VMware Cloud Director Reviews and Pricing

Lead Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Nov 2, 2015

System administrators can now develop organization specific virtual data center templates with pre-set resource and delegation rules.

Originally posted https://anthonyspiteri.net/vcloud-director-8-new-features-and-a-new-ui-addition/

Since June the vCloud Director SP Beta has been running with a lot of renewed interest in the IaaS Platform. The beta was well participated in and there was a lot of robust discussion around the future of vCD as well as questions around the lack of a decent UI for those without in house development skills to exploit the new API only features. The beta program was closed the weekend of VMworld San Francisco with v8.0 GA’ing a few weeks later.

With the v8.0 SP release the vCD team have started to incorporate enhancements from the vCloud Air vCD builds, though the original 6 month lag between VCA services coming to the SP builds seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Before diving into the new features of the 8.0 version I thought it would be a great time to highlight the release history of vCloud Director since v 1.0 was released back in August of 2010. There have been 6 major releases and 16 minor releases which backs up one of my biggest claims around platform maturity and as to why vCloud Director is the best Cloud Management Platform on the market when it comes to the abstraction of vSphere resources and presenting pools of compute, storage and networking via a true multi-tenant interface.

VMware vCloud Director 8.0 Features:

vSphere 6.0 Support:

This to me is the biggest reason to look at upgraded to the new build. Support for vSphere 6.0 is significant for Service Providers who are looking to upgrade to take advantage of all the new features and benefits and optimizations. Note that Hardware Version 11 is not supported and won’t be exposed via the Provider vDCs.

NSX 6.1.4 Support:

This is also a significant feature that allows Service Providers to have NSX-v 6.1.4 deployed and working in a supported fashion with vCloud Director. Deployment of the vShield Edges will be 5.5.4 builds and allow deployments, redeployments and manageability to be maintained.

Organizational virtual data center (vDC) templates:

System administrators can now develop organization specific virtual data center templates with pre-set resource and delegation rules. Organizations deploy these templates to quickly create new virtual data centers on a self-service basis – Without API capabilities this feature can’t be accessed…however I don’t see a great amount of value in this particular feature as in general SPs doing their own provisioning do so off workflows that take into consideration self service vDC profiles.

vApp enhancements:

System administrators can now reconfigure virtual machines within a vApp, as well as network connectivity and virtual machine capability during vApp instantiation – Again from what I’ve seen this features can’t be accessed unless you are deploying and modifying vApps/VMs from the API. I know that this perticular feature solves a problem with Zettagrid faced in creating our vCD UI where VMs needed to be created first and then only able to be modified after that was complete…this allow VM composition on the fly.

OAuth support for identity sources:

OAuth2 tokens are now supported – Probably a feature that isn’t going to be used by most Service Providers…unless I’m missing something?

Tenant throttling:

Prevents a few tenants from consuming a majority of the resources for a single instance of vCloud Director and ensures fairness of execution and scheduling among tenants – This sounds like an awesome features that gives the ability for workloads to be throttled to protect against noisy neighbors and sets more granular control of what a tenant can consume in terms of storage, compute and networking…however it’s only offering a new algorithm that ensures operations running or in queue from a “busy” tenant do not stop or slow down a request from a “sedentary” tenant. The tenant throttling feature only gives control over the number of simultaneous resource-intensive operations any tenant can run…ie this might be fairly useful in large (vCloud Air) vCD deployments, but isn’t a ground breaking feature that offers too much to the majority of SPs.

Preparation for Advanced Networking Services:

The answer to the question as to what’s Changed in the UI is…nothing…however interestingly I did spot a UI addition which had been introduced (apparently undocumented) in preparation for the still not yet in Beta Advanced Networking Service which will allow vCD to interact with a new appliance that acts as the gateway for vCD and NSX to talk advanced services.

