VMware vSphere is a very stable solution that can be used to host your virtual services. If you want to host a virtual machine, VMware vSphere is the best tool available on the market.
TEM Practice at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Hosts virtual services and allows you to move servers from one system to another
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of the solution are the overall virtualization technology and the new features that allow you to move servers from one system to another."
- "It would be good if the licensing cost of the solution could be cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are the overall virtualization technology and the new features that allow you to move servers from one system to another. The solution's newer technologies allow you to do network-level isolation.
What needs improvement?
It would be good if the licensing cost of the solution could be cheaper.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for five to ten years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution's scalability is also good because you can scale using your required hardware. At the same time, the VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter combination can allow you to scale up to a decent level. Around 100 users were using the solution in our organization.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support was good and fast enough. The technical support team was able to help us with most of the problems we experienced.
How was the initial setup?
The installation and initial setup of the solution were simple because we had a team of people already familiar with VMware. Learning a newer version was never difficult for them. They could easily streamline into the newer versions and use them effectively. So, the learning curve was not that high for the team.
What was our ROI?
The biggest benefit we had with VMware vSphere is that we could provide effective service to our end customers. I was able to support multiple operating systems on VMware, which was the biggest value of the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
VMware vSphere on-premises is still cheaper than the cloud. It's the kind of technology you can always count on.
What other advice do I have?
VMware vSphere has helped us provide better services to our customers because we were able to provide them with stable service. The availability of our systems increased by using VMware products. The solution's security was adequate, but we were not using it extensively.
The solution's High Availability is definitely the factor that comes into the picture because you cannot have downtime in today's IT world. VMware becomes a core strength of the product. It gives you the required availability, scalability, and stability for the environment.
I have always been looking for a seamless cloud migration strategy, which has already been implemented. Now, you can easily migrate systems from on-premises to AWS or Azure cloud. It is easy to integrate VMware vSphere with other products.
Many people using the infrastructure on-premise sometimes want to use the additional capacity in the cloud for additional functionality. The version I used earlier did not have the functionality to move the server from on-premises to the cloud seamlessly. In the newer version, they already have established that part.
Overall, I rate the solution 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.
Technical manager at Koninklijke Bam Groep N.v.
Versatile and user-friendly across different scenarios
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's flexibility allows us to implement it widely."
- "The license fee could be more affordable."
What is our primary use case?
I use VMware vSphere primarily to provide a layer of virtualization between our Cisco hardware and existing software. It ensures high availability and redundancy for our applications, minimizing downtime in case of OS or application failures. Additionally, vSphere simplifies migration when updating hardware and makes it faster to reinstall virtual machines along with applications.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate VMware vSphere for its versatility and usability across various use cases. The solution's flexibility allows us to implement it widely. We use it extensively, and I believe soon all our servers will run through virtualization for better efficiency using vSphere. It performs as advertised and meets our needs effectively.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvement, the license fee could be more affordable, but overall, I'm satisfied with VMware vSphere.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for almost 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
vSphere is very stable. I would rate the stability as a ten out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up VMware vSphere is very straightforward; no issues there. Purchasing involves acquiring licenses and the licenses often come bundled with hardware from vendors like HP or Dell. The deployment process is smooth, and support hasn't been necessary as the software is stable. For deployment and maintenance, we currently have about four or five active staff members involved. However, considering buying expertise and engineers, the team can range from nine to ten individuals.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is not cheap.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate vSphere as a perfect ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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IT INFRASTRUTURE CONSULTANT at Hyfi Cloud Computing
A robust virtualization platform renowned for its comprehensive features, high stability and strong support
Pros and Cons
- "It stands out as a comprehensive and advantageous solution, providing a full package that effectively caters to our needs for managing our private cloud."
- "It would be highly beneficial for VMware to collaborate with local hosts and partners in countries like those in Africa to establish specific pricing that would align with the economic conditions of countries in Africa, ensuring suitability and compatibility with our consumption capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
We use it exclusively for internal purposes within our company, managing our office infrastructure as a private cloud solution.
How has it helped my organization?
It stands out as a comprehensive and advantageous solution, providing a full package that effectively caters to our needs for managing our private cloud.
What is most valuable?
