Name: VMware vSphere
Brand: Broadcom
Rating: 4.4 (457 reviews)

it_user9315

Systems Analyst at a government with 51-200 employees

Sep 9, 2013

Excellent Customer Service & Technical Support but make sure your hardware is compatible

For how long have you used this product?
- 4 Years

Which features of this product are most valuable to you?
- Fault Tolerance (FT)
- vSphere Distributed Resources Scheduler (DRS)

Can you give an example of how this product has improved the way your organization functions?
- Making your infrastructure simpler and more efficient. Applications get deployed faster, performance and availability increase and operations become automated,

What areas of this product have room for improvement?
- Networking

Did you encounter any issues with deployment, stability or scalability?
- We haven't had any issues during deployment.

Did you previously use a different solution and if so, why did you switch?
- Yes. Citrix Xenserver. We switched it to VMware ESXI because its easier to convert P2V through ESXI than XenServer without any issues and Live migration is more thru ESXI than doing it in Xenserver.

Before choosing this product, did you evaluate other options? If so, which ones?
- Yes. Hyper V and Citrix Xenserver

How would you rate the level of customer service and technical support?
- Excellent.

Was the initial setup straightforward or complex? In what ways?
- Was a straightforward setup.

Did you implement through a vendor team or an in-house one? If through a vendor team, how would you rate their level of expertise?
- It was through a vendor team and they were extremely excellent.

What is your ROI on this product?
- Save energy
- Reduce hardware
- Improve disaster recovery
- Isolate applications
- Help move things to the cloud

What was your original setup cost for this product and what is your day-to-day cost of using this product?
- The cost was around $2500 - 3000 \ N/A

What advice would you give to others looking into implementing this product?
- Make sure your hardware the storage and servers are compatible with ESXI. I would recommend EMC storage.

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

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Oct 13, 2013

Hello
What are some of the hardware systems that are compatible with VMware ESXi?

See all 2 comments

it_user8223

IT Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jul 30, 2013

Best virtualization product available

I have worked with VMware products for just over 5 years at this point, and during that time frame have compared with competing virtualization products. I believe that VMware Esxi is the BEST hypervisor available. If you have a virtualization project then this is the route to go, although I will concede that MS Hyper-V may be appropriate for some small businesses with just a couple of servers to virtualize.
Deploying Esxi is very simple, install the package on the host, open the vSphere client, and you are ready to go. The setup can be very simple if you are using local storage, or in-depth if using network storage and wanting to customize the virtual network configuration. regardless, the tasks are simple and easy to understand. If you run into an issue, VMware documentation is very helpful and their support team glad to assist.

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

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Aug 25, 2013

The user friendly nature of server virtualization software makes it easy to install, configure and use it.

Free Report: VMware vSphere Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user5496

Consultant at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

Jul 25, 2013

Microsoft Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere

One topic that gets discussed quite often is Microsoft Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere, and a quick Google search for comparisons will return at least several hundred thousand hits. There seems to be a large number of posts and articles trying to make a case that one is better than the other by listing and comparing features of the hypervisors themselves one by one. The purpose of this post is not to claim that one platform is better than the other. Is that the best way to really compare the different virtualization technologies as a whole, or should we take a step back and really look at differences in approach for the virtual infrastructure and/or virtual ecosystems'

Microsoft:

In my opinion, Microsoft is defining and building their virtualization infrastructure as an extension or expansion of their current ecosystem, with System Center at the center of their universe. If you look at the System Center 2012 product page on Microsoft’s website, System Center product details are broken down into two different areas:

Cloud and Datacenter Management
Client Management & Security

Is this really a big surprise' Absolutely not, since it clearly makes more sense to build on what you already have in place than to reinvent the wheel. The majority of virtual machines that are running on the Hyper-V platform are running Windows, and System Center already has a solid foundation of features and capabilities for managing Windows environments. These features include:

Application Delivery
Mobile Device Management
Virtual Desktop Management
Endpoint Protection
Compliance and Setting Management
Software Update Management
Power Management
Operating System Deployment
Client Health and Monitoring
Asset Intelligence
Inventory

VMware:

In my opinion, VMware is looking to create a completely isolated and separated ecosystem that consists of a collection of appliances with different capabilities working independently and making up the features within the infrastructure, including:

vSphere
vCloud Director
vCloud Connector
vCloud Network and Security
vCenter Site Recovery Manager
vCenter Operations Manager Suite
vFabric Application Director
vCloud Automation Center

Conclusions:

One of the main differences that I see in the two approaches is that Microsoft wants virtualization, cloud, and datacenter management to be an extension of the infrastructure, whereas VMware would like the vCloud Suite to be the complete infrastructure. This starts with VMware developing vCloud as an Infrastructure-as-a-Service to fulfill their promise of the software-defined datacenter.

Click here to read my complete review on TheVirtualizationPractice.com

Disclosure: My company The Virtualization Practice is sponsored by some vendors in this market

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

Jusiah NoahCo-Founder at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Jan 3, 2017

we just need expirienced users that can verify and give details more than google.yes rich content but unreliable

See all 3 comments

it_user7743

IT Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Jul 12, 2013

Excellent product as compared to other Hypervisors

Pros:
a reliable hyper-visor with a thin architecture, requires minimal configuration and can be up and running in minutes. Management is simple.

Cons:
None, we have a very good experience in its deployment and usage.

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

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Report as inappropriate

Sep 8, 2013

Have you used vpshere software to connect ESX host or is there any other software available too?

See all 3 comments

it_user6696

Director of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 27, 2013

Download

Good entry level product

Valuable Features:

Great product for users stepping into virtualization and consolidation

Room for Improvement:

Management requires vCenter, with additional expense

Other Advice:

This makes sense for smaller companies that are looking to start the consolidation process, or smaller divisions of large companies.

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

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Report as inappropriate

Aug 25, 2013

Is there any limit of cluster nodes while creating a cluster in ESXi?

See all 4 comments

it_user6696

Director of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 27, 2013

Download

Very stable and contributes to high uptime. Reduced our data center power and cooling costs.

Valuable Features:

vSphere is an excellent product to virtualize computing workloads. It helps with consolidation of servers and datacenters, and increases utilization of computing resources. The product is very stable, and contributes to high uptime for critical workloads. Additional benefits from a virtualized datacenter include reduced power and cooling costs.

Room for Improvement:

Many features have been added over the years which makes it difficult to deploy without formal training. License costs are fairly high, especially compared with substitutes that are quickly catching up in performance and features.

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

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Sep 15, 2013

It is worth noting that most good products come with a license to authorize their use.

See all 3 comments

it_user6561

Virtualization Counsultant at a tech company with 51-200 employees

May 21, 2013

The only way to use vmware features like HA, FT, and DRS.

It is best way to manage your virtualization in your company and its the only way to use vmware features like HA, FT, DRS and so many other features that vmware provides.

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

it_user6561

Virtualization Counsultant at a tech company with 51-200 employees

May 17, 2013

Download

Fast, manageable, and secure. But no web interface without vCenter

Valuable Features:

Fast Manageable Secure Low overhead

Room for Improvement:

Little expensive Needs a lot of dependencies No web interface without vCenter

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

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Report as inappropriate

Aug 17, 2013

Which SAN is preferred over ESXi? I am using Dell Compellent so far, it seems to be fine. But I have heard people using EMC, HP. I am planning to buy one more storage. Which one do you recommend for ESXi hosts?

See all 6 comments