VMware vSphere Reviews

Our primary use case is for labs, development workloads, and engineering. I use it for our processing development on our product. Our company does printing technologies for gaming, particularly for gaming casinos in the gaming industry.

It's working great.

We are looking at going to VMware Cloud on AWS. I'm familiar with the SDDC software solutions, but cost always comes in to play. I would like to find out more, as it sounds a lot cheaper now. We already use Azure for our deployment packages. Right now, it is just FTP, but we could use somewhere to actually manage the infrastructure ourselves. It is much easier to manage it than relying on customer infrastructure to do the hosting for us. We are mostly on-premise, but we are looking to move to the cloud since there are more opportunities there. It should help us gain more customers and expand the market share for our company.  

We are able to replicate and create customer environments. We can do an upgrade path in production and see what the expectations of the upgrade will be on production by testing it in the lab internally first. Then, once everything is approved by the customer and it works well, we can roll it out to production. Therefore, the downtime is planned.

The solution is simple and efficient to manage. With VMotion, I don't have to worry about resources. It can move things around. For example, I use Confluence and JIRA as part of our documentation to establish a process within the app. 

• The hypervisor
• I use the ESXi a lot for my users to create their own templates and control their own VMs without my interaction. 
• The stability of the networking site
• I can automate deployments.
• I use customization to prevent any network and DNS collisions to the router.

Our mission critical apps are mostly database servers. We are pretty much a Windows platform company.

Flexible pricing would be nice. Some of the pricing models are fairly big.

We take whatever the customer has and make sure we use our application to upgrade them. If there is anything unexpected, we already know internally instead of doing it during production or go live. It is bad for business to extend planned downtime more than expected.

It is very scalable. Soon as I switched to a vSphere environment, ESXi, and vCenter, I was able to buy hardware and add it in. I just had to buy another license, since the infrastructure is there. It takes me a short amount of time to add something that benefits everybody.

It scales vertically. In terms of horizonal scaling, it depends on what the requirements are for it.

The VMware community is always there and it is a valuable resource. Just go to support.vmware.com, type in your question, and one or two users probably have experienced the same problem. 

I haven't called them. I mostly go online.

The previous development team at my company used Workstation. When I joined the company, I didn't like the product. So as soon as I joined, I transformed our entire infrastructure to vSphere along with vCenter. This made things easier with our directory and for other users in the company to deploy and perform their own VM development. Managing users has become more streamlined.

As soon as we switched over from Workstation to ESXi and vCenter, the downtime was very minimized. Growth and flexibility are now there. If I want to add more hosts, servers, and devices, it is not a big deal. The infrastructure is there. As far as having more job requirements, we wanted to explore our development lifecycle more without making major changes.

I started the setup from scratch. The hardware was already there, and it is just a matter of getting software in. It is straightforward to set up. I have built many infrastructure environments.

I worked with my internal team who did the installation. Mostly, my responsibility was to the VMware infrastructure, lining up the VMs, and what applications that needed to be installed.

Most of our current customers are pretty happy. They don't utilize VMware, but we just sell the software for them. Internally, we use VMware for support.

We would like it to be affordable to use the manage services on the cloud, then let VMware manage it and have AWS a part of it. This would make the easier transition from on-premise to cloud and be of value. We don't want to go through a third-party vendor.

Some of our customers use Hyper-V because it is much cheaper (free). I've seen it and it has the features. It does its job if there's a problem to solve for a small company. However, if you're going to grow, I am not totally impressed with it. There's no support. I didn't see any add-on development features in the pipeline. 

Go for it. It's easy to use and manage.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: support.

• Isolation/partitioning of the server hardware
• Support for Latest windows and linux operating systems

• Reduction in hardware/software needs for datacenter
• Elimination of specialized hardware to enable lights out data center
• Improved utilization of purchased hardware (CPU and Memory)
• Increased DR/BC capabilities
• Removed hardware dependency
• Work load portability (vmotion) between on premise – cloud
• Burst to cloud capability

Heterogeneous management of disparate hypervisors.

I've been using it since VMware 2.5.

Minimal issues encountered.

Minimal issues encountered.

Minimal issues encountered.

8.5-9/10

8.5-9/10

I have experience with Microsoft Hyper-V, but production has always been VMware

It's very straightforward for the hypervisor (ESXi/vSphere), but View (Desktop) is more complex, and needs extensive planning in an environment like ours with 15,000+ desktops.

Hybrid. We brought in expertise from the vendor and reseller during the initial setup, and I would strongly suggest consulting. Expertise for initial deployments as the focus of a corporation, is the not the deployment, but the running and extension of the environment. Architecture and design is critical and specialized, and we used external resources.

This is always an issue. The ROI is heavily laden with soft dollar savings on an existing environment. Look two to three years out and make this a strategic decision rather than a tactical one and the ROI will be realized.

Price/License – Free is not free. Review what capabilities you want to have v need to have and then select the appropriate license. With that said, “Good Enough” is a valid stance now. You do not need to get everything you want to make it successful.

Distributed Virtual Switch – you only have to configure it once, and then you can promote it to all the servers, so you have a single switch for all the systems.