The most significant aspects for us are the invaluable features of High Availability and vMotion in VMware. Additionally, the seamless sharing of resources and numerous other robust features make it highly commendable. Specifically, the capability to implement a load balancer between hosted environments without any downtime is particularly appreciated, underscoring the platform's reliability and advanced functionality.
What needs improvement?
The current concern revolves around the pricing as it might be less affordable for certain regions. In countries like Tunisia and many others in Africa, there seems to be a challenge regarding the cost of licensing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with it for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is robust and stable, rating it a perfect score of ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It offers good scalability. I would rate it eight out of ten. It's a small organization, with one hundred users.
How are customer service and support?
It boasts robust support. I've collaborated with local partners in Tunisia, and their operations, coupled with same-day support, have proven highly responsive. I would rate the support experience a solid ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience working with Hyper-V, and when comparing stability, VMware surpasses it across various generations. While Hyper-V has shown improvement in newer versions, it hasn't reached the level of stability that VMware consistently delivers.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is relatively straightforward. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
For deployment, it typically takes around two to three days with minimal configuration. One person is often sufficient for handling such setups. It's worth noting that if we opt for solutions like Analytics or other complex configurations, the need for additional personnel may arise, but for straightforward deployments, a single person can effectively manage the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find it highly expensive. I would rate it ten out of ten. It would be highly beneficial for VMware to collaborate with local hosts and partners in countries like those in Africa to establish specific pricing that would align with the economic conditions of countries in Africa, ensuring suitability and compatibility with our consumption capabilities.
What other advice do I have?
In instances where organizations operate on robust infrastructures and budget constraints are not a significant concern, my usual recommendation is VMware. This is especially true for financial companies that prioritize investing in and managing critical software solutions without financial constraints. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.
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.
Director Of Technology Operations at Kutleng Engineering Technologies
Responsive support, reliable, and has a good remote management interface
Pros and Cons
- "The virtualization, the remote management user interface, and the web console are most valuable."
- "The biggest room for improvement would be just simplicity. It is very intuitive, but it needs somebody with a lot of IT background."
What is our primary use case?
It is largely for workload virtualization.
How has it helped my organization?
Instead of having so many servers, we have got just two server nodes that are configured in high availability. We are running all our application servers, databases, and Linux and Windows systems on two servers. We've got about 12 virtual machines. If we didn't use VMware, we would have needed to buy 12 physical servers.
What is most valuable?
The virtualization, the remote management user interface, and the web console are most valuable.
What needs improvement?
The biggest room for improvement would be just simplicity. It is very intuitive, but it needs somebody with a lot of IT background.
The way VMware manages storage is not the best. Nutanix manages storage a little bit differently, but we are not using Nutanix. VMware needs to find a way to manage storage properly. There should be storage aggregation and better management of storage.
We tried to install drivers for 100 Gigabit Ethernet Mellanox, and it was very difficult to put third-party hardware and upgrade the servers. We had to roll back because it just wouldn't boot.
Its price definitely should be improved. Its pricing is on the expensive side.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution since 2017.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We tried to plug in more hardware, but the drivers were not seamless. We are using the OEM version for HPE because we are using HPE. It could be because it is yet to work with HPE hardware. HPE hardware works with Mellanox, but it just couldn't take Mellanox. We downloaded the Mellanox drivers from their website, but it just couldn't boot, so we had to roll back.
We have three administrators. The number of users varies over time. We started with 24, and because of COVID, we've reduced the number of people who can work in the office to about five.
How are customer service and technical support?
They are very responsive.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is very straightforward. It is very easy to install.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
They can do better by giving better pricing. Their pricing is on the expensive side. As a matter of fact, we are considering switching to OpenStack.
We only work with perpetual licenses. As a company, we don't do subscriptions.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution any day. I would rate VMware vSphere a nine out of 10. It is excellent.
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.
Network Administrator
Video Review
Allows us to run our critical business workloads at speed and keep them highly available
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features for me are a very easily scalable infrastructure. I can have a couple of hosts to do basic workloads. I can have a lot of hosts to do a lot of workloads. vSAN integrates my storage so I don't need an external storage SAN. I love having everything integrated in the same UI. The new HTML5 interface doesn't require any plugins anymore and it's super-fast."
