Cisco UCS Director vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

Cisco and VMware are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Cisco is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.0, while VMware is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.5. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in CM, compared to VMware’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 73% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Director

Read 15 Cisco UCS Director reviews

578 Views
549 Comparison Views

73% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 22 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

7,445 Views
149 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Director

VMware Tanzu Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Cisco UCS Director and VMware Tanzu Platform are cloud management and application modernization solutions. VMware Tanzu Platform offers superior features that justify its higher cost compared to the budget-friendly Cisco UCS Director, noted for its cost-effectiveness and support.

Features: Cisco UCS Director provides orchestration of IT processes, unified infrastructure management, and resource provisioning with automation. VMware Tanzu Platform offers modern application support, container orchestration, and robust microservices capabilities for DevOps and continuous integration.

Room for Improvement: Cisco UCS Director could improve scalability, integration with non-Cisco systems, and user interface enhancements. VMware Tanzu Platform might benefit from simplified deployment processes, reduced resource requirements, and streamlined integrations with third-party systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco UCS Director features a straightforward deployment process and reliable customer support, which suits IT teams of varying skill levels. VMware Tanzu Platform has a complex deployment due to its extensive features but provides extensive guidance and support for managing modern application stacks.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco UCS Director is cost-effective with a quick ROI due to its lower setup costs and resource management capabilities. VMware Tanzu Platform requires a significant investment but is seen as worthwhile for its long-term benefits and application modernization capabilities that improve development speed and scalability.

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

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

July 2025

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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

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in Cloud Management

25th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (14th), PaaS Clouds (13th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (3rd), Service Mesh (8th), Agile and DevOps Services (2nd)

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 VMware Tanzu Platform is 1.0%, up from 0.1% 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.

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DarshanChaudhari

Solutions Architect Hybrid Cloud Practice US/Europe at Tech Mahindra Limited

Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling

I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

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

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

"I can manage multiple workloads whether it's on AWS, Azure, or on-premises. They can be managed by using the UCS Director."

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

"UCS director enables us to be more productive and more agile, and also more self-sufficient because we don't have to depend on anybody else."

"Cisco's knowledge base is extensive."

"The solution is helpful for centralized management."

"An easy and strong configuration, along with its low cost, are some of the features of the solution."

"The product is flexible and compact. It has a lot of features."

More Cisco UCS Director pros

"A feature we find valuable is that other products can also be integrated with Mission Control. This means that we can see the status of specific clusters, as well as view the monitoring application logs all from one point."

"The multi-tenancy with the VCD is great."

"The valuable feature I have found to be the management of Kubernetes clusters in a private cloud or public clouds, such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is the management functionality of the cluster life cycle. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other vendors, such as Velero for backups and Sonobuoy for compliance. Additionally, it works well in multi-cluster environments."

"The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible."

"The observability platform and end-to-end service portal provided by Tanzu are the most valuable features."

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control has many valuable features, such as ease of use and customization."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability to check the flow of all the different variants within our applications."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

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

"There aren’t any areas of improvement that immediately come to mind."

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

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

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

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

"The tool should be a lot more intuitive and make it easy for us to understand and migrate."

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

More Cisco UCS Director cons

"Cost is always a concern. Smaller companies might find the price a bigger issue."

"One potential area for expansion would be leveraging AI capabilities, which my customer might be interested in exploring as they grow."

"The product should support integration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)"

"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The solution could benefit from improved customization and visibility for its users."

"Tanzu provides better manageability as compared to OCP, but when it comes to tagging it with other products, it's a bit rigid. If I have to bring in any new product or something out of the box from a different vendor, working with Tanzu becomes a little difficult. For example, if I want to use the F5 services, I have to add one more layer of Avi, but I don't want to do that. If I have a list of the products that I want to use, such as for firewall services, with Tanzu, I will have to go through another layer, which creates complexity."

"The implementation is not easy, it is very complex and can take a day or two to complete."

"Addressing the high upfront costs could improve the product. Implementing a subscription-based model with tiered service options could make it more accessible to a broader range of customers."

"Having a unified dashboard to manage all infrastructure, whether it involves additional IT infrastructure or modern apps, would be highly advantageous"

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

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

"The cost of this solution is significant."

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

"I would recommend that businesses look into the full price for their requirements. The price is high, but there are some open-source add-ons that can be used for customization while keeping costs down, although these might not be suitable for everyone."

"There are different licenses available. You have to upgrade your license if you want to scale the solution more."

"The license for VMware Tanzu Application Service is expensive. The license should be cheaper."

"Since we were at a large data center, the price might not have been a concern for us."

"The solution is only for large or medium size enterprises because it is expensive."

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control is cheaper than Red Hat OpenShift."

"It is not the most expensive option, and I believe the capabilities align well with the value it provides."

"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

25%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

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

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

It definitely gives the end customer a good overview and perspective of running applications in terms of overall workload footprint. TMC provides a very detailed description of your cloud-native ap...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution. I would rate the pricing of VMware Tanzu Mission Control as four out of ten.

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

Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 15% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 12% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Docker vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 6% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director

August 2025

Download Cisco UCS Director product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

July 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

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

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

VMware

Sample Customers

Entel, Data#3, Cegal, NESIC, LightEdge

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Director vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

July 2025

Free Report: Cisco UCS Director vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

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