Can’t say too much more on the Advanced Networking Service but it will be fed down to vCAN Service Providers on the back of it’s release in vCloud Air last month as part of VMware’s commitment to delayed feature parity for SPs deployments and vCloud Air…good to see some UI enhancement in any case!

Final Thoughts:

As I mentioned above for the majority as Service Providers that can’t make use of the new features the biggest feature enhancements in this release is the compatibility with vSphere 6.0 and NSX-v 6.1.4 and even for those that have the capability to develop against the API’s the vApp Enhancements around VM recomposition will allow for a more streamlined provisioning flow for VMs but the other features are a little less impressive…however I am certainly looking forward to the next release as it should deliver a lot more vCloud Air service features.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user334515

IT Infrastructure Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 31, 2015

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We’ve already deployed three-tiered applications with just a push of a button to deploy from dev to staging to production.

Valuable Features

Ability to give our developers a self-service environment, where they can go on particular portal and deploy their own systems.

Improvements to My Organization

Automation piece. If we can continue to develop automation for developers, that should seamlessly carry over into product environment as well without admin heavy lifting. In automation, there's still a lot of manual processes, but with vCloud, less so.

Room for Improvement

I don’t see any improvements that could be made based on the way we use it. Maybe some built-in third-party tools that we’re using now in terms of automation (i.e. Bamboo) would be an improvement.

Stability Issues

We’ve already deployed three-tiered applications with just a push of a button to deploy from dev to staging to production.

In regards to stability, this gives you more control yet takes out the human element. There’s consistency that’s set in the script and then we can make small changes as we grow.

Scalability Issues

They’re now moving more into vRealize and more integrated systems. It used to need more scripting, but VMware are now working more hand in hand with other solutions.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

Technical Support:

Great tech support. I love those guys. Every time I had a ticket, I could escalate, and they’d work in tandem with other vendors (i.e. NetApp) to find solution.

Initial Setup

I wasn't part of initial set-up, but I believe it’s complex based on the senior engineer’s experience.

For example, right now the metrics to upgrade is complex, requiring certain elements. It’s very simple to use and train end-users. In our shop, we try to make them more self-sufficient, so a lot of knowledge transfer.

Other Advice

Access the enormous amount of virtual apps they have to get practical performance instead of just the KB to deploy. They also need to get an understanding of audience as well. Understand pain points to understand how to approach solution.

It loses points because things are moving so quickly that it has yet to catch up.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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it_user320277

Virtual Systems Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 9, 2015

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Its flexibility allows me to adapt it to students' needs, although a better GUI for both students and administrators would be an improvement.

What is most valuable?

Flexibility – it allows me to adapt the product to all student needs.

How has it helped my organization?

Students using the environment vs. not using the environment. Students can find products that they want to use and if they’re using it, they’re happy with it.

What needs improvement?

Better GUI as they don’t hold with the programs that well. Better user interfaces in general. Both the administrative and user interfaces need to be better.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It’s fairly stable, no bugs no crashes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales fine, it went from 1,000 to 2,000 machines without any issues at all.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support’s wonderful. Whenever we find an issue, we submit a ticket and they resolve it within an hour usually. Sometimes the complexity of the environment is high, and that’s fine, but usually it’s very quick.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Lab Manager, and when VMware discontinued it, we needed to switch.

How was the initial setup?

Complicated – there was no upgrade path from Lab Manager to vCloud Director, so we basically had to design a new solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, because of the time VMware has been in the market. I don’t like using people that are new, and VMware has been around for a long time. Also, we just thought it would be simpler to stay with the same vendor.

What other advice do I have?

I really don’t know of any products right now other than this. They’re pretty high – if someone has a peer review that’s low, I won’t consider the product.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user320640

Infrastructure Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Oct 9, 2015

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We can import acquisition products into our environment without reconfiguring them and it's infinitely scalable.

Valuable Features

The physical segmentation of networking and security.

Improvements to My Organization

Lately we have been using it to import acquisition products into our environment without reconfiguring them at all, due to how the segmentation works.

