VMware vSphere Review

We needed to improve our response times for server deployment, SLA, testing, templates, and storage.

What is most valuable?

  • High Availability options
  • High server consolidation ratio
  • Space, noise and power consumption reduction
  • Easy to administer

How has it helped my organization?

  • Response time to all areas of our company.
  • Server deployment, SLA, everything was accelerated rapidly.
  • Testing environment, templates, storage usage, all areas were enhanced.

What needs improvement?

  • Server consolidation
  • Response time
  • Internal process management
  • Storage usage and performance

For how long have I used the solution?

Five years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We never found any issue during deployment of VMware vSphere. From version 5.0, 5.1 and now in 5.5 works everything fine.

The virtualization changed everything in our company, and is the way to lead from now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We never found any issue of stability using VMware vSphere. From version 5.0, 5.1 and now in 5.5 works everything fine.

The virtualization changed everything in our company, and is the way to lead from now.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None.

VMware vSphere is a solution that offers excellent resources optimization and utilization. The solution himself improves the data center management and resources utilization is many ways.

We can't think our data center without virtualization.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service from VMware was always excellent. Being a client of VMware, our company have the best response, even from our partners.

Technical Support:

Never required technical support from VMware. As a VCP, I always solve the issues myself, but I know some examples from other companies and they are very happy about this.

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

No. The initial solution was VMware and we loved the product. There exists other solutions, but no one offers the level of trust and features that VMware offers, even open Source solutions like Xen.

How was the initial setup?

No, anyway. From initial installation of ESXi servers to configuration in vCenter Server the installation process is very intuitive and easy (remember that I'm VCP).

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What was our ROI?

Our ROI was 6-12 months. The budget required to mount our virtual infrastructure was high at first glance, but the ROI was more quick than expected.

We are very happy with this and consolidation that VMware offers.

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

Some licenses are expensive, mailny Enterprise Plus versions, but the features that this versions includes are impressive. Just make sure you get the right version for every business or needs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluate other options, but VMware is centuries ahead other solutions of virtualization. Microsoft Hyper-V is the closest, but not reach the level of VMware. Open Source solutions was not considered at initial instance, they do not apply for a serious project of virtualization.

What other advice do I have?

Evaluating migration to vSphere 6.0 in brief. I'm currently taking vSphere 6.0 courses and reading a lot, including writing a lot in my blog about this version. The improvements are really big and we wait more announces in VMware World 2015 very soon.

Which version of this solution are you currently using?

5.5
**Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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3 Comments
author avatarit_user113166 (Engineer at a tech services company)
Consultant

You mentioned templates and build times. You can use the Microsoft offline updater on Windows Templates as it can be mounted as an ISO. Finish the process with sysprep. If you do this monthly the patching after build is greatly reduced. The Offline updater will reboot multiple times run it until it has no more updates.

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author avatarThang Le Toan (Victory Lee) (Robusta Technology & Training)
Top 5Real User

Thank you for the review have appreciated about VMware, it may result in something we do.
Currently we are using VMware vSphere 6.0, Horizon View 6.1.1, Application Volume, Horizon Mirage, Private Cloud for training "Nested Virtualization" and for Enterprise Design Build BIM 360 used vGPU, Rendering. ...
It is important that this system is very stable, resource saving, quick deployment time and technical team we can study on the resource independent. Every week we have the ideas and related products direct research on this infrastructure (it is different with Hyper-V, Virtual PC, Virtual Box, Citrix Xen quarterly or annual little research to find out is to use).

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author avatarit_user237264 (IT Administrator and Sr. VMware Engineer at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees)
Top 5Real User

I am glad that the review has been helpful. Really once you start using VMware as virtualization platform and all its features are explored, it is impossible not to use this technology.

The characteristics associated with high availability, performance improvements and true storage virtualization and Virtual Volumes VSAN really shows why VMware is a leader in the sector. Furthermore, with the launch of new features to be announced next week at VMworld Las Vegas 2015 will extend even more advantage compared to other technologies.

As vExpert, my experience in the field of virtualization technologies showed me that as Xen, Citrix, Proxmox, to name a few, they are good and serve their purpose, but none offer the level of excellence of VMware.

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Highlights
We are able to patch our hosts during production hours with the ability to keep services running.
Production people can quickly reboot the server with ESXi Quick Boot.
Since we have an internal cloud, suddenly people may require 1000 or 2000 VMS in something. We have options to analyze and make sure we have enough scalability.
The most valuable features for me are a very easily scalable infrastructure. I can have a couple of hosts to do basic workloads. I can have a lot of hosts to do a lot of workloads. vSAN integrates my storage so I don't need an external storage SAN. I love having everything integrated in the same UI. The new HTML5 interface doesn't require any plugins anymore and it's super-fast.
The features in VMware vSphere data recovery are excellent. Sometimes I've deleted an entire server before and was able to recover the deleted VM. I just used some command line tools and I was able to restore the deleted VM.
It helps to automate the data replication and DR (disaster recovery).
Using vSphere we have virtualized over one thousand servers and this gave us management, cost and datacenter space advantages.
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