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AWS Outposts vs VMware Cloud Foundation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Outposts
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
7th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Cloud Foundation
Ranking in Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms category, the mindshare of AWS Outposts is 15.8%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Cloud Foundation is 19.9%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

PraveenS - PeerSpot reviewer
Has the ability to provide interfaces for events and allows you to work both offline and online
Providing online support has proven to be quite valuable. However, it's important to note that this isn't so much an improvement, but rather a standard practice for solutions like Azure Stack or AWS Outpost. Typically, the respective companies send their engineers for installation at the customer's premises, ensuring on-site support. I recall a similar instance when we requested on-site support for one of our locations in Hyderabad, and Amazon agreed to send their engineers to set up the solution in our office environment. That said, in terms of potential improvements, it would be beneficial to have the option for capacity expansion. When customers opt for a solution like Outpost, they receive a fixed set of capacities in terms of storage, network, and hardware. As design engineers, it's crucial to consider use cases and plan for scalability and sustainability. Having the flexibility to extend these capacities could be valuable. Some engineers may not be aware of future needs, and if there's an opportunity to expand capacity without the need for additional functionality, it would be a helpful feature. This way, we can cater to various needs and ensure the solution remains adaptable in the long run.
Narasimha Reddy Illuri - PeerSpot reviewer
There is progress in performance and stability, but further advancements are needed for end-user satisfaction
VMware Cloud Foundation's best features include its advanced capabilities, security purposes, and performance levels. The solution offers efficient licensing options. Previously, vSphere essential was available, but now it has moved to VMware Cloud Foundation 8.0. It includes advanced features such as lifecycle manager, patching level, and cluster level patching options. The solution now offers auto-deployment of VMs. Previously, I had to use the content library, right-click, and create VMs manually. With VMware Cloud Foundation, auto-deployment is possible by simply right-clicking and assigning a specific DHCP IP, enabling physical to vCenter level communication for automatic VM deployment. The workload portability feature in VMware Cloud Foundation provides good workload balance. For instance, in a cluster level with four to five ESXi hosts, each host has minimum resources allocated for CPU and memory, resulting in significantly reduced utilization at the VMware Cloud Foundation level.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure, and API to our on-premises data center or co-location facilities."
"If you compare with the full bundle of these services, you can see the difference. This is enough for these locations in private data centers. Because the main reasons why the customers want to have it on their side are for the low latency and the security of their critical data."
"Outposts allows you to isolate your private environment from the public cloud provider while enabling almost all the features that are available on public cloud services. That is the beauty of this service. It's an infrastructure that you can put in your data center and seamlessly connect to the public cloud."
"The most valuable aspect is its ability to provide interfaces for events."
"I think the keys to success for the solution is the easy-to-use user interface and the fact that the development team really likes the platform."
"AWS can manage services when deployed on customer sites due to Outposts' capability of being installed in on-premises environments."
"With AWS, we've had seamless integration and support for many of our applications."
"The most valuable aspect is that it comes in a rack form factor which makes it incredibly easy to use and deploy various AWS services."
"The most valuable area is the ECS environment which includes many features."
"We are using it for infrastructure automation."
"The most valuable features in VMware Cloud Foundation are life cycle management and ease of use."
"VMware Cloud Foundation's most valuable features are password and certificate management. The SDDC manager tool is the front tool we are using to manage the entire VCF stack. In the SDDC manager, we can able to rotate, and update the passwords of all users. Anything in the VMware portfolio, we can manage from a single dashboard and we have various data centers. We have connected everything into one Federation. From one single place, we are managing our entire virtual interactions."
"The ability to auto-scale is the most valuable feature."
"A valuable feature of VMware Cloud Foundation is its ability to manage everything from a single console, including network, virtualization, and storage management."
"The most valuable aspect of VMware Cloud Foundation is you can manage everything from area."
"The product enables flexibility in network structures."
 

Cons

"The platform needs to spend more time investing in strengthening its governance and information tools and consider the real needs of its customers."
"It would be great if it could support Glue services."
"The product is heavy to ship and can be difficult to handle logistically."
"Depending on the installation process, we have found some bugs and issues with the solution when the same platform is not used."
"It would be beneficial to have the option for capacity expansion."
"Outposts supports elastic coordinator services, but not elastic container services, which is the native service for containers in AWS. That is something missing in this product."
"The pricing model needs improvement because right now it's very expensive. All of these solutions are very expensive and it prevents other customers or owners of data centers from buying it."
"Also, it would be beneficial if AWS allowed for more granular and customizable pricing options."
"VMware Cloud Foundation is complex, and there are always updates regarding security features, accessibility, and the user interface. Making changes isn't simple because there are a lot of tables to update. People in the field may not feel confident about managing it."
"The maintenance cost has increased significantly, especially after Broadcom acquired VMware, with a shift from socket-based licensing to core-based licensing."
"In the early adoption of VMware Cloud Foundation, we have seen minor problems. For example, in our Federation, I see the single pane of glass where we need to manage everything, which is good. However, internally, we have a Kafka database that is distributed by the database used by the SDDC manager. During the distribution and synchronization, there is some issue and we need to stop the process."
"The solution's log management could be improved because the logs don't provide enough information."
"The interface is good, but there are compatibility issues or issues with the certificate for the VCenter."
"There may be room for improvement in the resource allocation feature."
"The use of cloud and other integrations need to be improved and made easier."
"They should provide integration with Azure VMware Solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Outposts is a cheap solution."
"The pricing of Outposts needs to be evaluated from the standpoint of what's cost-effective at your company: How are you going to use it? How much money will it save for your products or applications? Is it worth it? I would say it's probably too expensive for small or medium-sized companies. However, big companies might find it to be highly cost-effective depending on their respective cloud strategies."
"While the longer-term pricing is suitable for enterprise contracts, it can be on the higher side, especially when organizations don't utilize all the services included in the bundles."
"Customers should consider the high cost, which can range from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands depending on the components."
"The pricing of VMware Cloud Foundation could improve, it is expensive."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten."
"There is an annual license required to use the solution."
"VMware Cloud Foundation is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"The licensing is expensive compared with Hyper V and Unitech's platform."
"The pricing can be more competitive."
"If our customer has the option to buy a server for $4,000 or $5,000, but VMware asks for two-person licensing $7,000 to $8,000, which is more than the hardware price. So sometimes, the customer cannot pay for it because it's too expensive."
"It is quite expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Outposts?
With AWS, we've had seamless integration and support for many of our applications.
What needs improvement with AWS Outposts?
Outposts is not a simple solution to implement as it needs to be shipped from the US and involves high delivery costs and running costs. The product is heavy to ship and can be difficult to handle ...
What advice do you have for others considering AWS Outposts?
I rate AWS Outposts a nine out of ten, indicating room for some improvement.
What do you like most about VMware Cloud Foundation?
VMware Cloud Foundation provides us with the vSphere dashboard through which we can manage, monitor, schedule, and spin up your virtual machines. We can manage, monitor, and get reports of your inf...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Cloud Foundation?
I'm not involved in sales, so I have no specific information about pricing. However, I've heard it's not a cheap product, but the cost includes very good support.
What needs improvement with VMware Cloud Foundation?
VMware Cloud Foundation is complex, and there are always updates regarding security features, accessibility, and the user interface. Making changes isn't simple because there are a lot of tables to...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Philips, Morningstar
ricoh, dell technologies, sky
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Outposts vs. VMware Cloud Foundation and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.