Technical Account Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Simple to manage, user-friendly, and good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is user-friendly and easy to manage."
  • "The installation can take a long time, they need to improve on the simplicity and length of the installation."

What is our primary use case?

This solution is used as a virtual and a clustered environment. We provide a minimum of two central storage server clusters and the maximum we have is for approximately four server clusters. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is user-friendly and easy to manage.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by providing better information on what other products it is compatible with. For example, we have customers that do not like AMD Chipsets used with VMware but it is not a technical issue, they need to bring more awareness. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSphere for approximately 10 years.

Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the stability to be good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

we have approximately 50 customers using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service is good.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward because it comes with the appliance, you only have to deploy the appliance. The installation can take a long time, they need to improve on the simplicity and length of the installation.

All the customers who have the VMware have the vSphere because there is no single installation.

What about the implementation team?

We have five technicians for the installation and maintenance of the solutuion.

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

There is a perpetual license for this solution and the support is a yearly subscription.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. If you use VMware, then you need to use vSphere to manage the clusters.

I rate VMware vSphere a 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: Partner
PeerSpot user
Manager at SSMS
Real User
Top 20
Easy to use and straightforward to implement with a nice dashboard
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is very straightforward to implement."
  • "Technical support could be faster in terms of response times."

What is our primary use case?

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

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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.

How are customer service and technical support?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Vikram Casula - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Infrastructure & Cloud ops at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Helps with large scale deployments and maintenance
Pros and Cons
  • "Also, the automated builds are being done through it, and we don't have to manually do it anymore. All of my AIS platforms are completely automated now with the VM suite."
  • "It could be more composable. At present, a fluid pool is not available to us. It would be great to have the flexibility."

What is most valuable?

VMware vSphere gives us a complete landscape to manage the infrastructure in one view. With the REDOPS automation in place, it is easy for us to manage our VMs on top of it. 

Also, the automated builds are being done through it, and we don't have to manually do it anymore. All of my AIS platforms are completely automated now with the VM suite.

What needs improvement?

It could be more composable. At present, a fluid pool is not available to us, and it would be great to have the flexibility.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with VMware vSphere for more than eight years.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support has been good. On a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, I would rate technical support at 4.5.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

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

The price is reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

VMware vSphere helps with large scale deployments and maintenance. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at 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.
PeerSpot user
Solutions Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feature-rich, easy to implement, and easy to scale
Pros and Cons
  • "I don't see any challenges in using this product."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using vSphere as a multi-tenant platform. We are hosting VMs for a few of our customers.

    What is most valuable?

    We are utilizing all of the features and they are good.

    I don't see any challenges in using this product. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using VMware vSphere for between three and four years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    This is a stable product and I haven't heard any negative feedback from my implementation team about it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We implement this product for medium and large-sized companies. It is easy to scale.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I have not personally been in touch with VMware support.

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

    We have not used another similar solution.

    How was the initial setup?

    The implementation is an easy process for us, which is why we're using VMware cloud as a product. The length of time required for deployment depends on the customer. We need to know their requirements, and then we proposed timelines and inform them accordingly. It is defined by the number of nodes and the number of workloads.

    What about the implementation team?

    We deploy vSphere for our customers. We also offer maintenance and support as part of a managed service.

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

    This is quite an expensive product, although everything is included in the standard licensing fee.

    What other advice do I have?

    Overall, for me, everything with this product looks good and I can recommend it.

    I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud

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

    Other
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    Solution Architect at KIAN company
    Real User
    A stable and scalable solution that is easy to install and has many features
    Pros and Cons
    • "Valuable features really depend on different projects. We are using the traditional infrastructure based on VMware vSphere. We are also using the high availability (HA) and Distributed Switch features to extend our network and switch between different hosts. The VMotion and SVMotion features are very essential for us to relocate the storage of virtual machines to different storage or vSANs. We are using VMotion and SVMotion features several times of the day. We are also using another VMware product to replicate a lot of solutions to a second replication site."
    • "The biggest problem in this solution is the incompatibility of some of the features with some of the drivers installed on servers. For example, if I want to install vSphere on an HPE server, the driver is really different from a Dell server or a Fujitsu server. I need to download different drivers and install them manually, which can be improved by VMware. They can offer a special image to match different servers. We face different problems when we install vSphere on an ESXi server and have different drivers on the storage. ESXi cannot detect different kinds of storage, and they should improve this. We updated our existing version to vSphere 7 in a private environment, but it seems that this version is not very stable. We are facing issues with restarting the host. In earlier versions, such as vSphere 6 or 6.5, we didn't have any such problems. It would be good if VMware can offer specific applications for mobiles to enable us to control the management of all servers by mobile. They should also improve the vCenter GUI because it is currently not compatible, and there are a lot of problems. Some of the options do not appear well in the browser. VMware should spend more time resolving the problems in the GUI."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using VMware vSphere and virtualization infrastructure for IT functions in my company. It is also used in other companies or industries, such as automobile factories, energy and gas factories, and State Universities.