Room for Improvement

I feel like vCloud is two years behind the feature set – in terms of the UI, and vCenter. I can't do the same tasks that I can do in terms of UI as with vCenter.

Stability Issues

It's stable, usually admin error if something goes wrong.

Scalability Issues

It's infinitely scalable.

Customer Service and Technical Support

It's good overall. We have had times when it has been slower than we would have liked, but I would say that about every vendor we use.

Initial Setup

Setup is easy.

Other Advice

You can't go wrong with VMware. The stability and the flexibility it allows, they do it best compared to competitors. Peer reviews are fairly important but I try to form my opinion from a POC over anything else.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user297132

Presales Cloud Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 25, 2015

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It helps us provide private cloud solutions to our clients, but it is too platform dependent.

Valuable Features

The orchestrator is the most valuable feature.

Improvements to My Organization

It helps us provide private cloud solutions to our clients.

Room for Improvement

Though the product is quite good, I feel it needs a more public view, where the server access studies to migrate organizations into cloud be clearer. Also, orchestrator should be API based, and have templates to use instead of having to create the Java scripting from scratch. It also needs to be more independent of the platform on which it is used on.

Use of Solution

I've used it for two years.

Customer Service and Technical Support

It's very good.

Initial Setup

It was complex as it does not include a good, extensive feasibility and compatibility guide.

Implementation Team

We used a vendor team who were very good.

ROI

It is quite good on ROI and year on year it is about 50%.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

vCloud Director is a good solution, but it is costly when compared to other solutions like Nutanix.

Other Advice

Choosing VMware in general, is best in terms of functionality, but it is not necessarily cost effective, as their licensing and setuo cost are too hight. Maybe we will see more products for cloud and automation.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. VMware Partners

it_user234723

Senior Cloud Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

May 28, 2015

Even if there are some transition scripts or similar to help move certain aspects of functionality the transition is going to be a painful process.

Summary: vCloud Director, once the flagship product spearheading VMware’s vCloud Suite, is slowly winding down for enterprise customers – potentially leaving some companies with a roadmap challenge.

Having just started work for a cloud service provider in the Channel Islands (Foreshore) my focus has shifted and vCloud Director is a product I’m working with. After VMworld last year I wrote about how badly VMware communicated their product shift away from vCloud Director (vCD) and this year I’ve not seen much sign that communication has improved. At VMworld Barcelona this year only one session out of over 400 was about vCD. Yep. One (although to be fair it was ‘vCD roadmap for service providers’ – more on that later). How the mighty have fallen.

What do we know about the vCD roadmap?

As announced last year the vCloud Suite roadmap involves the current features moving into other products, both in the vCloud Automation Center (now vRealize Automation) and the core vSphere product. It’s likely that the provisioning aspects will go into vCAC (now vRealize Operations) and some of the network functionality (multi-tenancy in particular) will go into the ‘core’ vSphere product. vCloud Director will continue to exist for service providers but for enterprise customers there is a migration to be done. There was also the following statement;

Yes, VMware will offer a product migration path that enables customers and partners to move from vCD to VCAC…

So far, so good.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is it’s been a year since that announcement and there’s been near radio silence since then. If enterprise customers need to transition off vCloud Director then VMware need to provide information, preferably sooner rather than later, on how that’s likely to work.

The last I heard, 2017 was an approximate ‘end of life’ for vCloud Director for enterprises. While that’s a couple of years off that’s not long to transition potentially complex infrastructure, especially when the ‘final destination’ itself is in flux – what will vCAC look like in a couple of years? Presumably NSX (or some version of NSX Lite, backed into the core hypervisor) will provide the multi-tenancy but when? Should companies be buying into these products and gaining familiarity already?

