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Vishal Bhatia - PeerSpot reviewer
Trainer/Consultant at Koenig Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Sep 9, 2024
Offers good capacity planning and workload optimization
Pros and Cons
  • "Capacity planning and workload optimization are good areas in the tool."
  • "The tool should have an easy workflow with some guided steps to make it simpler from the customer's perspective."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution since I am in an industry associated with training where I train the customers on products, like VMware Horizon and VMware vSAN. I also take care of areas like cloud management and automation, along with vRealize Operations Manager (vROps) and VMware Avi Load Balancer.

VMware Aria Operations is a good monitoring tool, as it gives customers a lot of visibility into the VMware environment. It is a good tool for reporting, optimizing, collecting history, and generating good dashboards. Overall, it's a good solution.

What is most valuable?

Capacity planning and workload optimization are good areas in the tool. Dashboard has good capability.

What needs improvement?

I don't see any weaknesses in the solution because the customers don't ask for it. I don't think I have seen any customers saying that they didn't find a particular component or they didn't miss out on any component. I think it's a good tool overall. I have seen a lot of improvement, and a lot of metrics are being reported, especially the super metrics that the customer builds. I find it quite handy. Overall, I think I have no complaints. I have not seen many complaints from the customers.

There is always room for improvement in the tool, such as adding more metrics or dashboards and making workflows easy. The tool should have an easy workflow with some guided steps to make it simpler from the customer's perspective.

In the future, I think AI will be the big story in the coming days, so I think that may be embedded as part of the tool or maybe something to open the deeper product in terms of integrations, depending on the ecosystem and how the customers work and how they report. Depending on the vast ecosystem, how the customers have the different applications moving around, and maybe a more application-centric approach model could be some improvements in the tool.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware for ten years. I have four to five years of experience with VMware Aria Operations. My company is a training partner for VMware.

Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Operations
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about VMware Aria Operations. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.

How are customer service and support?

I think users generally do not complain a lot about it, but I don't know because now VMware has been taken over by Broadcom, so I don't know how the support works. I think, generally, the users have some complaints now that support has gone bad over a period of time. Previously, the support was far more efficient.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have not previously worked with VMware Aria Operations. When it comes to monitoring tools, I have not used any products. Long back, I delivered training for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have no idea of the tool's pricing, so I absolutely have no idea because I am just in training. I don't deal with anything related to pricing.

What other advice do I have?

I don't know how to use the analytics capabilities. I know the tool does a lot of analysis. It generates a lot of reports, and then I think users primarily use it for capacity planning and performance optimization.

The customers are using it to generate dashboards and intuitively look into the VMware environment, the virtual machines, and they do application monitoring. And I want to do more on the performance optimization also. So at times, they see a lot of wastage on the resources. So these are the challenges that they're trying to address.

In terms of how the tool aids our company's customers with AI-driven decision-making, it is an area that we have not touched as of now lately, but I am not too aware of that side of the story or how the customers would be impacted or would be using that.

I recommend the tool to others.

I absolutely have no control over what companies use the tool because I have customers who generally come in for the training. They either already have the tool or are already in the implementation phase. When it comes to the recommendation side of the story, we don't deal with that angle.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
ToniLindberg - PeerSpot reviewer
senior consultant at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Oct 30, 2024
Enhancing operational insights with predictive analytics and customizable dashboards
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the most valuable features is the ability to perform 'what-if' scenarios."
  • "I can't pinpoint any specific areas for improvement at the moment, though there is always room for better pricing, licensing options, and potential enhancements in the user interface or customization."

What is our primary use case?

There is a lot of different operations software available and some customers use other vendors instead of Broadcom VMware. My use case primarily involves on-premises installations as I prefer on-premises over cloud setups.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has not really shortened incident response times, though it is a predictive tool that informs when something is about to happen. It has helped in anticipating issues, thereby assisting my team significantly.

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features is the ability to perform 'what-if' scenarios. We have basic solutions already implemented, so with the click of a button, issues can be fixed. It also facilitates easier reporting. The predictive analytics is a great tool for informing the operations manager about imminent requirements like running out of storage.

