We have fully automated resource scheduling with our VMware clusters. We have taken recommendations on sizing that have saved hundred of gigabytes of RAM throughout our clusters.
Systems Administrator at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
We have fully automated resource scheduling with our VMware clusters.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
Without having to worry about a host becoming over-utilized, we have been able to work on more important projects. We are able to be more efficient with our host resources, saving the business money.
What needs improvement?
A more robust reporting engine would be a huge boon to us. A bit better error messaging with Application Control Module would help during troubleshooting adding a new target.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been a Turbo customer since 2014.
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No, and their support was very quick and helpful to assist with major upgrades. In the end, it was easy enough that with a little Linux knowledge and the Turbo documentation, even major upgrades could be performed without having to contact support.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Turbo is very powerful, and does exactly what you tell it to do. If you configure it to be too aggressive to either efficiency or performance, your cluster might become unbalanced. We have had great stability keeping it slightly skewed towards efficiency vs performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No, we have one Turbo instance controlling multiple datacenters.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
10/10 on customer support, as well as account management, could not be happier.
Technical Support:10/10 on technical support. If I encounter a complex issue, they escalate me to a developer resource who dives deeply to find a root cause.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
VMware's DRS didn't seem to balance our clusters very evenly. vROps made sizing recommendations that were just not correct. We tested Turbo and the recommendations were all on point and we are able to trust them.
How was the initial setup?
Very easy setup. OVA template, adding vCenters, making some groups, allowing our firewalls to let Turbo access everything and we were set.
What about the implementation team?
In-house team was easily able to install.
What was our ROI?
We've saved an entire ESXi host worth of RAM with Turbo.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is very competitively priced for all the automation it brings.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We actually purchased vROps but it wasn't enough.
What other advice do I have?
We really love Turbo and the time it saves us.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

VDI Operations Team Lead at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
This toolkit has some hooks that allows us to up size VM's on the fly based on the user's current utilization.
What is most valuable?
The automation, of course.
How has it helped my organization?
This toolkit has some hooks that allows us to upsize VMs on the fly based on the user's current utilization.
What needs improvement?
Decrease the cost.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Needed to upsize the DB shortly after deployment. Also, configuring for a highly secure environment required a lot of file tweaks in the Linux subsystem.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Excellent. They've always been quick to support any issues/queries we have.
Technical Support:Excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
DRS - Built-in tool didn't provide adequate migrations and no reporting about overall health.
How was the initial setup?
Complex - highly secured environment. Had to change many of the system configs to make it more secure.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented this ourselves.
What was our ROI?
Not tracked.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
No.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Senior Cloud Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Turbonomic balances on more metrics than vROps and has helped us utilizing our hosts in a better way. We are also using the API heavily for querying performance data.
What is most valuable?
The load balancing is the most valuable feature of the product. Turbonomic balances on more metrics than vROps and has helped us utilizing our hosts in a better way. We are also using the API heavily for querying performance data.
How has it helped my organization?
Turbonomic has, to an extent, helped us grow our VM environment without us having to buy new hardware. We are also using the performance statistics gathered by Turbonomic in our operations dashboards to give us control over the environment.
What needs improvement?
Looking forward to the new HTML 5 UI.
For how long have I used the solution?
One and a half years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
The deployment is very easy. You need to invest some time in adjusting the thresholds to suit your hardware and environment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Some of the previous versions have had some issues with the stability, but the latest versions, >=5.7, seems to have fixed this.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 4000+ VMs in our environment and 120+ Hosts. No issues so far with the scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Good customer service. Not too "pushy" on additional features, and always trying to understand our needs and to see if there are areas where we could use the product in a better way.
Technical Support:Great technical support. Fast response and very knowledgable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Have used vROps for a little while. Much more complex and didn't give us the same value.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
NETWRK ANALYST IV with 10,001+ employees
Has enabled me to buy more servers only when I really need to buy them
What is most valuable?
The automation of balancing VMware cluster workloads. This feature insures that my VMware clusters are always running in an optimal state. The streamlined automation is what sold me on this product.
How has it helped my organization?
I like the reporting system along with the ability to export reports to PDF format.
What needs improvement?
HTML 5.
For how long have I used the solution?
Six years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I did have a few issues but support quickly resolved the issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
None.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Top-rated.
Technical Support:Top-rated.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
None.
How was the initial setup?
Straightforward and easy to setup.
What about the implementation team?
In-house
What was our ROI?
This software enabled me to avoid buying more servers until I really need to buy more.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
None.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, VMware Operations Manager which was really more expensive with no automation, and their reporting is not what I wanted.
What other advice do I have?
Great product!!
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Turbonomics resolves the issue with continuous workload placement and sizing recommendations/actions.
What is most valuable?
- Automatic placement of workload in multi-node VMware cluster.
- Recommend/perform memory and vCPU configuration to match work load.
How has it helped my organization?
Everyone's sizing guess is wrong.
Turbonomics resolves the issue with continuous workload placement and sizing recommendations/actions.
What needs improvement?
Licensing for clusters with few VMs (i.e. HA focus over consolidation focus).
For how long have I used the solution?
