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BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. BMC is ranked #38, while Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1. BMC holds a 0.9% mindshare in CM, compared to Broadcom’s 9.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
Read 5 BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management reviews
  • 494 Views
  • 267 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
VMware Aria Automation
Read 171 VMware Aria Automation reviews
  • 7,662 Views
  • 4,137 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management and VMware Aria Automation are competing in the cloud automation and management space. VMware Aria Automation has an upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, although BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management may offer advantages in pricing and support satisfaction.

Features: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is noted for its robust integration capabilities, effective resource management, and strong multi-cloud portal, which makes it suitable for resource optimization. VMware Aria Automation, on the other hand, provides advanced orchestration, integration with several platforms, and a versatile automation framework, focusing on extensibility and detailed automation.

Room for Improvement: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management could enhance its automation capabilities and integration with newer third-party applications. It may also benefit from an intuitive user interface and expanded reporting features. VMware Aria Automation could improve by simplifying its deployment processes, enhancing its UI for administrators, and expanding support for more hybrid cloud solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is appreciated for its straightforward deployment process and reliable customer service, making it ideal for organizations seeking a quick setup. VMware Aria Automation provides extensive customization support, though its deployment can be more complex, appealing to those needing detailed setup options.

Pricing and ROI: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is considered cost-effective due to lower initial setup costs and favorable ROI outcomes. VMware Aria Automation, despite higher upfront costs, offers substantial long-term returns owing to its advanced automation capabilities and feature-rich offerings.

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To learn more, read our detailed BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
September 2025
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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

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
Ranking in Cloud Management
38th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Monitoring Software (45th)
VMware Aria Automation
Ranking in Cloud Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
171
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (6th), Network Automation (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Automation is 9.5%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Aria Automation9.5%
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management0.9%
Other89.6%
Cloud Management
 

Featured Reviews

VB
Helps design blueprints in a cloud environment but the support is a major problem
One of the major problems is that support is not so good. I used to have a support expert in Spain but they left two years ago. BMC doesn't invest a lot in network automation but network automation is a major point in CLM. There aren't any experts here in Europe, maybe they have in America, I don't know. The main problem is the support in Europe. We had a lot of problems with the people who got put on our cases. The agents that we were assigned to were not so capable. They wanted to replicate the problem. If you have an incident, it takes a lot of time to troubleshoot the problem. The incident support is not so good. The technicians don't know the platform well. BMC doesn't want to invest in CLM. Two years ago we had a lot of problems. Maybe BMC realized that CLM is an end of life product.
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Le Quang Long - PeerSpot reviewer
Significantly streamlined operations with good automation that helps with simplifying workflows
It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users. It helps us automate the workflow of creating many VMs and the TensorFlow key method. I do not meet many people to operate it live beforehand. It operates for both of my products, but as a product, it is complicated to integrate and automate with other products.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"By allowing end users to request their own services, the request process for systems is much quicker and more accurate."
"Assesses change impact or completes an audit using multiple dashboard views."
"Integrates role-based access control with pre-configured policies for CIS, DISA, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, NIST, and SCAP documentation and remediation."
"CLM has a multi-cloud portal because they have the resources to implement in various environments in various ports."
"You can tie together your public and private cloud infrastructure into a "single pane of glass"."
"Supports unattended installs and image-based, script-based, or template-based provisioning."
"Automates Java EE Application Deployment from an SCM system."
"The extensibility of the solution when it comes to writing your own ABX actions is a valuable feature. You can write it in PowerShell, JavaScript, or Python, which is great."
"Even with the virtualization, it would take us at least three or four days to create a VM. With vRA we have brought that down to seven minutes. The solution has helped increase infrastructure, agility, speed of provisioning, time to market, application agility. Everything got super fast."
"It's much more stable than the highest available variant."
"usability; It's very user-friendly. It is not hard to go and find things. There is a one-click Help that you can use to find all the documentation you need to manage it."
"The automation part is valuable, especially where vRA integrates with vRO, because it reduces the amount of effort we have to make."
"Our QA department is able to spin up a new instance of Windows virtual machine and test whatever use case they have, then turn it back down whenever they are done."
"We have faster delivery times through its automation."
"It's extremely convenient to be able to spin something up and be able to work on other things, because it's already done it, making my workload lighter."
More VMware Aria Automation pros
 

Cons

"One of the major problems is that support is not so good."
"The installation and configuration can be tricky due to it being built on Remedy."
"Needs integrations with other providers to provide a custom public cloud environment."
"It needs to be more dynamic with variable customization to make new workloads more reliable. It also needs to be faster. We are exploring vRA version 8 right now and maybe what I'm requesting is available in the new version, but we haven't yet explored it fully."
"It would be better if VMware would provide API documentation for developers and customers on the Internet."
"The solution could include more integrations and supportability around the container space."
"The stability on the 6.2 version is very bad. It crashes. VMware tech support knows the IIS component is a bit buggy."
"Broadcom has acquired the tool, which could lower its pricing. Many customers are moving away from VMware infrastructure towards enterprise systems like Azure or AWS. This shift could be due to two main reasons: pricing and uncertainty about the future, especially regarding how Broadcom will handle licenses and strategy."
"7.5 is not user-friendly, in fact, it's a nightmare. They changed everything on the graphic user interface, the mode where the user interacts with the product."
"Most of the time the upgrade experience has been good but sometimes things break after upgrading. For example, some API codes stopped working."
"vCenter and vRA, I believe they share two different databases so sometimes you have to somehow sync them up. I wish there was only one database between the two or, somehow, one database would rule over the other one, so if you have both products, the vCenter might use the vRA database. Otherwise, when you do stuff in vCenter, you have to write a command on vRA to update the databases."
More VMware Aria Automation cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution is free of cost."
"We do plan to see ROI with any new implementation of new technologies being implemented within our environment."
"From a budget point of view, the pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"It is an open-source product."
"We have seen significant ROI. We used to have physical servers, it took 90 days to get a server, order it, buy it, and get it in. We have it down to 10 minutes, building a server with virtualization, and now that's too slow. So, we let the customer do it at their speed. Therefore, it is pretty much up in a couple of minutes and they have a server."
"There is confusion between licensing levels. There are three different licensed versions of vRealize Automation, and there are different things which can happen in each of them."
"A simplified version for small businesses would be good."
"I would rate it high because, compared to other solutions, VMware’s pricing is quite expensive. VMware products have become significantly more costly in recent years, leading to higher costs."
More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise130
 