What needs improvement?

I can't pinpoint any specific areas for improvement at the moment, though there is always room for better pricing, licensing options, and potential enhancements in the user interface or customization.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have around ten years of experience working with Aria Operations, as part of my work in various operations spheres.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of this solution is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is good. I rate it an eight or nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I always receive top-notch support from VMware when I call, rating it a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Some customers use other vendors not due to the fact their products are necessarily better. They use them to avoid being locked into one vendor for everything. It may be that they have a history with other products like OP5.

How was the initial setup?

The setup process is straightforward. Though it may require a learning curve for the environment with configurations, it is manageable for IT professionals like myself.

What was our ROI?

The customizable dashboards are notably beneficial, providing flexibility to configure them according to specific needs and requirements.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is included in our vCloud Operations licensing. I am unsure of the exact pricing or if it is available separately nowadays.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
VMware Aria Operations
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about VMware Aria Operations. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Bhojraj Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Senior-VP- Corporate Commercial at Reliance Communications
Real User
Sep 12, 2023
A stable streamline of the operations with ability for better resource management
Pros and Cons
  • "Its job automation features and reporting capabilities are unique and valuable."
  • "Enhancing automation features without interruption would be beneficial."

What is our primary use case?

I use two key features of VMware Aria Operations. The first one is job automation, which helps me to automate tasks and streamline operations. The second feature is capacity utilization analysis. It provides reports and insight into the real capacity utilization of VMs over the past six months.

What is most valuable?

Its job automation features and reporting capabilities are unique and valuable.

What needs improvement?

After the automation, the code changes are implemented as well as CPU changes in VMs, which require a reboot. Enhancing automation features without interruption would be beneficial.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this product for six months now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is almost perfect. I would rate it nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It offers excellent scalability capabilities. I would rate it nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

We experienced a delay in their assistance, which was ultimately attributed to the unavailability of an engineer. Consequently, the troubleshooting process was prolonged and took approximately fourteen days to resolve. I would rate it eight out ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Microsoft Hyper-V, but it doesn't provide the stability nor as many valuable features as VMware Aria Operations.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. I would rate it nine out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment process took about two months and few people to complete. It involved migrating all components from Microsoft Hyper-V system to VMware Aria Operations. The implementation of the solution was facilitated by CRU.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is an affordable solution that doesn't require any additional costs. I would rate it five out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
AmmarRasheed - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at Systems Limited
Real User
Top 10
Jul 17, 2024
Offers ease during the setup phase and with the maintenance part
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is highly reliable, and it is easy to deploy and manage."
  • "There are some distribution issues, and there is not enough information on the portal."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company for the virtualization purpose. Basically, the server virtualization is the main purpose. Other purposes are for the cloud part, which is the private cloud. My company has a local telco customer in Pakistan who works on public cloud infrastructure, and they also have VMware Cloud Director product deployed in their environment.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution revolves around vRealize Operations, which is a good tool. The product is highly reliable, and it is easy to deploy and manage.

What needs improvement?

There are some challenges with the tool right now after Broadcom's acquisition.

The major challenges associated with the product stem from the fact that after Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, all partners are no longer VMware partners. One has to reapply for Broadcom's partnership, which is a very time-consuming process. Broadcom seems to be confused since it does not have the exact partner strategies that a product needs to have in place. Broadcom does not provide a good pricing mechanism, and it also has some other issues in areas like distribution. Previously, VMware used to use Aptec, an Ingram Micro company. Broadcom has some issues with Aptec, so currently, it does not have a deal with Aptec, and everything is messed up. Broadcom does not have a proper distribution mechanism, so we have delays in getting codes and all that. After so many reminders, once we get the codes, things are still very time-consuming, and the prices are still not good. My colleagues who work with VMware products were opening support cases on VMware's portal, which has now become Broadcom's portal, which does not have enough information like VMware's portal. Although Broadcom has been trying to integrate all of it with its own portal while also attempting the existing VMware portal with the Broadcom portal, the migration does not seem to be successful. Broadcom has missed out on a lot of data, which means that previous service tickets that were generated under VMware won't have any records. You cannot use a learning mechanism from existing information, which makes it a time-consuming process. We have to go back to the existing information from VMware to figure out what the solution is for a problem. With the acquisition of Vmware by Broadcom, we have to do all things from scratch, and all such things are very painful, and customers, partners, and our company feel troubled. Everyone is trying to see how to get rid of the vendor. We are just trying to find an alternate product.

