What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?

The tool's integration capabilities are slightly complicated, so we use our company's SI partners. Integrations are slightly difficult, as getting resources to deal with it is not that easy. I think the tool's integration features with multiple products are still slightly cumbersome. As VMware has a large stack of tools. At times, we find there are issues because the tools under VMware don't work with each other. In general, I think it is a good product.

The main thing is the license. We are a little worried about the changes around licensing at the moment, so we are mainly looking at other platforms. We don't like the way VMware charges for licenses since they were bought by Broadcom. There's always something to worry about with VMware. They tend to change their license from product to product. When they started years ago, they started with a bundle, and then the bundle was not enough. We had to buy more licenses because the bundle of vSphere was not good. As we went to standard, it worked well to provide different options and functionalities, but then we had to purchase additional licenses. It has always been unclear about our licenses. The confrontation they have with Microsoft is not helpful. They need to source servers, and that's the big issue. Another area of improvement: Maybe the network one, the NSX. VMware changed it to NSX-T, so it's improved, and we are in the process of migrating. Maybe the migration between old systems to new ones could be a little smoother. And the support provided by VMware is not very good. The quality of VMware support. We're doing the migration from NSX-V to NSX-T, and we requested VMware consultants on-site, but the communication is not very good. We've been doing this for over six months, and they don't help us a lot with the migration. They're supposed to be the experts, but the commands they give us to try don't always work. We try something else, and it lowers the performance of the business systems. We've done the migration for a testing environment, but now we have to run the solution in production. It took too long to bring the right people on board. We've been asking them repeatedly to give us help with the migration, and they eventually brought somebody in who was good. Things are good now that we found the right person, but they're very disjointed. When we try to learn it ourselves, it doesn't always work with these people.

The solution's log management could be improved because the logs don't provide enough information. The solution's reporting should not be simple, but it should have more customization options.

Cost is a big factor. Clients want a reduced price. Ease of use is definitely there – the VMware interface is user-friendly. But cost is a challenge when convincing clients, especially for large deals. They understand the value proposition of VMware's reliability, and they're willing to pay a premium for it as long as it's guaranteed in writing. Clients signing multi-million dollar deals are primarily concerned with reliability. They're willing to pay a premium for a guaranteed level of reliability that's spelled out in the agreement. If they pay a significant amount and we can't convince them of the solution's reliability, then it won't be a successful implementation.

The tool's price tag is high.

It is currently undergoing continuous development and transformation in various aspects. These enhancements include not only migration technology but also infrastructure and automation technology. Working on features that could include the capability to migrate workflows from non-VMware environments would be highly beneficial.

They should integrate the solution with Azure VMware Solution within the SDDC manager.

The customization has room for improvement. The price has room for improvement.

I would like to see an improvement in the SDDC Manager. Specifically, VMware Cloud Foundation should improve some of the federation types, such as multi-site managers. For instance, if we have similar SDDC Managers, like the ones we currently have, which have three DCs in them, it would be helpful to have the ability to have multiple SDDC managers so we can look for foundation across multiple SDDC segments. Apart from this, there are some features that could be added. For example, I think it would be useful to have better integration with other VMware products, such as vSphere or NSX. Additionally, the ability to customize resource usage based on business needs would be helpful. These are just a few examples, but I think they could really enhance the product. VMware has duplicated a lot of functions. For instance, when I'm doing any individual upgrade, I have to follow the orchestration and upload. It takes time, and I cannot manage individual life and need an orchestrated process. We have to follow the sequence and the pre-check. So it's still easy, but I have to follow the system approach. I cannot do it on my own.

Life cycle management is an area for improvement. We should be able to build in and auto-deploy Avi, Advanced Load Balancer.

VMware Cloud Foundation can improve the process of upgrading. For example, if you want to upgrade or migrate any component it is very complex. In the next version of VMware Cloud Foundation, I would like to see a Metro Cluster feature with Kubernetes.

They've improved a lot of the supporting products, like NSX. They have NSX-Ts. They've done a lot of ancillary improvements as it's a conglomerate of products. They have VxRail where the whole platform's automated. Before, you had to say, "Okay, I'm going to have this type of server hardware. And I'm going to have these cards, these individual components." And they all had to line up based on the software. You had to have certain switches as it was all software-defined. Therefore, when you would basically push the scripts down, they had to have supported kernels et cetera. There were only two switches that they used for management. There was a Dell switch and one other obscure switch. Of course, then, you could use your leaf and spine switches. You could use Cisco, Arista, et cetera. However, it was very limited. That was the tough part. To build out the solution, there was a limited amount of hardware. However, now, it's completely automated. The whole platform now stands up very clean, very automated. They've made it really easy. The solution is quite expensive.

The pricing could be a bit less expensive. If it was cheaper, more people would take a look at it.

The price could be better. VMware Cloud Foundation is overpriced, but I think we get what we pay for. It would be better if it were cheaper because it would be easier to go to customers and get them to buy it. We'd get more projects, and that would be great.

The solution could improve by being more secure.

They should let other companies have their management platform. They have their SDDC manager now and other companies that have other products that do the same thing but they should let it connect. I would like to be able to connect the APIs.

The deployment is clumsy and complex. There are too many things that need to be done in order to deploy.

I would enhance vSphere as an infrastructure service. Also to include the new vRealize automation and products that are related to automation. The pricing could be reduced. The interface is good, but there are compatibility issues or issues with the certificate for the VCenter. Many times when you access the link you are told to go to a trusted certificate.

Perhaps the pricing can be more competitive.

We would like the ability to write to both sites at the same time, in a synchronous fashion.

This product can be improved by allowing better integration with other systems. Better integration with systems and even as common as something like Oracle or IBM virtualization platforms. I think the integration potential is very weak with other systems. We need better integration for most products and most importantly on the cloud. Centralized management for everything will make this a much better product.

Typically, the ABA in comparison to other products needs improvement, but it depends on the customer. They need to offer more support for Mac. I would like to have IT virtualization options similar to a Raspberry PI, if that's possible.