Questions from the Community

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What's the difference between VMware vRA (automation) and vROps (operations)?
vROP is a virtualization management solution from VMWare. It is efficient and easy to manage. You can find anything you need from the software interface. It provides complete visibility over applic...
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Is there any way to try VMware Aria Automation for free?
When it comes to VMware Aria Automation, you have three choices for free runs: Hands-on Lab (HOL) Advanced lab A free trial I cannot describe in detail the second and third options as my company ...
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Which sectors can benefit the most from VMware Aria Automation?
I was looking at VMware Aria Automation case studies recently and I got the impression that three main kinds of companies were using it most often: Social organizations Financial institutions and ...
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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cloud Management
September 2025
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management reportDownload BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Automation
September 2025
VMware Aria Automation reportDownload VMware Aria Automation product report
 

Also Known As

BMC CLM
VMware vRealize Automation, vRA, VMware DynamicOps Cloud Suite, SaltStack
 

Overview

BMC's cloud management platform drives digital innovation with agile, full-stack service provisioning across cloud and traditional platforms. BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management scales easily while integrating with essential compliance and governance policies to reduce risk.
BMC

VMware Aria Automation is a cloud management tool that allows companies to simplify their cloud experience through a modern automation platform. The solution is designed to deliver self-service clouds, multi-cloud automation with governance, and DevOps-based security and infrastructure management. It helps organizations improve IT agility, efficiency, and productivity through its various features. 

VMware Aria Automation has multiple use cases that include the following:

  • Self-service multi-cloud: VMware Aria Automation can be used to deliver consistent self-service consumption. Another use case in this area is for delivering infrastructure across VMware Clouds as well as public clouds.

  • Multi-cloud governance: The solution can be used to manage cost, performance, networking, configuration, and security at scale for multi-cloud environments. VMware Aria Automation offers all this with an everything-as-code approach.

  • DevOps for infrastructure: Through VMware Aria Automation, companies can enable a powerful infrastructure as code platform with support for iterative development and infrastructure pipelining.

  • Kubernetes automation: Users can utilize VMware Aria Automation to automate the management of Kubernetes clusters and namespaces with support for vSphere with Tanzu.

  • Security operations: VMware Aria Automation facilitates event-driven automation to deliver full-service IT system compliance enforcement and vulnerability remediation.

VMware Aria Automation Features

VMware Aria Automation has various features that allow users to easily perform operations. Some of the solution's capacities include:

  • VMware Cloud agnostic template: This feature allows organizations to use a single cloud template to deploy with Infrastructure as a Code. Deployment options include VMware Cloud as well as major public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and more.

  • Extensibility and customization: This VMware Aria Automation feature allows users to get full extensibility and customization. This can be achieved through Aria Automation Orchestrator, Action-Based Extensibility (ABX), and built-in integrations with common third-party tools.

  • Self-service multi-cloud: This feature enables users to request and provision infrastructure resources. It can be done across clouds using a unified and consistent Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) consumption layer, idempotent REST API, and self-service catalog.

  • Centralized policies and governance: VMware Aria Automation offers a feature for users to manage multiple clouds with templatized cloud and policy definition, automated remediation, and cloud environment visibility.

  • Configuration management: Through this feature of the product, day 1 and 2 control can be achieved for virtualized and cloud environments. This can be done with intuitive configuration automation, compliance enforcement, and vulnerability remediation.

  • Infrastructure pipelining: Through this feature, organizations can access user-friendly release automation pipelines. They can be specifically tailored for CI/CD in infrastructure use cases.

VMware Aria Automation Benefits

VMware Aria Automation offers its users various benefits. Some of the biggest advantages that the solution brings to companies that utilize it include:

  • VMware Aria Automation provides faster time to market for companies through offloading manual tasks with advanced workflows and agile templating.

  • The solution offers high levels of security and control.

  • This product is suitable for beginners, as it offers a self-service consumption experience for users.

  • VMware Aria Automation accelerates innovation through Infrastructure as Code and DevOps principles.

  • The product provides users with flexibility, as it is compatible with the most popular public cloud solutions.

  • The solution offers fast deployment because of all natively integrated functions.

Reviews from Real Users

Awais J., CTO/CEO at a tech services company, likes VMware Aria Automation because it saves a lot of time, provides more visibility, and has extensive automation capabilities.

An IT consultant at a government rates VMware Aria Automation highly because the product gives you flexibility to analyze and consume resources.

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

JDA Software, Morningstar, Orange Business Services, Wipro
Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual
Buyer's Guide
BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
September 2025
Free Report: BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management vs. VMware Aria Automation
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