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Tonatiuh Torres Zamorano - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Manager at ICSI
Reseller
Top 5
Solution supports vast virtual environments and is well-established once deployed
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution supports the creation of a large virtual environment consisting of thousands of virtual machines, and the performance is excellent."
  • "Overall, it is an excellent solution, and I rate it a ten out of ten."
  • "Some customers in Latin America and Mexico, including myself, face challenges due to the lack of language support from engineers."
  • "I find that VMware vSphere is not very user-friendly at first, as there is a significant learning curve involved with installation."

What is our primary use case?

We have one of the most important companies in Mexico, and we built a private cloud in their own data center. We installed all VMware products for this deployment.

What is most valuable?

I find that VMware vSphere is not very user-friendly at first, as there is a significant learning curve involved with installation. However, it is extremely well-established and once deployed, I do not have to worry about the underlying platform. I only need to focus on managing virtual machines. 

The solution supports the creation of a large virtual environment consisting of thousands of virtual machines, and the performance is excellent. The scalability is impressive, and when the console is installed, it is very user-friendly. I also find the stability of the solution to be excellent, though I need to stay updated due to frequent security updates in response to threats and attacks.

What needs improvement?

Some customers in Latin America and Mexico, including myself, face challenges due to the lack of language support from engineers. Improving language support can enhance my satisfaction as a customer.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have had experience with VMware vSphere for eight years.

Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere Foundation
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere Foundation. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I find the stability to be remarkable, however, frequent updates are required due to constant security challenges and attacks.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution offers excellent scalability, allowing me to efficiently expand my environments as needed.

How are customer service and support?

I find the customer service to be quite strong, with a rating of nine out of ten. There is room for improvement, particularly in providing better language support for Latin American and Mexican customers.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Setting up VMware vSphere is challenging for me, especially without prior virtualization experience. However, with some existing skills and experience, it becomes more manageable.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is considered expensive by me, and pricing is a significant factor to consider.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend VMware vSphere Foundation completely. Overall, it is an excellent solution, and I rate it a ten out of ten. 

The price is a drawback, however, in all other aspects, it is completely good. I have experience with Zen Mobile, however, I'm currently not updated with the technology.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Daniel Wichinescki - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist | SRE | Cloud Public and Private at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
Interface enables smooth setup and efficient deployment but demands attention to response times
Pros and Cons
  • "Setting up the VMware vSphere Foundation is easy."
  • "The VMware vSphere Foundation is very good, and the support is also good, but the price now is very expensive. I would rate the support for the VMware vSphere Foundation a six because currently, we have access to engineers, but I have to wait more time to resolve my case due to basic questions."

What is our primary use case?

Our use case for the VMware vSphere Foundation is in a true data center where we have vSphere on an HP Synergy with a storage device, and it's utilized in both the production environment and the QA environment.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features with the VMware vSphere Foundation solution are vSphere, vCenter, and basic features only, but we don't have MSGs or MS in the text or the other features.

The VMware vSphere Foundation has helped us as we plan to change to VCF in the next review because it has many more features, and we are considering starting with other features.

What needs improvement?

Other than the price being expensive, there are no other areas that could be improved with the VMware vSphere Foundation.

For how long have I used the solution?

[Full sentence answer to 'For how long have I used the solution?' from the text.]

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The VMware vSphere Foundation is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The VMware vSphere Foundation is very good, and the support is also good, but the price now is very expensive.

I would rate the support for the VMware vSphere Foundation a six because currently, we have access to engineers, but I have to wait more time to resolve my case due to basic questions.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

Setting up the VMware vSphere Foundation is easy.

On a scale of one to ten, if ten is the easiest, the ease of setting up VMware vSphere Foundation is about an eight.

What about the implementation team?

In my company, it takes one week to deploy the VMware vSphere Foundation environment, which is sufficient for us.

For the deployment of the VMware vSphere Foundation, only two people are involved, and currently, there are two people who work with vSphere, along with a team member who works with DevOps and the tops.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know the exact pricing for the VMware vSphere Foundation, but I think the last license model to upgrade is three or four times more expensive.

What other advice do I have?

This year, we had a review of the VMware vSphere Foundation subscription, and we have an old license about core, with support until twenty twenty-six. Last year, we needed to renew this environment, and I think next year we'll have more investment in this environment.

I would recommend the VMware vSphere Foundation as a solution to others; I really love the VM, but I am a remote leader and need to speak about it.

My company is a customer with VMware and not partners or resellers.

Overall, I would rate the VMware vSphere Foundation a seven.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere Foundation
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere Foundation. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sri Hari Gangapuram - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Lead Infrastructure at Exafluence Inc
Real User
Top 10
Provides better visibility into hardware usage, including bare-metal usage but procurement challenges
Pros and Cons
  • "It helps us see whether our configuration is adequate and prompts us with questions if there are potential issues, asking whether we want to proceed."
  • "You can have the best product in the world, but if it’s not accessible to customers, it doesn’t matter. That’s my main concern."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy various technologies like Python, Node.js, and other applications on our on-prem infrastructure. We mainly use VMware for testing purposes.