While at VMworld I spoke to various VMware employees and I was told there is a team within VMware who are looking at this challenge. Even if there are some transition scripts or similar to help move certain aspects of functionality the transition is going to be a painful process. I’ll reiterate that everyone I spoke to tried to help and in some cases did make the situation clearer but it seems VMware didn’t send anyone with much knowledge of this to VMworld, and didn’t really plan on communicating anything. Maybe there’s just not enough to tell yet?

Given the timeframes involved I suspect VMware are relying on enterprises adopting vCAC and eventually NSX so that when the time comes to migrate it’s less of an issue.

A clearer roadmap for Service Providers

As I work for a service provider I also wanted to find out more about the roadmap for us. While at VMworld I made it my mission to find out some more information – that’s one of the great things about VMworld, there’s usually an abundance of information. Via the Meet the Expert sessions I spoke to Ninad Desai and Gurusimran Khalsa from VMware who were both very helpful (thanks guys) and I even tried the VMware stand in the Solutions Exchange but they didn’t have anyone to talk about vCD. vCloud Air, VMware’s new flagship offering, is still based on vCD under the hood so at least service providers can be assured that development will be ongoing and aggressive. It’s clear the components and APIs will continue evolving individually (vCNS to NSX for example) but there won’t be a VMware provided GUI to unify them in the same way that vCloud Director has in the past. vCloud Director’s latest release, vCD-SP 5.6, makes it clear that VMware partners will create the GUI going forward;

This was also covered in the single vCD session at VMworld (PAR3096, “New features and interfaces for vCD”) which included the three initial partners offering a front end for vCD (Onapp, Parallels, & AirVM). Unfortunately these third party GUIs will be an extra cost so service providers will have to decide whether they can absorb the increase or have to pass it on to their customers. VMware’s rationale is that a more frequent release cycle (driven by vCloud Air no doubt) justifies existing prices but I can’t help feel that service providers are getting less than we used to for the same cost.

As an aside, I’m still curious as to how partners will compete against vCloud Air despite VMware’s recent recommitment to it’s partner network. Antoni Spiteri thinks it’s all good but for a certain percentage of their partners I’m more inclined towards his earlier post entitled vCHS vs vCloud Providers. VMware will always be able to integrate new features before their partners, they have a larger marketing budget, and more market clout – the only thing VMare don’t have is a global network of datacentres (yet). Data sovereignty is critical to many customers so for the time being that’s enough to keep partners in business but they’re going to have to differentiate more keenly to stay in business.

Final thoughts

For enterprise companies who bought into VMware’s original vision for vCloud Director they can’t transition off the platform overnight – they’re using features which can’t be offered today via another VMware product and it takes considerable time to move to other tools, rewrite code, change processes and reintegrate functionality. Hopefully VMware have a migration plan and it can be better communicated so everyone can plan their roadmaps.

Personally I’m surprised there wasn’t more conversation at VMworld on this topic. Am I missing something? I’d love to hear in the comments.

What is most valuable?

It has easy to deploy machines.

How has it helped my organization?

A department can deploy a machine easily without using the IT department.

For how long have I used the solution?

I only used it for four months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None in this version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes, a lot including, for example, with Chargeback Manager integration.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

8/10.

Technical Support:

5/10 as the VMware support seem very ignorant.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, but in the future, we are planning to install Open Stack as it's simpler.

How was the initial setup?

It has an easy setup by following the documentation.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor team who I would rate as 7/10.

What was our ROI?

We couldn't calculate it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, with other colleagues. No implementations being done by us at the moment.

What other advice do I have?

I think VMware has abandoned the product a with vSphere 5.5, vCloud Director is an obsolete solution. As VMware no longer offers the product, it is now difficult to implement.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We are a VMware partner.

it_user209226System Administrator at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees

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Apr 3, 2015

Hi Eduardo
the focus of this product was realize a full cloud solution (private and public). Now vcloud director is focused only for public cloud (for service provide purpose), because vRealize substitute it in private scenario.
For this reason, in your private scenario you could choose vRealize and Openstack also... please let us know about your possible new experience with them.