Also, the HA system works very well right out of the box.

I’ve been working with VMWare for at least 10 years, so I can say that the loss that you have with virtualization has dropped – you have less loss than if you would run it on real hardware. It went from around 30% to 15%, so basically better by half. And it improves with every version.

A solution for all the different appliances that you now see running would be good. In the past you had VMWare agents, so every manufacturer installed agents on the IIS6 layers but that didn’t work well. Now every supplier has its own virtual appliance, but now some customers have five or six VAs per ESXi host which consumes a lot of processing and memory power. So maybe something like a hypervisor for virtual appliances.

I've been using it since it was released, at least two years.

Never. It just deploys. It works if you use the hardware that’s on the HCL on the VMWare web site. If you don’t do that, you could be in trouble. Some customers do that and expect it to work magically.

Yes, in combination with Broadcom network cards – there was a lot of latency in the storage area through vSphere. So in those situations we had to change the hardware – there was something buggy in the cards.

No issues encountered.

Very good. VMWare visits the customers themselves, at least in the Netherlands. Once or twice per year they come on site to talk to the customers to see what they need, anything extra, any support, anything. It’s a very open contact with them.

It works like every other support agency – it depends on how high you set the priority of your call or contract. If you have a basic support contract it won’t be the same as a 24/7 high priority contract, for example. So it varies depending on your support contract; it also depends on which support engineer you get. Most of the time I get a lot of questions back from the support engineer, so maybe they don’t fully understand the systems. I have a production support contract – so I expect them to take over the system and fix it! Eventually they fix the problems, but with some it takes a lot of time.

No, I've always used VMWare, as I’m not a fan of the other options available.

It depends – mostly it’s complex; first of all, I have a lot of customers that just buy some hardware and expect it to work like magic, but also not all of the configuration information is always easily available. Different components need specific configurations, and so we have to go to the vendors to get configuration information for the hardware which takes a lot of time. Customers don’t understand that and think that one size fits all.

I implement it for customers.

Get an expert with you before you buy something. Most of the customers that I work with have some licenses already; but when they explain what their core business, plans, etc., are we find that the licenses don’t match the mission. That starts with Microsoft a lot of times – the licensing isn’t correct – working with VMWare, and the vendor doesn’t see the combinations. A lot of the time, we see the software vendors maybe are VMWare partners, but they don’t care what licenses they sell. They just want to make a lot of money. So there’s a real gap in the market.

No other options were evaluated.

Look at the total product – if you’re comparing it to Citrix and Microsoft, look at all the features VMWare is hosting in your product and make a comparison. Also, understand your plans – what do you want to do, what’s your vision, and how does it match what you’re looking to buy?

We have used the following functions:

1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter.

2. Network and Storage: centralized data server software and user virtualization using ThinApp or installed into the Catalog on VDI, to help increase the security of its IT systems therefore saving time operating workstations.

3. VDI: help focus resource systems, build systems, and workstations with specific software for each organization within the company to ensure effective use, such as:

• Labs Dept.
• Demos for Marketing Dept.
• 3D web design, office applications provide access via web browsers or mobile devices.

Also, we have a CRM system and helpdesk support portal to help record information and interact with customers. Additionally, customers will be directed to the support of technical assistance from experts of VMware and Microsoft. (Redhat and Citrix Xen we do not know how this will work yet).

We use the standard system Helpdesk Support TOR, SOW and ISO 27005 information security for customers in order to put an automated customer feedback for the ticket or marked escalation answered to ensure support complete time appointments.

I have used Virtual Machine clients for about 14 years and VDI for about 4 years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No we didn't previously use a different solution.

We set up a simple way first and then gradually more complex.  This makes it easy to control the process of expanding the system.

We implemented it in this way:

1. Server Virtualization Infrastructure, Configuring vSphere Hypervisor and VMware vCenter settings.
2. Convert physical servers to virtual servers running VMware ESXi 5.5 platform
3. Virtualization software with ThinApp, Portable tested on a few virtual machine desktop OS as promiscuity: 12:10 Ubuntu, Suse Linux 11, Windows 7 x64bit, Win 8.1 x64bit, summarizing the results of compatibility testing or debugging.
4. Estimates of the amount of resources needed and planned VDI deployment phase 2.

• Phase 1: only provide virtualized applications running on Web, Mobile
• Phase 2: Creating the Desktop templates and analyze the user has specifically been using remote desktop protocol RDP/PCoIP.

We must study and deploy a project in-house, then take it to the project Pilot/POC to introduce it  to customers.

We do additional case studies and gradually adjusted to suit each areas of business customers.

Original setup cost Including: hardware infrastructure costs, software licenses, cost deployment training and technology transfer management and operation.  Also 12 month warranty costs and consulting solutions if you rent.

Day to day: Rental assistance, monthly administration, and hiring a full-service PaaS/SaaS system.

Yes, we did. vSphere 5.5, RHEV 3.3, HyperV 2012R2 and XenServer 6.2 and a comparison table is below.  All are scored on a scale of 1-10.