One year.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No, the integration was cake.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No. Very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No. We use if for seven hosts at two sites.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Excellent. We were able to evaluate and implement with full support.
Technical Support:High.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No. We just guessed and tried to use PerfMon and VMware performance and user feelings to size and place the workload. Bad.
How was the initial setup?
Just install and hook into vCenter and then understand what it is saying.
We did initially work with pinning workloads between types of VMs but now let all swim in the same pool with a Turbonomic lifeguard.
What about the implementation team?
In-house with input from application vendor.
What was our ROI?
Continuous as the workload placement is automatic as things change.
There was no other solution that actually allowed the execution of its recommendations.
The sophistication of the algorithm is sufficient to not cause imbalance by the execution of balancing. Totally sweet.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is most applicable with clusters that host large numbers of VMs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
VMware vRealize Operations was reviewed but did not sufficiently automate the process and did not seem to be as sophisticated in its analysis.
What other advice do I have?
This has been a set-it-and-forget-it solution that does a great job but is behind the scenes.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Virtualization Specialist at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
The VM rightsizing tools and the intelligent placing of workloads help us to not only streamline what we have but, in conjunction with the sizing tools, to look at future scenarios
Pros and Cons
- "It became obvious to us that there was a lot more being offered in the product that we could leverage to ensure our VMware environment was running efficiently."
- "The old interface was not the clearest UI in some areas, and could be quite intimidating when first using the tool."
What is most valuable?
Originally we looked at Turbonomic as a replacement for our existing virtual management tool as it offered us a real-time view of our environment, which is something we never had before. But it became obvious to us that there was a lot more being offered in the product that we could leverage to ensure our VMware environment was running efficiently.
How has it helped my organization?
The VM rightsizing tools and the intelligent placing of workloads have helped us to not only streamline what we have but, in conjunction with the sizing tools, has allowed us to look at future scenarios and potentially reduce our spend on physical kit in the DC.
What needs improvement?
The old interface was not the clearest UI in some areas, and could be quite intimidating when first using the tool. Subsequent releases have had the option of an updated UI which is not only much cleaner in its look but is also much more intuitive in its operation.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been a customer for over two and a half years now.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
None, deployment was extremely quick and simple, well within the time quoted on the documentation.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
None, we have rarely rebooted or had to spend any time on the appliances or the tool. Apart from upgrades, it's been running constantly since the initial install.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No, but our environment has been pretty stable for the past 18 months.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Very good, the issues we have had were dealt with in a timely fashion.
Technical Support:Very good. Feedback and support were both very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used another tool to give us insights into our VM environment but due to the way it gathered data it was always at least 24 hours out of date. Turbonomic gave us the ability to look at near real-time data coming directly from out VMware environment.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was very straightforward with very simple steps to follow.
What about the implementation team?
All implementation was done in-house with no initial input from Turbonomic.
What was our ROI?
The tool has demonstrated that considerable savings could be had by reducing the amount of physical hardware and, therefore, licenses that are needed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We felt the pricing was very fair for the product. It is in no way prohibitive for larger deployments, unlike other similar product on the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at numerous solutions including SCOM, Veeam, and custom solutions.
What other advice do I have?
The ability to connect to many different environments along with the integration with partner systems make this an essential tool in our IS VM management strategy.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
LAN/WAN Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We allow it to do all our VMotion migrations, ensuring our systems are running at their peak performance.
What is most valuable?
The planning is great to see how much capacity I have in my VMware infrastructure.
How has it helped my organization?
We allow it to do all our VMotion migrations, ensuring our systems are running at their peak performance.
What needs improvement?
I would like it to auto-update itself rather than me having to check upgrade then apply on a monthly basis.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have used the solution about five years now.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No, installation was straightforward.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No, we've had no issues todate.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've continued to expand our VMware environment and the application has scaled with it.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Excellent, about once a month my account team checks in with me and makes sure my needs are being met with the product.
Technical Support:Great.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No.
How was the initial setup?
Was straightforward, we had no issues installing the appliance.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented in-house with no issues.
What was our ROI?
At this time we have not evaluated that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Reasonable with other products on the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Looked at VMware product but was not impressed, Turnonomic was easier to operate.
What other advice do I have?
We continue to support this product and find value in what it does for us.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Network Engineer with 5,001-10,000 employees
The optimization has allowed us to focus our efforts on other areas of our virtual environment.
What is most valuable?
The dashboards are amazing. They give me the ability to show our line of business how their application servers are performing. We also like the automation tool for managing our clusters so they are fully optimized.
How has it helped my organization?
The optimization has allowed us to focus our efforts on other areas of our virtual environment.
What needs improvement?
To be able to drill down into RDMs and get all of the information about each RDM attached to a server.
For how long have I used the solution?
Four years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have never had any issues with deployment or upgrades.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
None.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
None.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Customer service and support are one of the tops in the industry.
Technical Support:One of the best I have ever dealt with.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
None.
How was the initial setup?
Easy and straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Through a vendor. They took the time to explain everything and show us how to get the ball rolling.
What was our ROI?
Not sure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Great value for the money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
VMware Ops Manager.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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