- "An improvement could be allowing a "dark mode" for the interface. I think the HTML5 client is a little bit hard to read. It's all white. It's a little bit bright on the eyes. A lot of us IT guys view in the dark."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case for the product is testing Home Lab. I was involved in the early vSphere 6.7 beta. I wanted to see what the new features were, how it worked. I'm using it currently in my Home Lab for testing lots of the different products as a vSphere-base for vSAN, NSX, running the latest vCenter, etc.
Some of the critical workloads that I'm running in my vSphere environment are Exchange, SQL, various different application servers, and those have to be up and available at all times, and vSphere does that for us. It gives us High Availability, failover, vMotion capability for load balancing. It works great.
How has it helped my organization?
Since migrating over to vSphere, we're seeing a significant performance boost due to the fact that we've migrated over to an all-flash vSAN array. Previously we were running external storage SAN over fiber channel. We saw a significant increase, I would say at least a 50 percent increase, in our speeds due to our vSAN running on all-flash. It's been a huge improvement.
The way that vSphere increases our availability in our organization is that it allows us to run our critical business workloads, keep them highly-available, run them at speed, and easily scale when we need to.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features for me are a very easily scalable infrastructure. I can have a couple of hosts to do basic workloads. I can have a lot of hosts to do a lot of workloads. vSAN integrates my storage so I don't need an external storage SAN. I love having everything integrated in the same UI. The new HTML5 interface doesn't require any plugins anymore and it's super-fast. Really liking that change.
In terms of the built-in security features that I'm using, currently I am using vSAN Encryption, using an external KMS server, and it works great. It's pretty easy to set up, very easy, especially in the UI, to integrate that and get that set up.
The way that I find vSphere simple and easy to manage is that the interface is all laid out for you. You've got various different views based on what you want to do in the UI. You have your Hosts and Clusters view, if you're doing something where you need to manage at the cluster level. You can manage at the host level in there. If you're doing something very VM-specific or on a vApp level, you can go into the VM and Templates view. It's very easy to scale and use what you need to use.
What needs improvement?
An improvement could be allowing a "dark mode" for the interface. I think the HTML5 client is a little bit hard to read. It's all white. It's a little bit bright on the eyes. A lot of us IT guys view in the dark.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability in our vSphere environment has gone very well. We have never actually had an outage. Due to the HA failover capabilities of the cluster, the High Availability of vSAN, Distributed Resource Scheduler allowing you to basically vMotion VMs and balance your loads across all your clusters, it's been very highly available. We've never had an outage or an issue; never any kind of a data loss incident, even when we were running external storage as well.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability works pretty well. You can start out at a couple of hosts, based on your business needs, your budget. That's probably the base recommendation I would start out at for having some of the DRS and HA failover capabilities. But if your business grows, you can easily add a host and a cluster and expand your capabilities on storage and compute. If you're running vSAN, you can run on the storage side, too.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have had several instances where I've had to use Global Support Services. They're always great. They are very knowledgeable. If they don't know the answer, they can easily escalate to another engineer and help you out and get the problem solved, usually pretty quickly.
How was the initial setup?
I was not initially involved in the vSphere setup at my current company; that predated my joining the company. But I've brought up the secondary environment and integrated vSAN at that company, and setup was straightforward. It's pretty easy to get everything set up and get things done. I've done that many times in production, and torn down and rebuilt the Home Lab many times. It's pretty straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
We do not currently use VMware Cloud on AWS.
If I had to rate vSphere from one to ten - version 6.7 - I would say right now it's probably about a ten.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
IT Systems Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Being able to dynamically allocate memory and processors has boosted performance
Pros and Cons
- "We have seen a performance boost because we have been able to more dynamically allocate either memory or processors."
- "It's a very nice tool to be able to reduce your footprint, consolidate servers, and accumulate several servers in a high-density configuration."
- "Workloads; We use vSphere for mission-critical apps including SAP and and part of our internal development in C+, for the solution that collects everything for the buyers."
- "Performance; We have seen a performance boost because we have been able to more dynamically allocate either memory or processors."
What is our primary use case?
We're virtualizing the whole infrastructure of the company. We are only keeping some of the bigger servers as bare metal, but aside from that, everything is being virtualized.
We use vSphere for mission-critical apps including SAP and part of our internal development in C+, for the solution that collects everything for the buyers.
How has it helped my organization?
We have seen a performance boost because we have been able to more dynamically allocate either memory or processors.
It has provided us with cost reductions, a little bit more speed in deploying servers, and, of course, consolidation.
