VMware NSX Reviews

I primarily use the product as network virtualization software.

VMware NSX is a great product for network virtualization. No other vendor can offer this kind of solution up until now, and it's great for enhancing security at the virtual machine level. There is micro-segmentation, and a distributed firewall, and all network and network security components can be virtualized with the help of this NSX-T stack. It is a pioneer software solution for network security in a virtualized environment.

This solution comes with an API that can easily integrate with other solutions. 

NSX features include micro-segmentation, distributed IPS, IDS functionality, URL analysis, gateway firewall, logical routing, and all the staple networking solutions like DNS, DSCP, and routing. All these features are very interesting.

The solution is stable.

We can scale it if we need to.

It should support Hyper-V also. Nowadays, NSX supports the KVM and ESXi hypervisors only. It should also support Hyper-V and Citrix hypervisors.

There have already been lots of improvements. For example, they edited the intelligent plans and added an advanced load balancer. The latest version, 4.0, really has all the features you need.

It's a bit complex to set up the product.

I have a total of around three years of experience using the NSX-T solution. 

The stability is good architecture-wise. We haven't had any issues. 

The solution can scale well. 

It is not a user-based solution. We deploy it to about 20 servers. 

We did not previously use a different solution before this product.

It is a little bit complex to set up. It depends upon deployment. Either it is greenfield or brownfield deployment. If it is greenfield, it is very easy. If it is a brownfield deployment, so you need to take care of multiple scenarios of your network, and you need to understand the network architecture, then the deployment of services. 

While deployment requires a complete team, maintenance only requires on VMware administrator. 

We handled the initial setup with the help of a third-party SI team.

This product provides end-to-end visibility and security to your virtual environment. So it's a very huge return on investment in terms of security enhancement and maintaining cybersecurity posture.

The cost of the solution is moderate. I'd rate it three out of five in terms of affordability.

There is no other option available for this kind of product.

The product should be implemented in any IT infrastructure virtual environment. It is a must-have.

I'd rate it a ten out of ten.

We use VMware NSX for micro-segmentation.

The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility.

VMware NSX can improve the migration tools from the older environments to the new environment. For example, the NSX-V has become a legacy solution, it's out of support, but customers are able to keep using it. For migration purposes, it's better for them to provide a proper tool. It will be easy to migrate from an old environment to a new one.

I have used VMware NSX within the last 12 months.

The stability of VMware NSX is very high.

VMware NSX can scale to any sized organization, small or large.

Our recent clients had approximately 1,000 users using this solution.

I have not had any problems with the support from VMware NSX.

I rate the support from VMware NSX a four out of five.

I have used other network virtualization tools and the main difference is VMware NSX is tightly integrated with the Hypervisor layer. We've been able to have end-to-end visibility of the virtual machine traffic, and we have been able to see the flow. The other solution will be agent-based.

The setup of VMware NSX is very easy.

I rate the setup of VMware NSX a four out of five.

The price of VMware NSX is very good compared to other solutions.

I rate the price of VMware NSX a five out of five.

I rate VMware NSX an eight out of ten.

We use the product for disaster recovery purposes. It helps us expand the network and security for workloads running inside the environment. In the cloud, specifically with Azure VMware Solution or AWS, VMware NSX provides protection-related capabilities.

Regarding network management, it enables the ease of creating a network configuration for any application.

The product has valuable features for security and network extension. We can secure customer environments by effectively managing and securing traffic and facilitating seamless network extension. We can address challenges related to workload migration, where we often need to relocate workloads between environments due to changes in licensing or applications. The DFW, i.e., Distributed Firewall, is the most beneficial feature for network security and micro-segmentation.

The network-extending capabilities for the physical environment need improvement. Instead of virtualization, the ability to add physical servers to the network could be enhanced.

We have been using VMware NSX since 2018. We have worked with different versions depending on the customer's requirements. We are working with the latest version as well.

It is a stable platform.

We have medium to enterprise-level customers for VMware NSX. Regarding scalability, we can add new nodes or servers to the cluster. It automatically extends in a horizontal scale-out approach when the nodes are added.

I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

We open a case and await the engineer's reply on escalation. It is a process similar to that of other vendors.

