My primary use case is to consolidate the number of physical servers required. We created our motion machines out of it, and it acts as very easy management for backup and security.
Easy management for backup and security
Pros and Cons
- "Reduces downtime."
- "Integration with different platforms could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
VMWare vSphere has really helped us grow as a business, and going for a virtual backup solution has made my life so much easier.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are High Availability (HA), which reduces downtime, and Fault Tolerance (FT), a mirror solution that ensures no data loss. Its vMotion feature is also valuable, as it allows me to move all my virtual emissions to an available host before performing maintenance. I also value a feature called Distributed Virtual Switch, which allows me to create a private VLAN and do L2 management and switch management.
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement would be integration with different platforms. In a future release, I would like to see a feature that alerts the user if they make a mistake with configuration or if there is a vulnerability.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
February 2023

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2023.
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for seven years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable - it can go up to 64 nodes on the cluster in terms of storage.
How are customer service and support?
VMWare's support is great - they respond immediately to requests for help.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously I also worked with Hyper-V, but some of my Linux machines were having problems with it.
How was the initial setup?
The ease of installation depends on your organization's infrastructure - it can be very simple or complicated depending on what you want it to do.
What other advice do I have?
If you want to reduce your costs, I would recommend going forward with virtualization. I would rate this solution as nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator

A cloud computing virtualization platform with a useful distributed resource scheduler feature
Pros and Cons
- "I like that it's like a distributed rescheduler. You can move to and use VMotion as well. You can move the server and move the virtual machines around different physical servers. This makes it easier when it comes to redundancy."
- "The initial setup could be better. It manages all the setups, but it's not very straightforward, and it takes time."
What is our primary use case?
We use VMware vSphere for our windows server and other virtual machines.
How has it helped my organization?
No need to upgrade the hardware for individual machines, easily to assign more resources to virtual machines when desired.
What is most valuable?
I like that it's like a distributed resource scheduler, the workload can be balanced automatically. Also you can use vMotion as well to manually move the virtual machines around different physical hosts. This makes it easier when it comes to redundancy.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup could be better. Follow the instruction you can set it up, but it's not very straightforward, and you need some storage and network knowledge to get the better understanding.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for over ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable. These have patches regularly, and we apply the critical patch.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is fine. We don't have too many virtual machines because we're moving to the cloud slowly. That's why we don't have an issue with that.
How are customer service and technical support?
I think VMware support is excellent. They have the highest one, and I'll rate them nine out of ten. I'm still satisfied with their support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little complex because of the infrastructure. It's not related to just the one physical server, you need design the storage and networks. There are three different areas.
What other advice do I have?
For my friend with stock in virtualization, I think maybe they can try the Cloud. That may be easier, and they don't need to stay on-premises.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give VMware vSphere a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
February 2023

