Cisco UCS Director vs CloudStack comparison

Cisco and Apache are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Cisco is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.0, while Apache is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in CM, compared to Apache’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 73% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Apache users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Director

Read 15 Cisco UCS Director reviews

578 Views
549 Comparison Views

73% willing to recommend

CloudStack

Read 32 CloudStack reviews

2,031 Views
1,848 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Director

CloudStack

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

CloudStack and Cisco UCS Director are competing in IT infrastructure management. Cisco UCS Director generally has the upper hand with a wider feature set appealing to large-scale, intricate environments, while CloudStack captures attention with cost advantages and adept customer support.

Features: CloudStack provides powerful APIs, extensive support for various hypervisors, and compatibility with multiple availability zones. It offers orchestration of large virtual environments, making it a flexible cloud deployment option. Cisco UCS Director stands out by unifying infrastructure management across compute, storage, and networking, with integration capabilities enhancing its comprehensive IT management solution.

Room for Improvement: CloudStack could enhance its integration with newer technologies to maintain competitiveness. Strengthening its interface for non-technical users would also be beneficial. Improving its documentation and community resources would help new users. Cisco UCS Director could lower its initial complexity for setup. Expanding compatibility beyond primarily Cisco environments would widen appeal. Improving user interface intuitiveness could attract a larger user base.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CloudStack is known for its easy deployment, particularly in environments with open-source tools. Its customer service is responsive and knowledgeable, which enhances overall user experience. Cisco UCS Director requires a more detailed setup due to its complexity but is supported by Cisco’s robust service network that ensures comprehensive problem resolution.

Pricing and ROI: CloudStack offers lower initial costs, appealing to organizations under budget constraints, and presents quick ROI by utilizing open-source foundations. Cisco UCS Director, while having a higher upfront cost, offers substantial ROI through better operational efficiencies and infrastructure management, aligning well with larger enterprises seeking comprehensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS Director

Ranking in Cloud Management

21st

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

CloudStack

Ranking in Cloud Management

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Director is 1.4%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CloudStack is 4.7%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

Sunny Nair

Solution Architect and Senior Consultant at Keysight Technologies

Good multi-cloud management capability, but third-party and legacy integration needs improvement

Normally, UCS Director is used primarily for orchestration, but when we look at a non-Cisco data infrastructure components, the UCS Director needs a bit more improvement in terms of integration with third-party systems and with existing older systems. I feel that more development or a more integrated road map should be set up so that it becomes a common platform for any infrastructure. In the next release of this solution, I would like to see changes in the navigation controls of UCS Director. That would be helpful. Modifying the icons that are available for use, as well as virtualization aspects.

Read full review

Nelson Marcos

Engineer Manager at Globo.com

It's easier to provision VMs than other solutions and you can customize it to integrate with load balancers

My teammates have complained about the upgrade. The source code had massive files that had to be merged with our own development to upgrade to the latest version of CloudStack. It was quite painful for them. CloudStack could add some cost management tools to give me some control over the costs associated with the number of users of my services.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Cisco's knowledge base is extensive."

"Cisco UCS Director is straightforward to use, which we greatly appreciate."

"Feature-wise, the solution helps one to add multiple environments in one place...It is a scalable product."

"A product that really aids in systems management without complexity."

"The main feature of this solution is the integration with all the Cisco solutions and other vendors."

"The solution is helpful for centralized management."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the fabric sharing."

More Cisco UCS Director pros

"You can build your own cloud and make it customizable with APIs."

"You can manage infrastructure with a few people, since product is monolithic. We had three engineers (storage, virtual, Linux admins) only. Also, CS supports different flavours of hypervisors."

"It is very easy to install and manage. It has the all modules in one node, unlike other software (OpenStack). The product allows a customized look and feel, and the ability to add custom workflows."

"Over the years, we have valued CloudStack for its stability."

"I liked the separation of the isolated network versus the shared network."

"The initial implementation process was quite good."

"We had a relevant reduction of bureaucracy tasks."

"CloudStack is simple to stand up and get off the ground in a hurry. Its centralized design allows for easier troubleshooting when compared to OpenStack. Out of the box, it’s very well suited for white labeling and IaaS."

More CloudStack pros

Cons

"There are a lot of bugs in the solution. This is an area in the solution that can be improved."

"There could be an improvement with the integration with the newest solutions from other vendors' technologies."

"We cannot depend on this solution to manage all of the data center's infrastructure."

