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CloudSphere vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

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

CloudSphere
Ranking in Cloud Management
29th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (13th)
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Cloud Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
172
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (10th), Network Automation (7th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (27th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of CloudSphere is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 5.3%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Aria Automation5.3%
CloudSphere1.5%
Other93.2%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

Asad-Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Dev Ops Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Cloud security assessments have improved cost control and vulnerability management across clients
The alerting system could be explored further, as it would help users integrate the alerting system more effectively. Additionally, an AI feature would be beneficial, as AI is prevalent nowadays and could integrate into environments to help customers. I would particularly like to see the AI feature added to CloudSphere so it automatically integrates into our environment and generates comprehensive reports, which would decrease workload from the engineer's perspective. If CloudSphere integrates AI and guides users on which security compliance they need to follow, AI could automatically scan everything and provide a report stating which areas need improvement and what points require attention.
VasilisGiannitsiotis - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT at ITSolutions
Automation has streamlined complex financial workflows but still needs more intuitive orchestration
Something to improve in VMware Aria Automation would be related to VCF 9, as I do not know what it is trying to bring because they exposed it as the solution of everything. So VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware. I have not seen what this brings or what else it includes. Maybe in the area of vRealize Orchestrator, this would be beneficial because VRO can do everything. Perhaps a more user-friendly way to use that tool would be helpful because the possibilities there are endless. I am looking for more user-friendly navigation in VMware Aria Automation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CloudSphere is very mature and very effective."
"We do not need to install any appliances or any agents."
"CloudSphere is a good solution that works well and can integrate with multiple clouds and manage all our customers."
"The scalability of the solution is a godsend."
"When I started using CloudSphere, it wasn't mature, and it had multiple issues. For example, my team experienced server issues while using the solution, but recently, I noticed how much CloudSphere has improved. There used to be some latency issues with CloudSphere. It even gave error messages in the past when you select an option such as "the web server is not responding", but it has improved a lot, and now I don't get any errors from CloudSphere. What I like best about CloudSphere is that it has a lot of beneficial features, and it has a single pane for managing multi-cloud environments, which I find very helpful, and it's the main benefit you can get from CloudSphere."
"Provides multiple kinds of services for managing the clouds of multiple customers."
"The product is helpful for the management, optimization, and utilization of resources."
"To others, if a company is looking for a security vulnerability tool or governance and policy tools that help improve their environment, I would recommend CloudSphere because it is very helpful, easy to use, user interactive, and provides many functions and features."
"We have integrated our CICD pipeline into an automatic catalog request through some API calls. It can request and provision new virtual machines behind the NSX load balancer, straight out of the CIDC pipeline and add those nodes to the load balancer, request SSL certs, do SSL termination at the load balancer so that it's not encrypted behind the scenes, all of which has really been helpful."
"What I like the most about vRA: Its seamless ability for users to be able to go pick a catalog item that we have created for them, while they are testing a new version of their code and say, "Okay, I want you to make my old version (based on these blueprints) run, please deploy me - my entire environment.""
"compare-to-competition; Citrix was on our short list. But over the last ten years, we have been a big VMware shop. We wanted to continue with VMware because we are confident that VMware can address any kind of problem situation, any challenges. But with Citrix, we didn't find that kind of credibility when we did solution testing, a PoC."
"We also use it to pre-install the applications that the people selected when they ordered the machine, so they get a fully functional machine."
"From the customer perspective, the value was worth it."
"We primarily use it for restoration services."
"It is possible to completely automatize the creation and removal of a virtual machine."
"It's scalable; as the needs of the university grow, it's growing with us."
 

Cons

"The alerting system could be explored further, as it would help users integrate the alerting system more effectively."
"The next feature I would like to have full disclosure of what's being done with the data."
"One of the cons of this product is that it will not discover all the applications running."
"The solution must have a single management console for the resources and VMs."
"The main issue I experienced from CloudSphere was recently resolved, but an area for improvement in the solution is that it lacks the functionality of migrating resources from one public cloud to another. If CloudSphere could provide that functionality, that would be very beneficial to users and companies."
"CloudSphere is not keeping up with the pace of the cloud and there are a number of services that can't be deployed using CloudSphere."
"When we start the scanning of, for example, 500 servers, it will not handle the scan. We need to differentiate the jobs - for example, one job for 100 servers, a second job for another 100 servers, et cetera."
"Their customer support leaves a lot to be desired. The standards are not that great."
"Probably more stability and just ensuring everything works out-of-the-box. There is still a bit of a gap in terms of product maturity based on all the forums and things that we've seen, so we would like it to be much more mature than what we currently have."
"The upgrade process 6.x to 7.3 was a significant effort. I'm hoping that 7.3 to the next version is much smoother."
"I would like to see more improvement in the way it integrates with other systems."
"The basic support is not there for Google Cloud and Azure. They are unable to provision nor do cost controls."
"The stability is 95 percent. There are some situations where it gets a little bit clumsy. When it gets really big, when you're dealing with a very large deployment, it can be a little bit difficult, but it's better than nothing. It does a significant job, given what it's tasked to do."
"The setup needs coding. It's not easy. It's not straightforward."
"Ability to mimic more VCD functionality. Ability to share blueprints among tenants, or have a master blueprint repository, so you don't have to move the stuff between tenants."
"With the workflow aspect, which has manual intervention, a policy needs to be approved by somebody. There could be better management of that piece with better templates. It is like a workflow engine, but does not have enough example templates to do certain things. A lot of people waste a lot of time trying to figure out the same thing, and everybody is trying to figure out the same thing, e.g., how to make a MySQL cluster in a Windows environment?"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It depends on how that model will be used. It might be anywhere between $4 and $15 per license per month. It’s less expensive than other options."
"The product is very expensive."
"It is an open-source product."
"So much can be done with the Open Source side, and especially for smaller shops. I personally think the pricing for Enterprise is hard to justify."
"SaltStack is an open-source product."
"We do plan to see ROI with any new implementation of new technologies being implemented within our environment."
"From the customer perspective, the value was worth it."
"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."
"I'm very interested in the integration with Puppet. However, my organization doesn't have the funding for something like Puppet right now. If VMware would integrate that feature set (Puppet) into vRA. That would be very awesome."
"The solution is pretty expensive but provides good workload management."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise131
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for CloudSphere?
My company relies on security assessments and vulnerabilities in our cloud environment in Azure, so we scan using CloudSphere. We work in MSP and Azure MSP with multiple clients, using two tools: P...
What advice do you have for others considering CloudSphere?
To others, if a company is looking for a security vulnerability tool or governance and policy tools that help improve their environment, I would recommend CloudSphere because it is very helpful, ea...
What needs improvement with CloudSphere?
The alerting system could be explored further, as it would help users integrate the alerting system more effectively. Additionally, an AI feature would be beneficial, as AI is prevalent nowadays an...
What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?
vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...
Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?
When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...
Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?
I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...
 

Also Known As

HyperCloud
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Affymetrix, Bell Helicopter, Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe, Porterville Unified School District, Interact for Health, VirtueCom, Warren Memorial Hospital, Front Porch, RMH Group, Meyers Nave, Intraworks, Information Technology, ETTE, Clackamas Community College
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Find out what your peers are saying about CloudSphere vs. VMware Aria Automation and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,322 professionals have used our research since 2012.