We performed a comparison between IBM PowerVM and VMware vSphere based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Server Virtualization Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."What I like about this solution, is that it is easy to configure."
"The feature that I like most is the versatility."
"Technical support is great."
"IBM PowerVM has the highest clock speed."
"Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM."
"The stability is the most valuable aspect of this solution. IBM is the most powerful and stable platform."
"The most valuable features in this solution are you do not get degradation in the performance like you could get in other solutions. There is a physical adapter that is better than a virtual one and you can assign adapters to a VM."
"Active Memory Sharing dynamically reallocates memory of running partitions based on changing workload demands. The memory for the pool is carved out from Physical memory and is made logical memory. The said memory is not available to be assigned to partitions as dedicated memory. A min, max and desired as well as weight is assigned to the memory of each lpar to help hypervisor make a decision in case a condition where priority is to be given to a certain lapr to use the memory form shared pool."
"The ability to to virtualize systems and run those virtual workloads with a fewer number of servers is tremendous."
"It stands out as a comprehensive and advantageous solution, providing a full package that effectively caters to our needs for managing our private cloud."
"The solution is easy to use, user-friendly interface and has high availability features. When comparing it to other solutions it is more robust."
"Virtualised automation is a useful feature."
"The ease of movement of these machines is the most valuable. It is very easy to move these machines between physical hosts. The fast deployment of services is another valuable feature."
"VMware vSphere has helped us create our infrastructures and provide services for our customers."
"We can slide in new resources without any impact. We can do maintenance on our clusters without any impact to applications, and we have the flexibility of migrating those workloads to other data centers, when required, in the case of data center downtime."
"The most valuable features are its flexibility and the ability to move workload."
"The cost of this solution is high."
"IBM PowerVM could improve the price because it is expensive."
"The hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured."
"A GUI version of VIOS would be a great plus for people moving from Intel-based hypervisors."
"I would like for IBM to be more focuses on the cloud."
"The solution is quite pricey."
"The licensing could be better."
"The solution should be advanced to fit with the container constantly."
"NSX is a product of VMware vSphere and it would be nice to see the solution have full integration capabilities with it."
"The challenge that we have is keeping the system up to date, as well as having the internal resources to maintain that platform. We're not an IT company, so it's challenging for us to keep the IT resources in-house."
"I met with the lead solutions architect for vSphere, and one of the things that I really kind of sat him down on was, "What's the deal between these Custom Attributes and these Tags? What are you trying to do with that?" He said, "So here's the deal. I know that they're halfway done and we have a vision of where they're all going, but we'll get it there." That that would be a great ability, to keep all that metadata about your virtual machines inside the solution and staying with the machines."
"I do not find it to be simple and efficient to manage. The tools, the interface to manage it, are a pain. In the latest version, they moved us to web-only, the Web Client and it's terrible. It's slow. It crashes. It's annoying. I used the Web Client in the older version and was happy. I would go back to the regular thick client but I don't have that option anymore, so I am always fighting it."
"There should be a bit more flexibility in terms of the hardware we can use with the product."
"The installation is complex and you need to have a good understanding in regards to what you are doing when you are setting it up."
"There are some challenges around ESXi hosts — converting them into VMs."
"The biggest room for improvement would be just simplicity. It is very intuitive, but it needs somebody with a lot of IT background."
IBM PowerVM is ranked 9th in Server Virtualization Software with 25 reviews while VMware vSphere is ranked 2nd in Server Virtualization Software with 446 reviews. IBM PowerVM is rated 8.4, while VMware vSphere is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of IBM PowerVM writes "A stable system for high-end data processing with a great support structure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware vSphere writes "Offers good performance and is useful for banking systems". IBM PowerVM is most compared with Hyper-V, KVM, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), Oracle VM VirtualBox and Proxmox VE, whereas VMware vSphere is most compared with Hyper-V, Proxmox VE, Oracle VM, VMware Workstation and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). See our IBM PowerVM vs. VMware vSphere report.
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