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward. The implementation time ranges from days to weeks, depending on the business use cases per customer requirements. It involves the assessment of design, deploying, and verifying the same. I rate the process an eight out of ten.

The product pricing ranges from medium to expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.

VMware NSX has played a significant role in supporting your organization's efforts in automated network provisioning and creating multi-tenant networks, especially when integrated with vRealize Automation or other automation tools. We were able to create an automated orchestrated workload and manage IP assignments.

I rate the product a ten out of ten.

I was part of the NSX troubleshooting team from VMware, where we worked with different customers to troubleshoot their NSX operational issues. Also, I was part of the design and deployment team. We do PSO projects and migration for customers.

The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the DFW (distributed firewall). The distributed firewall is much better and more powerful than the physical firewall because it's applied at the beginning level.

The software-defined version of VMware NSX contains all the security features like IPS and IDS. In the physical space, you have to get separate IDS, security, or load balancer products. VMware NSX provides several features like VPN, load balancers, DFW, and gateway firewall.

Since most people are very much used to physical networking, they find it difficult to use VMware NSX in the initial stage.

I have been using VMware NSX for the past six years.

The solution's stability is very good compared to its older versions. It is advisable not to go in a production environment with the latest version because it might sometimes have new features that can break.

I rate VMware NSX a nine out of ten for stability.

We can easily scale the solution with the current product version if we have more users.

I rate VMware NSX a nine out of ten for scalability

The solution's implementation is easy.

The initial phase of deployment involves deploying three NSX Managers. Then, you have to plan to do a lot of things like configurations and routing. If you have everything ready for configuration, you should be able to complete the VMware NSX installation in a month.

In the case of daily deployment, it depends on how much we are deploying and how many configurations we are doing. Two weeks should be more than sufficient to complete the configurations if we do it daily.

VMware NSX is a cheaper product compared to its competitor, Cisco.

Since most people are very much used to physical networking, they find it difficult to use VMware NSX in the initial stage. However, once you start using it, you'll be very much fond of the particular product. VMware NSX is very easy to manage.

You can deploy the solution on the cloud or on-prem, depending on the customer's requirement.

When changing from the physical to the virtual space, you have to plan the routing part. You'll have a hardening of networks in the physical space. However, when you bring it to NSX, everything is at the hypervisor level in the virtual space. That's one thing you will have to plan because a few critical applications might require a VLAN-backed network.

They have a restriction that they can't move it to the overlay networks and must remain in the physical VLAN. We have to plan properly for migrations because improper planning can break the current network or operations.

It would be good if users use all the features in the solution to have everything in one place. Users can access the web UI to manage security, load balancer, and VPN protection.

Overall, I rate VMware NSX an eight out of ten.

The solution's most valuable feature is ease of use. Its filtering features work best for our business requirements.

It could be helpful if the solution's licensing model is based on the number of VMs rather than hypervisors.

We have been using the solution for seven years.

It is a stable solution. I rate its stability as an eight.

The solution's scalability depends on the licensing model.

The solution's customer service is good.

The solution is reasonable at the local level. But it is expensive to deploy it globally.

I advise others to understand their business requirements. They should know if they want the solution to block some protocols or to make accurate filtering. I rate the solution as an eight.

The solution is primarily used for micro-segmentation for the security of virtual machines.

VMware NSX offers some of the best features for security, such as micro-segmentation. This feature allows us to define policies on a per-virtual machine basis. For example, if we have four virtual machines, we can have four different firewalls attached to each of the VMs. This allows us to monitor the traffic between each VM, as they will have to go through two firewalls or two IPs. This added layer of security provides a great benefit to those utilizing the solution.

Despite being somewhat behind in the cybersecurity field, VMware should develop a cloud and a red team to continuously monitor for new malware and ransomware. They must maintain their own cloud to do their own research, and send the resulting hashes or values to all customers using VMware NSX. This will ensure that each customer is regularly updated with the latest malware and ransomware hashes to keep their systems secure.

Web filtering is a good feature that I would like to have added to the solution.