What is most valuable?
It's a very nice tool to be able to reduce your footprint, consolidate servers, and accumulate several servers in a high-density configuration.
It's pretty simple to manage.
What needs improvement?
It's simple enough right now, but some more automation tools would definitely make it simpler.
It's pretty well integrated with vROps but the integration could be improved a little bit.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's pretty stable. We have a wide variety of versions, starting from 4.5 all the way up to 6.5. They all work together and it's pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's simple to scale and the upgrades are pretty simple as well. The upgrades were straightforward. We just installed a new HPC and GN and we deployed everything in there.
However, I prefer to erase completely and reinstall, from the top.
How is customer service and technical support?
We have Premium Support and they're excellent.
What was our ROI?
We see a high return on investment, precisely because of the higher density hardware. We're using fewer hypervisors, which results in some return. We also have more virtual servers and less cost. Everything goes hand-in-hand.
What other advice do I have?
Analyze your infrastructure first, see what you want to do, and then start deploying everything from zero.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager - System Engineering and Storage at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We are able to scale up with densities of 10:1 or 20:1. Stability and manageability need improvement.
Pros and Cons
- "Basic hypervisor functions with HA."
- "Stability and manageability need improvement."
What is most valuable?
- Core virtualizaton
- Basic hypervisor functions with HA
How has it helped my organization?
We are able to scale up far better with densities of 10:1 or 20:1 and provide robust, flexible computing to our increasing application demands.
What needs improvement?
Stability and manageability need improvement. The core product has not changed much over the years and has large deficiencies in manageability and how they implement certain features. The basic hypervisor works OK, but all the management and bolt-on products have issues and at times overwhelm the core hypervisor.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have repeated reliability issues with anything other than core functionality.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SRM has been a disappointment in its scalability and reliability.
How are customer service and technical support?
We pay for business critical support and that is still bad. I think VMware's biggest weakness is their support organization - 5/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had Hyper-V, but the older versions had issues. When the 2016 version releases, we are going to re-evaluate it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was fairly straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We did most of the implementation ourselves, but we did have some initial consultation on some design thoughts.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
VMware is consistently expensive and their pricing arrogance is what will drive us and other customers away. Compared to physical systems, it is a bargain, but compared to other solutions, it is losing its appeal due to pricing.
What other advice do I have?
The core hypervisor is decent. Many issues will be with management and bolt-on products.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Operations Support Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Multiple VMs can run on a single host and have a single point of management.
What is most valuable?
It's consolidated in that multiple VMs can run on a single host and have a single point of management.
How has it helped my organization?
- Application protection
- Load balancing
- Protection against network/host failure
What needs improvement?
5.1 SSO is a disaster, it was re-done for 5.5 and improved again for 6.0. VMware even recommend upgrading directly to 5.5 and skipping 5.1, and we are now planning to upgrade to v6.
For how long have I used the solution?
Personally since 2012, and in my current role only a few months.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
There were no major issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Not really, as 5.1 has been out for a very long time, and any stability issues have been ironed out as with any product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Upgrading from 5.1 to 5.5 is the biggest issue.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Very good and the communities help a lot too.
Technical Support:Very good and the communities help a lot too.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The solution in this company started on v4.1, and has moved to v5, and is currently on v5.1. This was to do with keeping with in support and being able to use new features.
How was the initial setup?
With v5.1 you have to consider the various roles and how you wish to deploy them. SSO, Web, inventory, vCenter can all be installed together, separately, or any mix in between, and even physically if you wanted. I have inherited this design, and I would have done it differently, but as time passes, best practice is improved.
What about the implementation team?
All this was done in-house, with the help of specalist consultants, I have inherited this role and the environment is currently in flux
What was our ROI?
For the company very good, as they run loads of different applications at the same time
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you can go for enterprise plus, do so as you get access to the VDS and all the features it provides, esp LBT and NIOC.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Hyper-V is gaining traction but VMware is currently still the way to go.
What other advice do I have?
Plan it properly and skip 5.1 if possible. I would avoid 6.0 until Update 1 is out, so any initial bugs can be ironed out.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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I agree that 5.1 is a mess and 5.5 is much better. Update 1 is out now for vSphere 6.0 which we are planning to migrate to now. The Web Client is much improved in this version and includes all Update Manager options now.