• VMware vSphere 5.5 should be invested in for virtualization infrastructure as it is cheap, effective, and stable.  It also meets more requirements than other products.
• Investment decisions VDI technology did its review on the actual needs for each person/group/ department needs and had professional software for it and they decided to use VDI.
• In the process of deploying VDI, the application should be virtualized, shared services should be enhanced, and limited desktop virtual machines for the particular user.s (e.g. design engineers need 3D GPU rendering, chief accountant, architect, system administration).
• The following should be studied and then implemented -  SSO configuration, GPO, security methods, ACL permissions, firewall, anti-virus for servers and virtual desktops in a consistent manner, all in accordance with ISO 27000.

We can customize everything from UI of cloud to the supply of integration vApp

Virtualization, VDI and application publishing are the most valuable features of VMware vSphere.

The solution’s pricing is too high and could be improved.

I have been working with VMware vSphere for more than five years.

VMware vSphere is a very stable solution.

VMware vSphere is a scalable solution.

The solution's technical support team is good because if we open a priority ticket, they call within 30 minutes.

Positive

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

VMware vSphere can be installed in just two days for a normal project. However, it would take at least three months to implement everything, depending on the scope of the customer's requirements.

The solution’s licensing terms keep changing, which is too complex for our customers. If a user purchases a new license, it cannot be mixed with the existing perpetual license.

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

vSphere 6.5 is the primary virtualization technology in use at our firm and supports the entire organization infrastructure.

Has kept our business running with very little downtime and our clusters balanced with DRS/HA.  We are able to patch our hosts during production hours with the ability to keep services running.  It has also given us the HA capabilities for our vCenter servers using the new built-in HA option for the appliance and never having to worry about downtime.

vCenter Appliance, DRS, HA, Update Manager and SRM help us keep our business running smoothly.  Having the vCenter Appliance has allowed us to save costs on Windows licenses and have a more stable platform for managing hosts.  Also having Update Manager now as well it makes the move to VCSA that much better.  SRM has allowed us to failover our Tier1 services in under 30 minutes for each whereas it would take over an hour the old fashioned way.  DRS and HA have kept our cluster stable and VMs running optimally.  With the built in Update Manager now in the vCenter Appliance it is easy to scan and remediate our Hosts even during Production hours as we can use HA/DRS with Maintenance Mode.

Get the HTML5 client to 100% parity to replace the Flash client.  When the next release comes out ensure all bugs/fixes are implemented as there was some pretty nasty ones on initial 6.5 release.

More than five years.

There were some initial bugs with PSOD and certain hardware vendors but patching and updates have resolved most.

There are no scalability issues other than purchasing additional licensing when adding hosts or scaling up/out.

Technical Support has been good but better communication at times could help improve it even more.

Positive

No other solution has been used.

It was simple and straightforward as we have upgraded as versions have come out.  6.5 will be our last upgrade as it will be a hardware refresh next.

In-house implementation as we have VMware certified users.

Has allowed us to run our HPE DL580 G7 servers still without issues so spend on hardware has been next to nothing.

VMware is costly versus other competitors but is still one of the market leaders and expanding now with partners like AWS.  Ensure you get the right licensing for the feature sets you want within the product and research what those are.  Setup can be easy if you have someone that has worked with VMware before or costly when hiring external help, but research in to implementers prior to hiring them is always the best method to get good ones.

No other options were evaluated as VMware has been the primary hypervisor since I have been with my company.

vSphere 6.5 has been a great release with the vCenter Appliance and will only get better in the next release with the HTML5 client becoming 100% in parity to the flash client.

I consider all the features to be of interest. 

Improvements should be made to the controller. 

I have been using VMware vSphere for between three and five years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The technical support is not too bad, but not the best.

The initial setup is easy but could be moderately improved. 

The licensing could be lower.

I am a consultant and reseller.

My advice to others who are considering implementing the solution is they have a good partner.

I rate VMware vSphere as a seven out of ten.

The solution is primarily used for management. It offers easier control at multiple branches.

The product is stable.

The flexibility of the solution is very good.

The product is very easy to use. 

The product offers a very nice single dashboard for complete management.

The solution is very straightforward to implement.

We found the scalability to be very good.

The solution doesn't seem to be missing any features currently.

It would be ideal if the integration capabilities were a bit more robust.

Technical support could be faster in terms of response times.

I've been using the solution for about five or six years. It's been a while at this point.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable in terms of performance.

The scalability is very good. We haven't seen any issues with expanding it if we need to.

There are about 15 to 20 users on the solution at this time.

While we don't have current plans to increase usage, if the business grows, we likely will.

The technical support is quite good. They are helpful and knowledgeable. That said, their response times need to be better. We would like them to respond faster to queries. 

Other than that, we are satisfied with their level of service.

The product is not overly complex to set up. It's very simple and straightforward. A company shouldn't have any issues with the implementation.

We have an admin team that can handle any maintenance required.

We are looking for opportunities with Nutanix. We are looking at it now.

That said, we did not evaluate any other products before choosing this solution. However, many years back, we did look into Citrix.

We are using the latest version of the solution at this point. I cannot speak to the exact version number off-hand.

We are not integrating the solution at this time.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. I would recommend the solution to other companies.