The pricing mechanism is not available here. There are some distribution issues, and there is not enough information on the portal. The migration process from VMware to Broadcom actually messes up a lot of data.

I believe that the scalability area of the product has scope for improvement, and I say this based on the feedback received from my team.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware Aria Operations for ten years or more. My company has a partnership with VMware. My company is a customer of VMware.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't think that the product has any mechanism in the area of analytics.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

The time required to deploy the product is something that varies from one customer's environment to another customer's environment or site. I can say that the product is not a single table that can cure everything.

The solution is easy to maintain.

For a small environment, only one person is required to maintain the product. If the size of the cluster is big, then a few people are required to maintain the product.

What was our ROI?

I have experienced an ROI from the use of the solution, but the prices are still not much economical.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If one is low price and ten is high price, I rate the product price a ten.

What other advice do I have?

I don't think that the product has any mechanism in the area of analytics.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Robert Prugarewicz - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Specialist at Unum Życie Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń i Reasekuracji Spółka Akcyjna
Real User
Nov 21, 2023
Seamless operations and management of virtualized environments with valuable features such as efficient migration tools and scalable performance
Pros and Cons
  • "What I find most valuable is its simplicity, which allows us to seamlessly migrate views from one physical server to another, be it due to resource overloads or transitioning from one set of disks to another."
  • "Having the capability to manage the enterprise display would be highly beneficial."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for daily administration tasks.

How has it helped my organization?

If a user is experiencing issues with an application running on a Windows server, and the application is almost non-functional, I investigate the cause. If the server is overloaded, I address the issue by expanding the storage capacity of several disks within a few minutes. This ensures that the application can operate at normal speed and reliability.

What is most valuable?

What I find most valuable is its simplicity, which allows us to seamlessly migrate views from one physical server to another, be it due to resource overloads or transitioning from one set of disks to another. This process occurs without any disruption to the machine, ensuring continuous operation.

What needs improvement?

While the system itself continues to operate, the user interface may temporarily freeze or fail to display immediate changes. It requires loading and other steps before all modifications become visible. This limitation hinders my ability to customize the display of certain elements, posing a minor challenge within the system. Having the capability to manage the enterprise display would be highly beneficial.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for almost twenty years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate its stability nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It provides excellent scalability capabilities. We have a couple of hundreds of users within our organization. There is a plan to increase usage in the future. With new personnel joining our company each month, I anticipate that this environment will likely double within the next year and a half or possibly two years. I would rate it nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support poses a challenge, especially for large companies with competition centers situated in countries like India and Malaysia. When an issue arises in the morning for us, it's nearing the end of the day for their support teams. As a result, cases are often shifted from one person to another, requiring me to explain the same problem two or three times. Another factor is that English is not our native language. The variations in pronunciation across Europe, Malaysia, India, the United States, and Australia sometimes lead to difficulties in understanding each other. This language barrier has prompted us to resort to written communication, particularly through chat, which impacts the efficiency of problem resolution. I would rate it five out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used Microsoft solutions and previously worked with Citrix, but I find that VMware surpasses both in nearly every aspect. It stands out as a superior product, particularly in minimizing bandwidth requirements for communication, whether it's a direct or indirect connection. This is especially beneficial for long-distance connections between two countries or similar scenarios.

How was the initial setup?

The complexity of the initial setup depends on the smoothness of the upgrade process. If any issues arise, resolving them may require a significant investment of time—many hours or even days—addressing nuances to establish a good, proper configuration.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment time significantly hinges on the scale of the environment. For smaller environments, such as a few servers, it typically takes just a couple of days. This includes the configuration process and addressing any potential issues. However, managing hundreds of ESX servers, and deploying such a substantial environment can be challenging and time-consuming.

What was our ROI?

