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Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs VMware Aria Operations comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 10, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
Nutanix Cloud Manager boosts productivity, reduces costs, and enhances resource allocation through efficient management, scalability, and seamless integration.
Sentiment score
7.2
VMware Aria Operations enhances VM efficiency, reduces costs, optimizes performance, and improves infrastructure with initial investment and substantial returns.
Anything that reduces bandwidth and reduces the brain work that our teams have to do to maintain systems across all environments is time-saving and cost-saving.
Vice President at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The biggest return on investment for me when using this product is the fast deployment and the rapid integration and migration without impacting our operations during the migration.
IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER
Playbooks and automation definitely freed up engineer time. This allows us to focus on other projects and not have to get hands-on, reducing operational costs.
Citrix & IT Operations Manager, Cloud at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Cloud Manager's support is praised for responsiveness, expertise, and reliability, despite occasional regional delays, earning high ratings.
Sentiment score
6.6
VMware Aria Operations is praised for customer service but faces mixed reviews on technical support efficiency and responsiveness.
There is a feature that allows you to escalate the call.
Team Lead, IT Infrastructure at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
The handoff with support and the knowledge of the support engineer is significantly better than experience with other vendors.
Citrix & IT Operations Manager, Cloud at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Even when a node goes down, it doesn't impact our infrastructure because it gets load-balanced between the available nodes.
Technology Lead at Thomson Reuters
They remain in the top 25% of vendors.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
I rate the customer service and support for VMware very highly, at nine out of ten.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
I would rate technical support around eight or nine.
Owner at Micronet Systems
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Nutanix Cloud Manager enables scalable cluster management, seamless integration, and predictive planning across diverse environments with strong performance support.
Sentiment score
7.4
VMware Aria Operations is praised for its scalability, efficient resource management, and seamless integration with various VMware solutions.
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) scales well.
Citrix & IT Operations Manager, Cloud at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The key aspects include mix-match hardware and hyper-converged infrastructure, combining compute, storage, and network in a single platform.
Senior Information Technology Advisor at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) has not had any issues scaling with the growing needs of my company.
Director, Information Technology at a government with 201-500 employees
I consider VMware Aria Operations to be very scalable, earning a high rating of nine out of ten.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
I find VMware Aria Operations to be quite scalable for my needs.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Nutanix Cloud Manager is praised for reliability, minimal downtime, effective support, and strong disaster recovery, ensuring high performance.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Aria Operations is reliable and stable, with minor issues occasionally arising, often linked to improper setup.
We've never had any downtime related to the Nutanix product itself.
Sr. Network Systems Administrator at Moda Health
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
Sr System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The stability and reliability of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) have been excellent.
Director, Information Technology at a government with 201-500 employees
The solution is not very stable.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
I have never experienced any downtime or lost connectivity.
Senior System Network Analyst at Net spa
I find the stability of VMware Aria Operations to be impressive, rated as a stable nine out of ten.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
 

Room For Improvement

Nutanix Cloud Manager struggles with organization, complex integration, language support, licensing, performance, automation, and partner knowledge-sharing.
VMware Aria Operations faces user interface complexity, integration issues, high costs, steep learning curve, and needs better documentation.
It supports different hardware types without vendor lock-in, which is an advantage over Azure Stack HCI, which may only work with specific vendors such as HP or Dell.
Technology Lead at Thomson Reuters
Our primary reason for choosing Nutanix was for mission-critical applications and Kubernetes.
Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Quick resolution of disconnection issues and errors in plugins is crucial.
Sr System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Stability is a significant area that needs improvement as I experience frequent disconnections and interruptions in data collection.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
Customers have commented on the pricing issues, noting that doubling the price is not normal.
Founder and CEO at Zed
The primary issue is the pricing, which is very expensive for my company's budget.
Senior System Network Analyst at Net spa
 

Setup Cost

Nutanix Cloud Manager offers cost-effective, flexible pricing, praised for competitive value, scalability, and quick ROI despite occasional high-tier costs.
Enterprise reviewers find VMware Aria Operations costly, exceeding budgets, prompting some to consider alternatives for better value.
It's not cheap, but there are savings and return on investment when coming from a non-Nutanix shop.
Citrix & IT Operations Manager, Cloud at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
In comparison, Nutanix's pricing is significantly higher than that of other setups.
Cloud Engineer at CtrlS Datacenters Ltd
While VMware costs depend on ESXi hypervisor pricing, the AHV hypervisor for Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is free.
Senior Information Technology Advisor at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is very expensive for my company's budget.
Senior System Network Analyst at Net spa
The pricing and cost of VMware Aria Operations increased significantly after Broadcom acquired VMware.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
This makes the cost complex to determine individually.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
 