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2023.
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT & Security Team Leader at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Versatile, extremely stable, and very scalable with useful DRS and resource pooling features
Pros and Cons
- "It is very versatile. All features are beneficial and very good, especially DRS and resource pooling."
- "They can maybe review its price. They can also consider offering a free public version for development for a certain number of users."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for the virtualization of server infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
It is very versatile. All features are beneficial and very good, especially DRS and resource pooling.
What needs improvement?
They can maybe review its price. They can also consider offering a free public version for development for a certain number of users.
I am using version 6.7, and it would be good if it has support for SaaS storage. They might already have this feature in the latest version 7.1.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution in our company for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is extremely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. Its usage depends on each customer. We have small, medium, and large customers.
As a company, we are not a big consumer of VMware solutions. We do VMware deployments in other companies. We sell it to other companies, and we have a partnership with VMware.
How are customer service and technical support?
Based on my experience, they are very good. Their support used to be best, but it also depends on the number of subscriptions for each contract. Generally, their process is very good.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not a pricing or budgeting person, but I know that its price is a little bit high, and they can consider reviewing it. Its price is probably the highest in this domain.
What other advice do I have?
I personally do not recommend Hyper-V based on my experience, but I can recommend others to also look at Proxmox. There is also a solution from IBM. They are, for sure, very good contenders.
I would rate VMware vSphere a nine out of 10. It satisfies our needs.
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
Good virtualization and optimization in an easy to use solution
Pros and Cons
- "Good virtualization and ability to optimize and deliver an automated and orchestrated cloud platform on-prem."
- "Higher cost than other similar solutions."
What is our primary use case?
We deliver this solution to our customers and we partner with the vendor. I'm a senior infrastructure solution specialist.
What is most valuable?
This is a straightforward solution, there's not much troubleshooting required and the work around it is quite simple. I particularly like the virtualization and the ability of the solution to optimize and deliver an automated and orchestrated cloud platform on-prem. They regularly surprise us with great features developed by a very, very sharp R&D team that delivers up-to-date technology with more features and more valuable ideas to enhance and automate the platform with data center.
What needs improvement?
If you're converting from any other virtualization system to VMware, you will note that the price is significantly higher.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for 10 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable to an unlimited number of hosts.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very helpful. They don't deliver the troubleshooting directly, but they understand and collect the logs and provide the procedure to follow in order to reach a solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. VMware is a very, very easy system to implement and to administer, as long as you have at least some sort of experience. You don't need to be an expert but those who have a high-level knowledge of VMware can manage and deliver the crucial tasks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are different licensing costs depending on whether you're using the standard or enterprise solution. A socket in the standard solution might cost $1,000 whereas it would cost $4,000 for the enterprise socket.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
Systems Engineer-Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Feature rich, high availability, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "VMware vSphere has a lot of features that are valuable, such as multiple clusters, VM mobility, VDI, and virtual desktop."
- "The support for VMware vSphere can be fast or it can be slow. Recently it has been slow, they need to decrease the wait time and quality of their support."
What is our primary use case?
A lot of people use the VMware vSphere solutions because most operations are virtualized. Small and mid-range companies are using VMware vSphere for all their infrastructure virtualizing applications, this is what the solution is mainly used for.
What is most valuable?
VMware vSphere has a lot of features that are valuable, such as multiple clusters, VM mobility, VDI, and virtual desktop.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of VMware vSphere is great. It has high availability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is scalable.
I am in Lithuania and we have approximately 100 customers. Most companies use some kind of virtualization. It can be VMware or Citrix, or something else. Our clients mostly use VMware vSphere.
How are customer service and support?
The support for VMware vSphere can be fast or it can be slow. Recently it has been slow, they need to decrease the wait time and quality of their support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of VMware vSphere is simple. However, I have been using similar solutions for 15 years making the process simple.
The installation took approximately 15 minutes. However, the installation itself is very easy but you need to do the configurations and integrations which can be more difficult depending on the customer's needs and their infrastructure.
What about the implementation team?
We use one person for the implementation of VMware vSphere. For the maintenance and support of the solution, the amount of people needed depends on the infrastructure and size of the customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our customers typically use permanent licenses, not subscription-based. However, there are subscript-based licenses.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate VMware vSphere a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Specialist SE Manager at Dell EMC
A stable and scalable solution that brings the benefits of flexibility and mobility
Pros and Cons
- "The fact that you can use all the CPU and memory power that the server can provide is most valuable. In a physical server, you might end up not using all the physical resources. There are a lot of benefits, such as flexibility and mobility, in virtualizing computes."
- "The improvement is more from a licensing perspective rather than from a feature functionality perspective. There could be more flexibility and fewer model options to make it easier to sell. Today, there are so many different options available, and sometimes, it is not really clear which one is the right version or the right model to propose."
What is our primary use case?
It is a compute virtualization software. It is mainly used to virtualize physical servers and deploy virtual machines on top of virtual servers. So, instead of having one workload per server, you can have multiple workloads.
What is most valuable?
The fact that you can use all the CPU and memory power that the server can provide is most valuable. In a physical server, you might end up not using all the physical resources. There are a lot of benefits, such as flexibility and mobility, in virtualizing computes.
What needs improvement?
The improvement is more from a licensing perspective rather than from a feature functionality perspective. There could be more flexibility and fewer model options to make it easier to sell. Today, there are so many different options available, and sometimes, it is not really clear which one is the right version or the right model to propose.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been providing this solution to our customers for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. In our country, I believe 50% of the customers are running vSphere virtualization.
How are customer service and support?
I don't have experience with their technical support.
How was the initial setup?
I never did an installation, but as per my understanding, it is straightforward.
The number of people required for installation and maintenance really depends on the scale of the project. Usually, one engineer can deploy vSphere very easily.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It depends on the contract they have with VMware.
What other advice do I have?
I can recommend this solution. I would rate it at least an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Network and Security Engineer at a logistics company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Lets us publish our internal server virtually and with a high degree of stability
Pros and Cons
- "In terms of overall features, vSphere's stability stands out on top. Not only is it highly stable, but we're also able to have a quick backup server on standby."
- "Without a lot of physical RAM on the hardware, it's not very effective. The stability could be improved in cases like this."
What is our primary use case?
We use vSphere for virtualization in the IT center. It's the solution we use for publishing our server which supports up to 1,000 users currently. With vSphere, stability comes easily; it's nothing like physical hardware.
What is most valuable?
In terms of overall features, vSphere's stability stands out on top. Not only is it highly stable, but we're also able to have a quick backup server on standby.
What needs improvement?
Without a lot of physical RAM on the hardware, it's not very effective. The stability could be improved in cases like this. In addition, I would like to see easier and more widely available integration options.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using VMware vSphere for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product and we have a backup server in case anything goes wrong with the virtual server we have running.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For our business case, the scalability is good enough.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is all right.
How was the initial setup?
Installation is very easy when it comes to virtualization of machines by the hypervisor. It only takes about 20 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
We have three members that handle deployment and ongoing maintenance. These are two administrators plus a senior staff member.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In order to maintain stability, you should ensure that your physical machine is equipped with enough RAM, else it becomes ineffective.
What other advice do I have?
I can recommend vSphere without hesitation. I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Operations Support at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
Stable, simple to scale, simple to operate, and has helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The virtualization this solution offer is very complete for the infrastructure."
- "The support for the latest version could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use VMware vSphere on our main computer systems and we are using the Center Configuration Manager from VMware for the solution as well as vCenter for replication.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the tech manager from the utilization.
The virtualization this solution offers is very complete for the infrastructure. It meets our requirements and our needs.
It is very easy to operate.
What needs improvement?
The support for the latest version could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with VMware vSphere for ten years.
We began with version 4.0 and are now working with the most recent version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is a scalable product.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support from VMware is very comprehensive and helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use several solutions such as Microsoft Azure, Oracle, and we use VMware for our infrastructure.
We also have another solution for disaster recovery.
We used Microsoft Azure for testing with the model phone credit. It was for testing only.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In my opinion, the price is not cheap, nor it is expensive. It's average.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Currently, we are starting on study for implementing the software design network, and I am evaluating options because I want to know the latest information about the products.
We are also evaluating NSX to implement it in the future.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate VMware vSphere a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner

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