VMware vSphere and VMware Workstation are both significant competitors in the virtualization industry. VMware vSphere stands out for its enterprise capabilities with extensive features that support large infrastructures, while VMware Workstation is more accessible due to its affordability and suitability for desktop virtualization, making it notably advantageous for testing environments.
Features: VMware vSphere includes high availability, distributed resource scheduling, and robust resource management without downtime. VMware Workstation enables running multiple operating systems simultaneously, supporting testing and development through its ease of setting up customizable virtual machines.
Room for Improvement: VMware vSphere could improve licensing simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and documentation consistency post-acquisition. Its integration with other platforms needs enhancement as well as technical support responsiveness. VMware Workstation requires stronger network capabilities and smoother VM migration processes along with better integration with emerging technologies.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: vSphere is versatile in deployment across on-premises and hybrid clouds, though support can be slow at times. VMware Workstation offers straightforward on-premises deployment with dependable technical service, albeit sometimes costly. vSphere’s customer service is noted for responsiveness, whereas VMware Workstation is praised for a satisfactory setup and user experience overall.
Pricing and ROI: VMware vSphere is often seen as expensive, with newer pricing strategies posing challenges in price-sensitive markets. However, it delivers high ROI through hardware and energy cost savings. VMware Workstation offers affordability viewed through its framework, though it is costly relative to other desktop solutions. Despite this, it provides value in testing by reducing physical hardware dependencies.
We can say 10% is the approximate amount of savings because most of the things are automated and streamlined, so the manual work is eliminated in most cases.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
Recently, support has been less friendly and slower, especially after the company was acquired by Broadcom.
If we have issues, the support tends to be unreliable
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate their support or customer service a two or three since they never did anything.
The documents provided for Workstation were not hard to understand.
It's a very special way of working with VMware Workstation.
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
VMware vSphere is highly scalable in terms of the number of users and the number of servers it can handle.
It is a highly scalable solution.
VMware Workstation is scalable enough for larger companies, though it requires some skills.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
While they are generally stable, if outages occur, they tend to be due to brands like HP or Dell, not VMware vSphere itself.
I would rate the stability of VMware vSphere as eight out of ten.
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
Eventually, we had to get some licenses with Broadcom, and all the costs went up dramatically.
We faced challenges with backup due to limitations in the free version, requiring us to switch to a paid version.
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
Many customers are trying to avoid it due to its high cost.
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
The solution is too expensive.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
The tool is highly available, which is crucial for implementing critical applications requiring 24/7 availability.
The high availability feature is significant.
VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox.
VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem.
Simply being able to run several Windows PCs with different development environments has had the largest impact on our operational efficiency.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VMware vSphere | 16.8% |
| Proxmox VE | 16.1% |
| Hyper-V | 15.2% |
| Other | 51.89999999999999% |
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VMware Workstation | 14.5% |
| VMware Fusion Pro | 17.4% |
| Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) | 13.7% |
| Other | 54.400000000000006% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 173 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 137 |
| Large Enterprise | 256 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 32 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 15 |
| Large Enterprise | 17 |
VMware vSphere is a versatile virtualization platform known for its ease of use, flexibility, and high availability. It supports seamless migration, optimal resource allocation, and centralized management, making it highly suitable for diverse infrastructure needs.
VMware vSphere is widely adopted for its virtualization capabilities that enhance hardware efficiency and ensure minimal downtime through features like High Availability and Distributed Resource Scheduler. Despite criticisms about high licensing costs and limited fault tolerance, it remains a preferred choice due to its stability, scalability, and robust integration options. Users appreciate its efficiency in managing virtual machines and hosting enterprise applications, although challenges with web client performance and hardware compatibility are noted. Organizations often look for better integration with cloud services and enhanced automation and scalability.
What are the core features of VMware vSphere?
What benefits and ROI can businesses look for?
VMware vSphere is implemented across sectors like healthcare, finance, and education for server virtualization, data center management, and private cloud creation. Its use in facilitating business-critical operations ensures high availability and efficient resource use, supporting both development and production environments.
