Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and VMware NSX are major players in the automation and network management category. Currently, Ansible holds an edge due to its ease of use and deployment flexibility, while VMware NSX is noted for its advanced network security features.
Features: Ansible's agentless architecture relies solely on SSH and uses easy-to-read YAML-based syntax. It provides extensive plugins and a supportive community, making it adaptable for scaling tasks from single servers to entire data centers. VMware NSX excels in network automation, offering micro-segmentation, distributed firewall capabilities, and seamless integration with VMware environments to enhance security and control.
Room for Improvement: Ansible needs enhancements in scalability and speed for large server management, GUI improvements, and better support for multi-OS environments. VMware NSX suffers from complex setup processes, high costs, and limited integration with non-VMware systems, with users desiring more automation capabilities and security features.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Ansible is valued for its flexibility across hybrid, on-premises, and cloud platforms with strong community support. VMware NSX, although robust within VMware-centric setups, is known for its complexity, making it less user-friendly compared to Ansible. Its customer service is robust but hampered by deployment complexities.
Pricing and ROI: Ansible is open source, with a free command line version, while the more advanced Ansible Tower incurs licensing costs based on usage, considered reasonable by most users. VMware NSX is viewed as costly with a complicated licensing structure tied to enterprise needs, but its features justify the price for organizations that prioritize network security and large-scale automation. Both show tangible ROI in resource efficiency and operational productivity.
The Ansible sales and technical support services need significant improvement.
They were always helpful.
Our technicians have a good support experience from the company.
The technical support from VMware NSX deserves a rating of seven out of ten.
Ansible can face scalability issues, such as limitations when trying to scale up infrastructure.
There is a high level of satisfaction with its ability to scale.
The stability of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is excellent, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating.
For stability, I would rate VMware NSX as a nine out of ten.
The dashboarding capabilities should be improved by bringing CMP (Cloud Management Platform) into Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
More detailed dashboards would be beneficial because there is a lack of dashboards on Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
More library support for microservices architecture and Kubernetes would be helpful.
The initial configuration and integration within our existing environment were not easy.
The pricing for the product is another area for improvement as I'm not satisfied nowadays.
The licensing model is expensive and could be more flexible, especially after Broadcom bought VMware.
The pricing is high, and since I'm not using all functionalities, it would be better if the price depended on the functionalities used.
The cost of combining Red Hat Developer Hub and Ansible is extremely high, which presents a significant challenge with the Red Hat product.
The cost of VMware NSX is considered high.
VMware NSX is a little higher in price compared to the competition.
There is room for improvement in terms of pricing.
It makes it simple to develop Ansible playbooks and roles, which aids in simplifying my daily administrative tasks.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easy to integrate.
The automation capabilities streamline deployment processes, providing reliability and reducing manual intervention and errors.
Micro-segmentation enhances security and provides more secure data in your data center.
The most powerful feature of VMware NSX is the micro-segmentation that allows us to separate the different protocols our application works with.
VMware NSX has the ability to create networks in software.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | 18.1% |
| VMware NSX | 3.7% |
| Other | 78.2% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 24 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 48 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 33 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 23 |
| Large Enterprise | 68 |
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a powerful network automation solution that allows organizations to handle every aspect of their application launch process within a single product. It enables users to share their automations so that teams within an organization can collaborate on various projects with ease. Ansible Automation Platform is designed to be used by all employees involved in the network automation process.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Benefits
Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform include:
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Features
Reviews from Real Users
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its automation manager and its comprehensive centralized GUI-based management interface.
MD J., a solution architect at STBL, says, “The automation manager is very good and makes things easier for customers with multi-cloud platforms.”
Aankit G., a Consultant at Pi DATACENTERS, writes, “We like the GUI-based interface for the tower. Before, we only had a command-line interface to run all the Ansible tasks. Now, the Ansible tower provides the complete GUI functionality to run, manage, and create the templates and the Ansible jobs. This includes the code and YAML file we can create. The GUI interface is the added advantage of this solution, including some integration with the different plugins.”
VMware NSX is a sophisticated solution utilized for micro-segmentation, network security, software-defined networking, and private cloud construction. It aids in the transition from physical to virtual infrastructure, ensuring efficient network virtualization and security of production workloads.
VMware NSX empowers organizations to manage network functions, implement distributed firewalls, and enhance security within virtual environments. Crucial for disaster recovery and load balancing, it supports cloud-native application development and enterprise clients. Its ease of use, scalability, and seamless integration with existing VMware solutions ensure streamlined network management and swift deployment. Despite its extensive features, areas like pricing, routing functionality, and compatibility with certain platforms require attention.
What are the key features of VMware NSX?VMware NSX is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Organizations in these sectors utilize it to bolster security, enhance network efficiency, and support cloud-native applications. By extending on-premise networks into provider spaces and managing virtual access networks, VMware NSX significantly optimizes infrastructure operations.
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