Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL] vs VMware Aria Automation comparison

Cisco and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Cisco Piston Enterprise OS ...

Read 1 Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL] review

100% willing to recommend

VMware Aria Automation

Read 172 VMware Aria Automation reviews

14,638 Views
8,344 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Cisco Piston Enterprise OS ...

VMware Aria Automation

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL] and VMware Aria Automation based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Nutanix, IBM and others in Cloud Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud Management Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Management

June 2026

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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

Cisco Piston Enterprise OS ...

Average Rating

9.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware Aria Automation

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

172

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (3rd), Configuration Management (8th), Network Automation (5th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (20th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (6th)

Featured Reviews

Enterprise677

BS Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

A simple interface and helpful support for a solution that grows with us

It's a flexible enough tool to submit the changes that you want. It gives you the ability to cancel any loop. You can connect new orchestrations together. It offers enough support so that you don't need to have the need to get another device. The user interface is simple and easy to use.

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VasilisGiannitsiotis

Senior IT at ITSolutions

Automation has streamlined complex financial workflows but still needs more intuitive orchestration

Something to improve in VMware Aria Automation would be related to VCF 9, as I do not know what it is trying to bring because they exposed it as the solution of everything. So VCF 9 will bring VCF Automation and VCF Operations, the new product line of VMware. I have not seen what this brings or what else it includes. Maybe in the area of vRealize Orchestrator, this would be beneficial because VRO can do everything. Perhaps a more user-friendly way to use that tool would be helpful because the possibilities there are endless. I am looking for more user-friendly navigation in VMware Aria Automation.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I strongly recommend the solution to people."

"It offers enough support so that you don't need to have the need to get another device."

"I want to build automation that is intelligent, part of the fabric of our environment, and is somewhat self-sustaining. I think SaltStack can help me do this."

"It allows us to be more agile and provide services to our company more rapidly."

"The setup was straightforward. We upgraded to a newer version seamlessly. It worked really well."

"Salt lets you run commands on hundreds of servers at once; and sync up software, tools, and scripts across your infrastructure."

"It helps me build a big catalog and provide it to my end users."

"Valuable features include integration with Infoblox, for IP management; and three-tier app deployment as one unified Blueprint."

"SaltStack has given us the ability to deal with systems at scale and rectify issues at scale."

"We have been able to integrate with AWS to deploy continuous delivery services with an extremely quick turnaround time."

More VMware Aria Automation pros

Cons

"The solution is just too expensive, so maybe the pricing could be better."

"I would like to see a simpler way of provisioning it. As is, we can automate the provisioning of a VM, however, when it comes to the external IPs, that is outside of VMware. But that has to be automated as well. If there was a way for us to have the virtual machines connect to switches that are external to VMware, that would be great. That way, it would handle the entire workflow from creation and provisioning of a VM to the connectivity to the external IP addresses which allow our customers to have access to the VM. Currently, that IP configuration has to be done manually."

"There is some performance lag, but that could be on our end."

"The deployment mechanisms for the initial deployment of the product line lacks the appropriate documentation to give someone who's never used it before... There might be cases where someone wants to go to the website, go to the doc section, and do a step-by-step on how to deploy it. That's really not as brushed-up as other documents I've seen that they have. That would definitely be an improvement on their end."

"Implementation should not be so complex. Certificate replacement should be easier."

"Sometimes, salt-minions do start consuming very high memory, but I've generally seen this to last just a few moments or at most a minute."

"New versions are quite scalable, but when it comes to managing a Telco environment, it has bottleneck."

"Each new version seems to bring a new set of bugs to the table and upgrading is risky, especially for a tool at the core of the operations and infrastructure."

"Our primary challenge is upgrading the product to the latest version. This process requires careful communication with the vendor to mitigate risks."

More VMware Aria Automation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It made the provisioning of the virtual machines easier and faster. We can react more quickly to customers' demands."

"I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with ten being very expensive."

"The pricing is very high."

"SaltStack is an open-source product."

"Customers say this solution is costlier compared to its competitors."

"I'm very interested in the integration with Puppet. However, my organization doesn't have the funding for something like Puppet right now. If VMware would integrate that feature set (Puppet) into vRA. That would be very awesome."

"As far as value is concerned, it has been essential to our environment. We have been able to deploy VMs quickly and the developers have their own sandbox, so they can spin up and destroy VMs at their own will."

"The pricing for this solution is roughly 20% lower than the competitive products in the market."

More VMware Aria Automation pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	131

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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Comparisons

Abiquo vs Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL]

Compared 14% of the time

IBM Turbonomic vs Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL]

Compared 11% of the time

VMware Cloud Director vs Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL]

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL] Competitors

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 7% of the time

VMware Aria Operations vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

Morpheus vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 4% of the time

HashiCorp Terraform vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs VMware Aria Automation

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware Aria Automation Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Management

June 2026

Download Cisco Piston Enterprise OS [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Aria Automation

May 2026

Download VMware Aria Automation product report

Also Known As

Piston Enterprise OS

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

Overview

Piston Enterprise OS (pentOS) is an enterprise grade cloud operating system meeting the security and governance needs of enterprises wanting to use OpenStack for their infrastructure services. pentOS is an OpenStack distro that builds on top of the OpenStack codebase adding some proprietary features to meet the security and governance needs of the enterprise customers.

Cisco

VMware Aria Automation is known for its automation capabilities, integrating with VMware and third-party tools to enhance workflow efficiency, save time, and manage resources effectively.

VMware Aria Automation offers a diverse set of features including a self-service portal and a streamlined user-friendly interface, which make it ideal for organizations aiming to automate virtual machine provisioning. The platform supports extensive automation capabilities across multi-cloud environments, featuring flexible blueprint designs and comprehensive integration with platforms like AWS, Azure, and ServiceNow. Though improvements are desired in areas like logging, template management, and vCenter integration, its robust framework facilitates IT infrastructure services, disaster recovery, and development operations. It is specifically beneficial for orchestrating workflows, automating routine tasks, and managing workloads efficiently in private and hybrid cloud environments.

What are the most important features of VMware Aria Automation?

Self-Service Portal: Empowers users with easy access to resources and tools needed for automation.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation and usage for both technical and non-technical users.
Extensive Automation Capabilities: Streamlines VM deployment and processes across various platforms.
Integration with VMware and Third-Party Tools: Enhances workflow automation and extends functionality.
Flexible Blueprint Designs: Allows for customized and scalable deployment solutions.

What are the benefits and ROI users should consider?

Efficiency: Reduces manual workload, leading to time and cost savings.
Scalability: Supports dynamic growth and resource management.
Enhanced Workflow Automation: Improves process efficiency with comprehensive integrations.
Customizable Orchestration: Enables tailored solutions that meet specific requirements.
Resource Management: Efficiently utilizes resources, reducing waste and optimizing operations.

VMware Aria Automation is implemented across industries for automating the provisioning of virtual machines and managing cloud environments. It is used in sectors requiring efficient server deployment, network configurations, and seamless integration with tools such as AWS and Azure. It aids in reducing manual efforts, supporting IT infrastructure services, and enhancing disaster recovery protocols.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Rent-a-Center, Amway, Vistra Energy, Liberty Mutual

Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Nutanix, IBM and others in Cloud Management. Updated: June 2026.

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