Over the years, our environment has remained quite consistent, with a moderate number of ESX servers per site. The foundational physical servers for the VMware Infrastructure are regularly upgraded to newer generations. Despite the steady evolution, I've never encountered significant issues where resources approach full capacity. I actively monitor the environment with operations, using it as an additional tool rather than a critical necessity, given the robustness of our system and the reliability of the basic online information it provides.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
AdeolaEkunola - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at NIGERCUBES LTD
Real User
Sep 22, 2023
A platform providing visibility of the infrastructure and reducing or eliminating downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "Avoiding problems in the monitoring area is our strength. We use real-time monitoring models and real-time monitoring to do this. We also provide other capabilities, such as seeing changes in the environment."
  • "The VMware Aria Operations solution is a very technical product and is not for everyone. As a top-of-the-chain VMware tool, it is only normal that it has a learning curve. While the UI has been improved, it may still be difficult for some users. The solution has a lot of functionality and can monitor all areas of infrastructure, such as storage and network."

What is our primary use case?

VMware Aria Operations is a new platform that provides visibility into different areas of the infrastructure, reduces or eliminates downtime, and makes customers more proactive. It gives customers the insights they need to be proactive rather than not active, and it helps them plan for capacity needs, ensuring that they are doing their best to avoid over-provisioning or experiencing contention. It also has a self-service option so that end users can be more independent from the infrastructure team and monitor their needs.

What is most valuable?

Avoiding problems in the monitoring area is our strength. We use real-time monitoring models and real-time monitoring to do this. We also provide other capabilities, such as seeing changes in the environment.

What needs improvement?

The VMware Aria Operations solution is a very technical product and is not for everyone. As a top-of-the-chain VMware tool, it is only normal that it has a learning curve. While the UI has been improved, it may still be difficult for some users. The solution has a lot of functionality and can monitor all areas of infrastructure, such as storage and network.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware Aria Operations as a partner for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The documentation is perfect.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. The setup time depends on the scale, but it can be as short as a few hours. Once the valet solution is deployed, you must link it to the infrastructure. This process takes a few hours, as the key must pull data from all the infrastructure components. In most cases, the valet solution will remove the entire infrastructure into CRM within a few hours or less.


I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Most small users don't adopt VMware Aria Operations until it's necessary. Small businesses are looking for it, too. We need more monitoring and insights, so we're analyzing solutions to help us out here.

I rate the solution’s pricing a five out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

VMware Aria Operations has many hands-on plug-ins that can help you monitor all the elements in your infrastructure, such as storage, networks, and more, beyond VMware infrastructure itself.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
PeerSpot user
Joseph Nazer - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at Ertekaa
Real User
Sep 11, 2023
An unified, AI-powered self-driving IT operations management platform for private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the backup extremely useful in my use cases."
  • "In this vCenter, my wish is to establish a backup system that doesn't require VIN. It involves creating a backup ticket directly from the vCenter for the virtual machines and performing the backup task for each server, ensuring redundancy without the need for additional software. This would be a preferable solution if all of this could be accomplished within vCenter itself."

What is our primary use case?

In many cases, I have worked with vCenter within our virtualization environment. Some problems result in vCenter becoming corrupted, making it unusable. Consequently, I resort to utilizing it as a standalone server for each issue. This is the primary problem I've faced over the past two years, and for every problem that arises, I manage to resolve it. I've observed that using each server independently is the standard practice, and I occasionally utilize it for various purposes.

What is most valuable?

I have found the backup extremely useful in my use cases.               

What needs improvement?