I would like the ability to limit the bandwidth per virtual machine to ensure that I understand the throughput requirements of any application that is running. This way, I can be protected from the risks of a DoS or DDoS attack, which may require a high level of throughput. This limitation would apply to Layer 4 or Layer 5 of the network.

I have been using the solution for three years.

VMware NSX is stable.

The great advantage of VMware is its scalability and hardware independence; The solution is compatible with a wide range of server brands, including Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Cisco.

My job was to offer consultancy, demonstrations, and conceptual approval to the VMware official team and their partners.

Positive

Of all the cybersecurity vendors we have, the installation of VMware products is the most straightforward. The time needed to deploy depends on the purpose of the use case. Complex tasks between two data centers could take up to four days, whereas micro-segmentation would usually take only two days.

I give the solution an eight out of ten. The solution is missing the red teams and R&D necessary to continuously receive updates from the cloud. Additionally, two other features are absent from VMware NSX which are bandwidth limitation and URL filtering.

We have two people using the solution. I'm the only architect, and the other person is mainly responsible for checking logs to determine if any resources are needed and then assigning those resources to the appropriate virtual machines. 

For someone who wants to secure their data center and three-tier application architecture (database, web application, etc.), they should use micro-segmentation with VMware NSX. This would enable them to set policies on a per-virtual machine basis. For example, if each VM has two virtual NICs assigned to it, each virtual NIC would have its own firewall, policy, and IP. This way, even when two virtual machines need to communicate with each other, their traffic will pass through two separate firewalls within the server. In addition to micro-segmentation, NSX also provides switching and routing services. The use of a data center firewall can be cost-effective for enterprise customers, SMBs, and medium-sized customers. By utilizing the routing, switching, and firewall capabilities provided by the data center firewall, the load on data center switches and routing can be reduced, making it a more cost-efficient option. The throughput required by the data center firewall, be it a Fortinet or Palo Alto Checkpoint, is directly proportional to the cost. With increased throughput, the cost of the firewall will also increase. VMware NSX offloads the workload from the data center firewall, taking on the task itself. This is possible without impacting performance because it is a software firewall, so it absorbs all the load from the data center firewall, providing the same security measures as the legacy firewall would.

I use VMware NSX for virtualizing networks for VMware virtual machines.

VMware NSX improved my organization because it's more flexible than network hardware and provides many solutions, such as firewalls and load balancers.

The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the high bandwidth.

A room for improvement in VMware NSX is that it has some security vulnerabilities, which means my company has to apply the patches every once in a while.

I have two years of experience with VMware NSX, and I've worked with the solution in the last twelve months.

VMware NSX is a stable solution.

VMware NSX is a scalable solution.

I have no experience contacting VMware NSX technical support.

I didn't use a previous solution before I used VMware NSX.

My company went with VMware NSX because the infrastructure within the company is VMware.

The initial setup for VMware NSX is not that complex. It's in the middle, so I'd rate it as five out of ten.

I'm trying to remember how long the deployment of the solution took, but it didn't take up a lot of time.

A third party helped my company with VMware NSX implementation.

I have experience with VMware NSX.

I'm using the latest version of the solution.

Sometimes, VMware NSX requires maintenance. The third-party was responsible for the first time, and then the vendor took over the subsequent maintenance activities.

VMware NSX has about three hundred users in the company.

I don't know if there's any plan to increase usage for the solution.

My rating for VMware NSX is nine out of ten.

We use this solution for network virtualization alongside Nutanix and for the firewall blueprint. I'm an IT manager. 

This product is like the layer between traditional networking and virtualization. It gives you the flexibility to deploy and have network virtualization on different types of firewalls. We implemented this solution when we moved to the private cloud. 

The setup of the solution could be simplified.

I've been using this solution for two years. 

We haven't had any issues with stability. 

The solution is scalable, but we haven't tested that yet. We have three network engineers using the product. We don't plan to increase usage in the near future. 

The response time of the technical support team could improve. We also sometimes had the feeling that they didn't properly understand the issue.

Positive

The initial setup is not that straightforward. We used a consultant and even then deployment took a full week. It wasn't easy. 

This is a good solution if it fits your requirements. You can achieve a lot if it suits your needs. I rate this solution eight out of 10.