Valuable Features

Nutanix Cloud Manager provides easy VM management, automation, and multi-cloud flexibility with features like cost governance and predictive analytics.
VMware Aria Operations offers comprehensive monitoring, management, and scalability with predictive analytics, real-time visibility, and vCenter integration.
It's easy to control resources and govern the resources, and it frees up support to focus on other things without having to help developers.
Citrix & IT Operations Manager, Cloud at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would approximate the cost savings to be in the 20% to 25% range since we can optimize our resources and avoid the need to purchase more hardware or reuse resources in the infrastructure from one implementation.
Sr. Network Systems Administrator at Moda Health
The importance of faster outcomes for their environment is significant; for example, when I delivered the Disaster Recovery solution, we included automation for auto-configuration of VMs and resizing of VMs, which replaced many tasks that were previously done manually.
Spécialiste VMware at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
It allows me to perform deep monitoring and logging of the entire environment, providing a quick alarm and warning system through email.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
The valuable features of VMware Aria Operations include the single pane of glass for all my environments, which allows a deep dive into the metrics.
IT Solution Architect at DCS
The most valuable features of VMware Aria Operations are its stability, ease of use, and extensive range of features.
Founder and CEO at Zed
 

Categories and Ranking

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM)
Ranking in Cloud Management
1st
Ranking in Virtualization Management Tools
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (3rd), Cloud Cost Management (2nd), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (6th)
VMware Aria Operations
Ranking in Cloud Management
2nd
Ranking in Virtualization Management Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
376
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Virtualization Management Tools category, the mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is 8.7%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Aria Operations is 27.1%, down from 34.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtualization Management Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Aria Operations27.1%
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM)8.7%
Other64.2%
Virtualization Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Phani Venkata Sai BKD - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Lead at Thomson Reuters
Manages hybrid infrastructure seamlessly with flexible cluster scaling and comprehensive oversight
The most important aspect of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is that it helps us manage the infrastructure as a hyperconverged infrastructure in HCI mode. If I have different physical servers, I can map them into a cluster and manage the storage together. It provides flexibility to make use of storage in a clustered format instead of using it in an individual storage endpoint. We have the flexibility to have Nutanix-based licensing based on the core model, instead of having a specific cost on the cluster. The costing on a core model gives customers flexibility to add multiple cores to a single physical host and adjust the infrastructure accordingly, and we can scale up the cluster as needed. While other cloud providers, AWS or Azure, are mostly into cloud-based solutions, and Azure has introduced Azure Stack HCI for managing on-premises infrastructure, Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) provides flexibility from day one. We can manage both on-premises and Azure solutions using a single pane of glass, eliminating the need to navigate different windows or screens. It provides a comprehensive view of the infrastructure and highlights specific areas through alerts, giving us good visibility of infrastructure conditions.
AldoDomini - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Network Analyst at Net spa
Have faced limitations due to high costs but have maintained reliability over time
The primary issue is the pricing, which is very expensive for my company's budget. We cannot afford to pay such a large fee. We are not Microsoft or BMW; we are a small company. As a small company, I have no power to negotiate directly with VMware. Perhaps larger companies have more opportunity to contract directly with VMware, but I do not have that leverage. The only path I can follow is to change solutions. Net.spA is a company working in the field of waste management. We are not a technological company, so we do not have a large margin to justify purchasing and maintaining the VMware infrastructure at current costs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise65
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise62
Large Enterprise278
 

Questions from the Community

Which set of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) features do you find to be the most useful?
For me, the features related to cost savings are the best part of NCM. Of course, the whole product is worth using and when it comes to cloud management, there is a reason why it is favored by so m...
Are the setup process and further maintenance of Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) difficult?
When I came into my current organization, NCM was already set up. According to the team that dealt with it, the product was fairly easy to set up. Compared to other products, our IT rates are set u...
Is Nutanix Cloud Manager’s Intelligent Operations feature effective?
Yes, this is a highly effective feature and the rebranding only made things better as they introduced more improvements. You can benefit from Zero coding task automation Automated optimization Tic...
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...
Is VMware Aria Operations a user friendly solution?
In terms of user-friendliness, VMware Aria Operations is one of the best solutions out there. It is not overly complex to set up and you can rely on the technical support to provide you with assis...
What is the most useful new feature of VMware Aria Operations?
For me, the alerts features are the most unique part of this product, no matter the current name it uses. When they introduced the new version of VMware Aria Operations, they also introduced more a...
 

Also Known As

Nutanix Cloud Manager Intelligent Operations, Nutanix Cloud Manager Self-Service, Nutanix Cloud Management Cost Governance, Nutanix Cloud Manager Security Central, Nutanix Software Subscription
VMware vRealize Operations (vROps), vCenter Operations Manager (VCOPS)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco
Science Applications International Corporation, Tribune Media, Heartland Payment Systems, Telkom Indonesia, Columbia Sportswear, iGATE, CSS Corp, Angel Broking, Adira Finance, Hipskind, Beiersdorf Shared Services, Innovate Mas Indonesia, Adobe, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi , Join Experience S.A, Borusan Holdings, Department of Transport - Abu Dhabi
Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) vs. VMware Aria Operations and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.