management, and is easy to set up. It allows for importing of virtual appliances, or pre-made VM's, or a creation of your own VM's.

Room for Improvement:

The only issue I have with ESXi is that it is console (CLI) based. While I personally have no operational issue with this, as most of my training began with CLI based systems, some people might not want to configure a high availability virtual machine server via the Command Line.They're now marketing ESXi as VMware vSphere Hypervisor, which makes sense because that's essentially what it is. There used to be another product called ESX, which was a step between ESXi and vSphere, but they did away with that and rolled some of the features into ESXi.

Other Advice:

All in all, it is an excellent solution that I have deployed in multiple locations and organizations.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

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Sep 23, 2013

@kleegeek........thx!!

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it_user1122

Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 11, 2012

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Excellent tool for its time, but there are better solutions now.

Valuable Features:

VMWare server is an excellent virtualzation tool for the workstation. It could be used as a limited functionality version of VMWare Workstation or as a host for your virtual machines, with all of the bells and whistles that came with Workstation, such as:- Centralized Management of Virtual Machines. - Remote management of VM's and configurations. - Integration with VMware Player and Workstation, to view the machines hosted by Server.

Room for Improvement:

Unfortunately, this software has reached its End-Of-Life, and has held that status for almost two years. Meaning, there are no new software updates or available downloads for it. This product has basically been replaced by ESX, ESXi and vSphere, which are functionally less resource intensive because of their design. We used this tool during my Linux classes when I was attending College for my B.A.

Other Advice:

As of now, OracleVM (formerly known as VirtualBox), is an excellent solution that is open-source and freely available for download.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Mohab Samy

VMware Technician Manager at VAS

May 24, 2021

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Easy to install, stable, and scalable

Pros and Cons

"Stability and scalability are the most valuable features of this solution."

"I would like to see more support regarding containers, and they need more features for them."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for financial full disclosure, end-user computing, and for private cloud.

What is most valuable?

Stability and scalability are the most valuable features of this solution.

The connectivity to the pools from the large amount of memory to the CPU is also very good.

Also, the stability that it provides from the large system to the virtual machine is good.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more support regarding containers, and they need more features for them.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSphere for a couple of years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is one of the most valuable features. It's a very stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a very scalable solution. Every release includes scalability.

We have 200 to 300 customers who are using it and we have plans to increase our usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is moderate.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

The time it takes for deployment depends on the environment and the design of it.

We need a team of five technicians to maintain this solution.

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

It's a monthly subscription model.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

I would rate VMware vSphere a nine 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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