"Currently, Cisco UCS Director is unable to integrate with another product or with a server from another brand."

"Simplifying the user interface would go a long way to making it more usable."

"Normally, UCS Director is used primarily for orchestration, but when we look at a non-Cisco data infrastructure components, the UCS Director needs a bit more improvement in terms of integration with third-party systems and with existing older systems."

"I would like to see more integration with other solutions."

"The product could allow more programmatic opportunities through better development of the API."

More Cisco UCS Director cons

"Accounts, domains, and user accounts are set up with public cloud in mind, not private."

"It's really hard to delete zones, clusters, datacenters. You need to follow strict rules, which were not properly documented at the time."

"It would be a good to have more specific error messages within administration processes (e.g. problem with creating new instance)."

"I would like to see support for native VLAN, and fault-tolerance."

"The number of contributors to this solution is relatively small compared to other solutions. However, if more frequent users of CloudStack contribute to the open-source community, it will significantly enhance the overall community experience and make it more useful for everyone involved."

"There are some minor things that can be improved even more such as, perhaps, a bit more polishing on the GUI side to catch up with the API possibilities (which are really extensive) but otherwise nothing critical."

"I think that container technology in CloudStack is an area that needs to be improved."

"CloudStack lacks a billing solution which would complete it as a full 360-degree product."

More CloudStack cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The budget doesn’t work for the state and local governments."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing around five to six out of ten."

"I rate Cisco UCS Director's price a three out of ten. Cisco UCS Director is not an affordable product. With Cisco UCS Director, there is a need to pay an overall price, which consists of the product, software, and support."

"Cisco UCS Director is expensive...I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"The cost of this solution is significant."

"I would rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten."

"There is no license, so the product is free unless you are buying professional technical support services."

"The Apache CloudStack is open source, so you do not have licenses to purchase."

"CloudStack is an open-source product."

"The solution is open-source and free."

"CloudStack is an open source solution, so you don't need to pay anything for it. When our company develops something specially for CloudStack, it is donated to the Apache Software Foundation and provided to anyone that wants to use it."

"As far as I know, CS is still free of charge. If you want to pay some money, Citrix Cloud Platform is based on CS, I think. As for hypervisors – everything as usual, you need to pay for VMware and vCenter. As for XenServer, recently they changed the free feature list, so you may need to pay some money to get useful features like XenMotion."

"It is a 100% open-source solution needing just an Apache license. Also, there are no hidden fees to be paid."

"Give an effort to planning. If possible, contract a specialized consultant company for the initial setup and knowledge transfer."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

25%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

19%

Educational Organization

12%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS Director?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Director?

While the pricing might be seen as expensive, it provides value for money due to reliable service and excellent technical support.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Director?

It should be more of a cloud-based architecture for Cisco UCS Director, and it should be affordable to small customers as well because the pricing is a major challenge when we talk about Cisco UCS ...

See all answers

What do you like most about CloudStack?

The initial implementation process was quite good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CloudStack?

CloudStack is open-source, so there is no cost apart from learning. Billing solutions, if outsourced, come at a moderate cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CloudStack?

CloudStack lacks a billing solution which would complete it as a full 360-degree product. Additionally, more themes and drag-and-drop interfaces could enhance the user experience. Improved document...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Director

Compared 38% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs Cisco UCS Director

Compared 25% of the time

OpenNebula vs Cisco UCS Director

Compared 13% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs Cisco UCS Director

Compared 12% of the time

Morpheus vs Cisco UCS Director

Compared 12% of the time

More Cisco UCS Director Competitors

OpenNebula vs CloudStack

Compared 73% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs CloudStack

Compared 8% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs CloudStack

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs CloudStack

Compared 5% of the time

VMware Aria Automation vs CloudStack

Compared 5% of the time

More CloudStack Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director

August 2025

Download Cisco UCS Director product report

Buyer's Guide

CloudStack

August 2025

Download CloudStack product report

Also Known As

No data available

Vmops, Cloud.com

Overview

Cisco UCS Director enables automated delivery of physical and virtual data center resources, empowering data centers to move at the speed of business.

Cisco

Apache CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.

Apache

Sample Customers

Entel, Data#3, Cegal, NESIC, LightEdge

GreenQloud, Exoscale, TomTom, ASG, PC Extreme, ISWest, Grid'5000

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack

July 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco UCS Director vs. CloudStack report.

See our list of best Cloud Management vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.