    What is most valuable?

    Valuable features really depend on different projects. We are using the traditional infrastructure based on VMware vSphere. We are also using the high availability (HA) and Distributed Switch features to extend our network and switch between different hosts. 

    The VMotion and SVMotion features are very essential for us to relocate the storage of virtual machines to different storage or vSANs. We are using VMotion and SVMotion features several times of the day. We are also using another VMware product to replicate a lot of solutions to a second replication site.

    What needs improvement?

    The biggest problem in this solution is the incompatibility of some of the features with some of the drivers installed on servers. For example, if I want to install vSphere on an HPE server, the driver is really different from a Dell server or a Fujitsu server. I need to download different drivers and install them manually, which can be improved by VMware. They can offer a special image to match different servers. We face different problems when we install vSphere on an ESXi server and have different drivers on the storage. ESXi cannot detect different kinds of storage, and they should improve this. 

    We updated our existing version to vSphere 7 in a private environment, but it seems that this version is not very stable. We are facing issues with restarting the host. In earlier versions, such as vSphere 6 or 6.5, we didn't have any such problems.

    It would be good if VMware can offer specific applications for mobiles to enable us to control the management of all servers by mobile. They should also improve the vCenter GUI because it is currently not compatible, and there are a lot of problems. Some of the options do not appear well in the browser. VMware should spend more time resolving the problems in the GUI.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for five years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is very stable. However, we are facing some issues in a private environment after upgrading to vSphere 7. We are facing issues with restarting the host. In earlier versions, such as vSphere 6 or 6.5, we didn't have any such problems, and it has been very stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is scalable. In my company, we have a lot of end-users, but around 16 users are involved with VMware products. We have different projects, and each project has around 10 users. 

    Our teams have a specific structure. We have an operational manager. After that, we have different technical teams. I am a Senior Infrastructure Architect, and in my team, there are around eight engineers. Out of these, five engineers are involved with VMware products, and two or three engineers are involved with the network and storage concepts.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    In my country, we cannot use direct support, although the direct support and technical support from VMware is very essential and influential to help and solve many problems. 

    How was the initial setup?

    Its installation was very simple. Because we need to install vSphere on different servers, we do customized installations by using a script. It doesn't take more than 13 minutes to install each server and configure different settings.

    What about the implementation team?

    I did it myself. I have worked as a VMware consultant with different companies, and I am certified in VMware. We cannot use direct support and specific consultants in our country.

    What other advice do I have?

    I recommend this solution to most of my customers because it is very stable, and it has a lot of good features. In comparison to other solutions, I prefer to use VMware. I also recommend Hyper-V, but VMware vSphere is my first choice.

    I would rate VMware vSphere 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.
    PeerSpot user
    IT Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Stable, easy to scale and deploy, vCenter and SRM features are good
    Pros and Cons
    • "I think that the solution is perfect. It's the best on the market."
    • "Response time could be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use VMware vSphere for virtualization and to deliver VDI.

    How has it helped my organization?

    The  vSphere plataform allow us to consolidate our datacenter and give us more availability.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features are the vCenter, and SRM. 

    Technically speaking, there is nothing that I don't like. I think that the solution is perfect. It's the best on the market.

    I have not used all of the features but the features that are provided are perfect. There is nothing that this solution doesn't have.

    What needs improvement?

    I don't think that the solution must be improved.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using VMware vSphere since 2007.

    We have the latest version and 6.7. 6.5, and 6.0.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's stable, we have not had any issues with stability.