VMware Workstation is part of a suite of robust Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) tools or Desktop Hypervisors that allows users to run Kubernetes clusters, containers, and Virtual Machines (VMs). Users have the option to choose between VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Workstation Player to ensure that they get the most out of their VMware Workstation experience.
Workstation Player is best used as a command line or single graphical operation. It works very well for running different operating systems using a secure cloistered sandbox on a general consumer PC. Workstation Player is an industry favorite for use in an educational environment to better expand the knowledge concerning computer systems and global information technology. Workstation Pro is created for astute IT developers and professionals. The solution provides an intuitive next-generation interface and gives users the ability to seamlessly run several virtual machines at the same time. Users can easily create clones, configure virtual networks, connect to vSphere, and more, using a crisp, visually enhanced dashboard that provides full transparency to show multiple VMs and more.
VMware Workstation solutions rely on components in next-generation 64-bit x86 CPUs to develop robust, secure VMs that are able to utilize many different operating systems and all of their applications. VMware Workstation’s modern technology intuitively links the physical hardware devices to the virtual machine's virtual resources enabling each VM to have its own I/O devices, memory, disks, and CPU in addition to the equivalent of a standard x86 actual machine. It easily installs onto the host operating system and is able to offer comprehensive hardware support by utilizing the device support from the original host.
VMware Workstation Benefits
VMware Workstation has many desirable benefits. Some of those benefits include:
Reviews from Real Users
Walter G., Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC says, “The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease of creating a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop.”
Toni L., CEO at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB says, “The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the DirectX support; you can run Microsoft Hyper-V in virtual environments, which is good for me to test different installations. Additionally, you can set up different VLANs, and overall it is a complete solution.”
“Having a user-friendly interfaceis important for me. I'm not a coder, even though I do a little bit of programming. Also, I don't use the command-line interface when I can avoid it. When I do have to use it, I look up what I'm supposed to type and then type it.” A PeerSpot user who is a Chief Technical Officer at a construction company.
are Workstation is part of a suite of robust Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) tools or Desktop Hypervisors that allows users to run Kubernetes clusters, containers, and Virtual Machines (VMs). Users have the option to choose between VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Workstation Player to ensure they get the most out of their VMware Workstation experience.
Workstation Player is best used as a command line or single graphical operation. It works very well for running different operating systems using a secure cloistered sandbox on a general consumer PC. Workstation Player is an industry favorite for use in an educational environment to better expand the knowledge concerning computer systems and global information technology. Workstation Pro is created for astute IT developers and professionals. The solution provides an intuitive next generation interface and gives users the ability to run seamlessly several virtual machines at the same time. Users can easily create clones, configure virtual networks, connect to vSphere, and more using a crisp, visually enhanced dashboard that provides full transparency to show multiple VMs and more.
VMware Workstation solutions rely on components in next-generation 64-bit x86 CPUs to develop robust, secure VMs that are able to utilize many different operating systems and all of their applications. Vmware Workstation’s modern technology intuitively links the physical hardware devices to the virtual machine's virtual resources enabling each VM to have its own I/O devices, memory, disks, and CPU in addition to the equivalent to a standard x86 actual machine.VMware easily installs onto the host operating system and is able to offer comprehensive hardware support by utilizing the device support from the original host.
VMware Workstation Benefits
Vmware Workstation has many desirable benefits. Some of those benefits include:
Reviews from Real Users
“The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease of creating a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop.” Walter G., Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
“The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the DirectX support; you can run Microsoft Hyper-V in virtual environments, which is good for me to test different installations. Additionally, you can set up different VLANs, and overall it is a complete solution.” Toni L., CEO at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB
A Chief Technical Officer at a construction company says,“Having a user-friendly interfaceis important for me. I'm not a coder, even though I do a little bit of programming. Also, I don't use the command-line interface when I can avoid it. When I do have to use it, I look up what I'm supposed to type and then type it.”
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