VMware vSphere Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Systems Administrator at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 9, 2015

We leveraged it to help us with our DR following power outages. However, we don't necessarily have a need for the expensive add-ons.

What is most valuable?

High Availability
computability
vMotion
DR

How has it helped my organization?

Our DR count changed – we had quite a few power outtages that opened our eyes to DR and by leveraging vSphere we are able to get to our goal.

What needs improvement?

I know a lot of the stuff that we have issues with have been addressed in v6 like template management. Some of the add-ons are expensive without a specific large need.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Very stable – its great.

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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Easy – very easy, expecially with Nutanix. It takes longer to get the hardware than to deploy it.

How are customer service and support?

I’d say 10/10 – we’ve never had a problem that wasn’t solved right away if we have to call.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at a couple others and VMware was just better because of vMotion, its ease of management, and the interface.

What other advice do I have?

Peer reviews are pretty important, more so than online resources.

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

it_user320919

Group Leader - Server Technologies & Storage at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 9, 2015

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We have lower personnel and investment costs with virtual servers than with physical servers, although the web client is not as good as the C# client.

What is most valuable?

Obviously, the virtualization allows us to save money because we can run many servers on one physical hardware.

How has it helped my organization?

We save power and monty. Virtual servers are much faster than physical servers, so personnel costs and investment costs are also much lower.

What needs improvement?

The vSphere web client is not very good – the C# client is much better.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using it for seven to eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's perfect.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support is not perfect – it’s a long process to get to the experts when you reach out to support.

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

We haven't used another solution.We do an

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did it ourselves.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We do an evaluation every few years. We've looked at Microsoft, and ORACLE. I look for continuity, as I need a solution that will be also be available for me in two years etc. I also look at peer reviews, and think that they are very important.

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

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VMware vSphere

November 2024

Free Report: VMware vSphere Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.

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824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user285072

Technical lead - Infrastructure Consulting / Transformation at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 1, 2015

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This product has helped to reduce the number of physical x86 servers, reducing CAPEX cost.

What is most valuable?

DRS
HA
vMotion
vConverter
Distributed switch

How has it helped my organization?

This product has help to reduce the number of physical x86 servers from 500 to 150. This has saved server hardware costs, data center floor space, power, and cooling. This has significantly reduced the CAPEX cost.

What needs improvement?

It needs to be easier to integrate with open cloud.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for nine years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Deploying the older v3 and v3.5 had lots of issues, but the morerecent v4, v5, and v5.5 version are much easier to deploy.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

VMware has good customer service.

Technical Support:

It's good.

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

I have not had to switch.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward.

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

it_user131937

Works at a non-tech company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 9, 2014

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Improved our server consolidation and research work but lacks live migration features

What is most valuable?

Hypervisor, VM deployment, Migration, Dynamic frequency scaling.

How has it helped my organization?

Server consolidation and Research work.

What needs improvement?

SDK of vCenter server PowerCLI lacks live migration features.

For how long have I used the solution?

3 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

vCenter server installation is really a headache.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Often the virtual disks are corrupted if servers are shut down due to power fluctuation.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

vCenter comes with strict licensing which is not only expensive but also not realistic.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Have not experienced yet.Technical Support: Not much support for vBenter SDK.

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

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward till the installation of vCenter.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, Xen and Cloudera.

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

it_user128259

Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Jun 17, 2014

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VMware ESXi is better than its predessor, ESX 3 & 4.

What is most valuable?

Its high availability, hot memory and CPU enabled features. Not forgetting the Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS), vMotion, Storage vMotion and Dynamic Power Management (DPM).

How has it helped my organization?

We are beginning to experience less downtimes and if there is going to be any downtime, it is extremely minimised. Continously consolidating servers and utilising resources to save power and water.

What needs improvement?

We have noticed the great need for more power and memory requirements especially when the vmware servers (guests) start to request for more processing and memory.

For how long have I used the solution?

Since 2011.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Our deployment of VMware went smoothly.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The Vmware environment was available and stable when we first deployed it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had plenty of room to increase our environment so there is no problem with it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: We did it ourselves and did not include VMware.Technical Support: No support from VMware.

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

No, we went straight to VMware.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straight-forward.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution with the support from IBM, and their support was pretty good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, we never evaluated any other options.

What other advice do I have?

Since I don't have experience with other solutions, except Vmware, I like it and recommend others who are looking for such a solution to consider talking to VMware.

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

it_user86190

Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Feb 2, 2014

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Pros are that it is easy to use but it is hard to have certified resources for it

Valuable Features:

HA, DRS, VMotion, Storage VMotion

Use of Solution:

2 years

Initial Setup:

Every thing was straight forward and can easily/readily be found on Internet

Implementation Team:

In-house small deployment

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

it_user82776Chief Executive Officer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Feb 2, 2014

Certified resources, as in web apps or computer resources online, several challenges in that area were foremost related to recent upgrades and modifications to the certified makers. In economical terms if resources were certified to it, you would rather see a drop in revenue for those manufactures putting resources into one single component.

it_user8223

IT Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jul 30, 2013

Best virtualization product available

I have worked with VMware products for just over 5 years at this point, and during that time frame have compared with competing virtualization products. I believe that VMware Esxi is the BEST hypervisor available. If you have a virtualization project then this is the route to go, although I will concede that MS Hyper-V may be appropriate for some small businesses with just a couple of servers to virtualize.
Deploying Esxi is very simple, install the package on the host, open the vSphere client, and you are ready to go. The setup can be very simple if you are using local storage, or in-depth if using network storage and wanting to customize the virtual network configuration. regardless, the tasks are simple and easy to understand. If you run into an issue, VMware documentation is very helpful and their support team glad to assist.

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