    We have 100,000 employees in our organization.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    it's very scalable. It's easy to scale.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten. They need to improve the time it takes to resolve a case.

    Response time could be improved.

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

    Yes, a used Microsoft Hyper-V, I switched because vSphere is more mature and stable.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward. It's easy.

    It takes can take 10 to 15 minutes to deploy a new server into the vSphere platform. It's so easy.

    It may take more time for testing and implementation.

    Deployment varies, if you are referring to the deployment of the full solution, it includes deploying the vCenter, deploying the servers, the host, and creating our clusters can take up to three hours.

    What about the implementation team?

    The implementation were with VMware consultant team.

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

    I don't like the price because it's too expensive.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    No, I evaluated just vSphere and Hyper-V.

    What other advice do I have?

    It's important to contract a good level of support from VMware.

    I would rate VMware vSphere a nine 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.
    PeerSpot user
    System Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Video Review
    Real User
    I like the capability of logging into one system, then being able to shift over to another system within that single pane of glass
    Pros and Cons
    • "The ability to to virtualize systems and run those virtual workloads with a fewer number of servers is tremendous."
    • "I like the capability of logging into one system, then being able to shift over to another system within that single pane of glass."
    • "The one area where I would love to see an improvement is the HTML5 client. It's great, but it could get better."

    What is our primary use case?

    I use it as systems administrative management tool. I use VMware vSphere, vCenter, and vSphere ESXi.

    We do not use VMWare cloud on AWS.

    How has it helped my organization?

    vSphere has improved our organization by far, and it's hard to even quantify. The ability to to virtualize systems and run those virtual workloads with a fewer number of servers is tremendous. We are still in the process of converting physical to virtual, but we are getting there.

    The mission critical apps that we use for our system are for monitoring different meters throughout households in the greater area in which we operate.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature is the single pane of glass management. There are a number of things which vSphere offers in terms of consolidating infrastructure onto single pieces of hardware. This is instead of having multiple systems running on the OSs that we need. I like the capability of logging into one system, then being able to shift over to another system within that single pane of glass.

    vSphere is simple to manage. Some of the best parts of managing it is vCenter. I use that to provide entry points for different administrators to login from different environments to manage either physical or virtual servers and resources on the network in our storage site.

    What needs improvement?

    vSphere is going in a good direction already with its improvement. The one area where I would love to see an improvement is the HTML5 client. It's great, but it could get better. I know it can.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It has been fairly stable in 6.7. I have not had any major issues. 

    I've come up on older versions from 3.5 until 6.7. This version has been the best experience so far.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I can build out hundreds of hosts, but my environment's not that big. It is not as big as most of the larger companies out there, so I've not hit a bottleneck yet in terms of scalability.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Every now and then, I have to use vSphere technical support. My experience with them has been a positive one overall. Usually, if I don't get an answer from one tech support engineer, I can get another answer from another engineer who will help me out with my particular issue.

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

    I wouldn't say that I invested in a new solution to get to where I'm right now. I just really have been upgrading upon what's already there. I'm pretty much in bed with VM. I'm staying with VM, and that's where I want to be. I don't want to go anywhere else. VMware is top of the line.

    How was the initial setup?

    I've done setups of different versions of vSphere. The latest one was more complex than 6.5, which had an external platform services controller. Now with 6.7, you have an embedded platform services controller, much like 6.5, but you also get the enhanced link mode capability. That was a big shift for me. 

    What was our ROI?

    ROI is tough to quantify once you are already in bed with VMware. However, I did a comparison between physical server to virtual. There was a point in time where we would size out a virtual server to be a massive size, then we'd buy a physical server of the equivalence. We saved somewhere around 20 percent going virtual, as opposed to the physical equivalent.

    I have seen a performance boost in a sense that we have provided better utilization of system resources within vSphere. However, I don't have an actual percentage to provide.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Before I started with VMware, I did not have any other vendors on my shortlist.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would rate it at a nine, because I don't believe any type of technology is a ten. There is always room for improvement. However, this is a solid nine.

    Spend time researching, investing, and testing for months. Spend a few months testing the product before implementing it to production.

    I don't have too much experience with the encryption or secure features of the new vSphere version.