How has it helped my organization?

Our production environment is on the cloud, while our UAT (User Acceptance Testing) environment is on VMware. All the deployments and changes are tested on VMware first.

What is most valuable?

The product has remained largely the same. I previously used VMware ESXi, and while it's now a licensed product, the core features haven’t changed much.

Compared to older versions, the current version provides better visibility into hardware usage, including bare-metal usage. It helps us see whether our configuration is adequate and prompts us with questions if there are potential issues, asking whether we want to proceed.

The visibility feature is very helpful. These features have improved the IT efficiency significantly. 

What needs improvement?

You can have the best product in the world, but if it’s not accessible to customers, it doesn’t matter. That’s my main concern.

People might be confused about where to purchase the product like vSphere. I don't even know who handles this.

Broadcom hasn't advertised much since the merger. So, are the same vendors who used to work with VMware still handling purchases? No one really knows.

The only obstacle is the purchase of the product. If you're trying to buy a product and you can't find vendors that provide support or product details, then who will help with the purchase?

The only challenge was procurement. Other than that, everything has been smooth. No issues.

For how long have I used the solution?

I’ve been working with VMware since 2015. After the Broadcom acquisition, the process of purchasing products became more difficult. We no longer had clear contacts from Broadcom, and it was challenging to place orders or even know who to reach out to for support. Before this, I had no issues with VMware.

I work with version 8. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a six out of ten.  It still has room to improve.

Since, I haven’t explored the product in-depth yet.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Since we use it in our UAT environment, I don’t think any issues with scalability would currently affect our business. If we were using it in production, that might be a different story.

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten. I need more time to explore. I want to understand all the options it offers and how they can benefit our business.

Some VMs are used by all employees if they are in the repository. Other VMs are for project-oriented deployments, and only about ten to fifteen members access those.

We plan to increase the usage of vSphere Foundation in the future.

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

At my current company, I work with Intel severs, Dell, and VMware. As a technical professional, I provide solutions for organizations. I work with both physical hardware and cloud technology.

How was the initial setup?

It’s easy to set up. No issues at all. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, with ten being the easiest. 

It took around 45 minutes to deploy it. It was pretty quick. 

For deployment, we took backups of VMs, like email backups. While doing that, we exported the VMs as well.

For us, with only two servers, one person was enough.

We don’t need a large team for maintenance. If it's something specific to voice, we might need an expert, but for VMware, we don’t need a dedicated person to manage it.

I haven't needed any support for installation or anything.

What was our ROI?

There will be organizational value because after upgrading, there are many features we still need to explore and engage with the business. Once that happens, we'll see the value. We haven't seen a direct return on investment yet.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The purchasing process became more complicated after the merger with Broadcom. We don’t have the same level of access to Broadcom representatives as we did with VMware. It’s difficult to know who to contact for support or where to submit orders.

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with one being very cheap and ten being very expensive. It's quite expensive because you can get a cloud instance at a lower cost for the same configuration.

The price could be lower.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I was working on VMware ESXi. It's an open-source tool. We wanted to upgrade our infrastructure. So, it was an upgrade.

We had a lot of data on other options, but this one was user-friendly.

So user-friendliness was the crucial factor for me.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a six out of ten. If the pricing and procurement process are addressed, it could be a good product. Those are the main concerns. There’s competition like Microsoft Hyper-V, which is cheaper than VMware.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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reviewer1278771 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior system engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reseller
Top 20
Virtualization tool offers strong features but high pricing limits appeal
Pros and Cons
  • "The most beneficial features of VMware vSphere Foundation for IT infrastructure are its licensing, scalability features, and user-friendliness."
  • "The area where VMware vSphere Foundation has room for improvement is in its licensing."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for VMware vSphere Foundation is virtualization.

What is most valuable?

The most beneficial features of VMware vSphere Foundation for IT infrastructure are its licensing, scalability features, and user-friendliness.

What needs improvement?

The area where VMware vSphere Foundation has room for improvement is in its licensing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have more than ten years of experience reselling these VMware solutions.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I'd rate the stability of VMware vSphere Foundation at ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of VMware vSphere Foundation on a scale from one to ten.

How are customer service and support?

I rate VMware's technical support at eight or nine out of ten. I have not seen any troubles with technical support or any long-term waiting as mentioned by my clients.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Regarding the initial setup, VMware vSphere Foundation is a straightforward solution, although it can be a bit complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing and licensing of VMware vSphere Foundation is quite expensive. I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, where ten is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Based on my experience, I would wholeheartedly recommend VMware vSphere Foundation to others as it is my number one choice.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
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