    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    PeerSpot user
    Systems Engineer at Vestmark inc
    Real User
    Seamless HA with vMotion, and being able to run vCenters in HA mode, are key for us
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable features are the seamless HA with vMotion and being able to run vCenters in HA mode."
    • "I'd like to get rid of the Flash Client. There are still some things we need to go in there and use it for, some plugins and other things aren't supported in the HTML5."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use vSphere for our production and DR infrastructure. We have all our critical machines on there: domain controllers, monitoring systems, ticketing systems, financial systems, billing systems, Test and Dev environments. For the most part, as far as vSphere is concerned, it's performed pretty awesomely. Sometimes the hardware doesn't work as well.

    Once we got VMware vCenter, once we got all that setup - did a PoC, proved that it worked - we did a big push. I led the project to move our entire internal infrastructure from physical to virtual.

    We haven't worked with VM Encryption or support for TPM and VBS.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Between vMotion and all the HA, it has made my life a lot easier, and similarly for a lot of my colleagues, and my boss.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features are the seamless HA with vMotion and being able to run vCenters in HA mode. We use a company called SimpliVity, it's a hyperconverged system that sits on top of VMware. They have a product called RapidDR which automates the entire DR process for us. So in a DR event, we just run a script, and that's it. Between vMotion and vCenter, everything moves over to the DR environment.

    Also, once you start using it and you get your hands dirty with it, it's very intuitive. I find the menus make sense. Other UIs, specifically Salesforce, for example, can sometimes be weird. Things are in weird places, there are a lot of menus, a lot of dropdowns. Especially, in the new HTML5 Client with vSphere and vCenter, everything is pretty straightforward and easy to find and easy to use.

    What needs improvement?

    I'd like to get rid of the Flash Client. There are still some things that require us to go into it and use it, some plugins and other things aren't supported in the HTML5. I love the HTML5 Client. I think it's a lot smoother, a lot faster. Version 6.5 was kind of slow. From our testing, from what I've seen, 6.7 is supposed to be better. That would be my biggest complaint right now: that the 6.5 Flash Client is slow. It takes a while to load.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's very stable. We had one "pink screen," which is basically equivalent to the "blue screen" in Windows, and that was hardware-related.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability has been good, as far as the vSphere and vCenter go. We've had to add more hardware, but it's scaled pretty well. We haven't really had any issues with it.

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

    The move to vSphere was really just a business-continuity initiative. Vestmark makes a financial platform. It's important that we are able to be up as much as possible.

    I work on the internals teams, so none of the stuff that I work with is customer-facing, but for our customer-facing teams to be able to correctly support customers, our internal side has to be up as much as possible. It was really just business-continuity, coming down from the executive level, saying, "We need as much HA as possible. We want our systems to be up as much as possible because we need to support our customers as best we can."

    When you're looking at HA and seamless DR and the like, there's really one decision, and that's going virtual, whether it's on-prem or in the Cloud. VMware has been a leader in the virtual industry for years. It was a pretty simple decision to go with VMware.

    How was the initial setup?

    It took some time to really research vSphere as a whole, as far as what the best setup would be for our company, for both the present and the future growth of the company, and to correctly size it. There was a lot of research beforehand that needed to be done to get to the appropriate solution. Once that work was done, the actual install and implementation of it were very smooth, for the most part.

    What was our ROI?

    When I first started at Vestmark, a little over four years ago, everything was physical. We had a row of about seven to ten racks - I forget the exact number - of just physical machines. After going virtual, using VMware, vCenter on Cisco UCS, we dropped that down to two racks.

    What other advice do I have?

    Take your time to do the appropriate research and planning, so that it's sized appropriately. A lot of issues that I've seen are from either underlying hardware or resource constraints that aren't necessarily related to vSphere or VMware, rather that things weren't implemented appropriately.

    We do not you use VMware Cloud on AWS. Right now we just have on-prem for both production and DR. We are starting to move some small Dev environments to AWS. I haven't been a part of that project. From what I hear, there have been some ups and downs but, for the most part, I believe there has been positive feedback.

    I would rate vSphere a nine out of ten. Ten means everything is perfect. As much as everyone tries to strive for that goal, it's unattainable because there are just so many moving parts, hardware, software, user input, end-users. It's the best that it can be in a nonperfect world.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: May 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.