In this vCenter, my wish is to establish a backup system that doesn't require VIN. It involves creating a backup ticket directly from the vCenter for the virtual machines and performing the backup task for each server, ensuring redundancy without the need for additional software. This would be a preferable solution if all of this could be accomplished within vCenter itself.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware Aria Operations for the last two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a seven out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate it seven out of ten. Based on my experience, there have been occasional issues with vCenter. One of the recurring problems involves vCenter going offline, and when that happens, I'm unable to resolve it, necessitating the installation and reintegration into the system. This has been an ongoing challenge throughout its entire lifespan. However, when it comes to accessing the servers individually, there's a different issue. While using the solution, there are frequent occurrences where, when I make changes to a machine, such as adjusting RAM or other resources, I sometimes encounter a situation where the data doesn't load properly, resulting in a yellow screen. To rectify this, I have to refresh the page and then make the necessary changes to the machine. While this can be somewhat frustrating, it's not overly difficult for me to manage, and I've learned to handle it without considering it a significant problem.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't taken any formal courses on vCenter, yet I've managed to install and troubleshoot them successfully. I've relied heavily on online resources, and the wealth of information available on the Internet has proven to be a valuable asset. I haven't sought support from any specific company. However, it's possible that in the future, I might encounter a problem that I can't resolve on my own, even with online resources. At that point, reaching out to a company for assistance might be necessary.

How was the initial setup?

It is not difficult but sometimes requires extensive reading and knowledge to install it. It's not a complex task, but I need to fully comprehend everything in order to install it. Sometimes network-related issues can complicate matters, and having a strong background in network infrastructure, including switches and routing, is crucial for successful execution. If there's a preference, I'd appreciate guidance on which one to install. Also, it would be convenient if I didn't have to create everything from scratch on the switch. Some elements may need to be set up physically, and then I can connect them to two switches for network installation, requiring a three-step installation process. The deployment is scheduled for two months to complete the installation and server replacement. This timeframe should encompass all aspects of the solution.

It's not particularly challenging, but it's important to remain close to the users, ensuring that the data is functioning correctly. We need to verify its operation for a week. Out of ten servers, everything is working fine. Then, I'll proceed to another server, following a similar approach, to ensure it is safely set up. We won't be dealing with desktop servers; it's more about efficient and timely execution.  

I would rate it six out of ten.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There's a smaller category that stands out due to its affordability, especially for recent versions, which I rate as four or five in terms of value. However, if you're looking for a vCenter with older, more advanced features, it comes at a significantly higher cost, and I would rate it around ten. They provide us with a choice between a recent version and one integrated, and I lean towards the former.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it overall an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
CasiousBen - PeerSpot reviewer
Virtualization Engineer at Ooredoo
Real User
Jun 21, 2024
Useful for analyzing issues and incidents
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a good and stable solution."
  • "There are some delays in response to the solution's technical support, making it an area where improvements are needed."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company as it comes along with our VMware license, and it is very useful for analyzing our issues and incidents. It is quite a well-performing tool.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features for capacity planning revolve around the fact that real-time alerts are good for us. For capacity planning, even if you see any kind of computing, I get proper updates via logs from VMware vROps and Aria Operations.

What needs improvement?

Regarding what the tool is meant for, I believe that we will get a proper response from it in our company. It is a good product.

There are some delays in response to the solution's technical support, making it an area where improvements are needed.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware Aria Operations for two to three years. My company has a partnership with VMware.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a good and stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I am just a customer of the tool. Our company has an environment with VMware Aria Operations and other platforms, and we are happy with them.

How are customer service and support?

I rate the technical support a five or six out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

I rate the product's initial setup phase a seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The product's deployment phase was managed in a few hours.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The tool comes with a VMware ESXi license. I don't know whether the tool is expensive. If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Our company doesn't have any automation processes in our infrastructure. My company has not integrated VMware Aria Operations with any automation tool.

I am not sure about the tool's AI part, but for analyzing and insights, it is a very good tool.

I recommend the solution to others.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Simranjit Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Nov 17, 2023
Offers granular control over infrastructure, especially in environments using ESXi hypervisors and provides a standardized, centralized view for monitoring infrastructure
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is quite easy and straightforward. The majority of the time, implementing vROps is not time-consuming."
  • "Security has been a boom for companies in the last few years, and considering how important security is, there have been a lot of tools that offer better integrations. So, the current tool can be used for any integrations in any environment, which is something VMware is not yet that efficient at."

What is our primary use case?

The most common use case for vROps is to monitor infrastructure. Infrastructure includes, for example, your virtual machines. 

If a customer has an on-premises data center, they tend to integrate their adapters with vROps. This means that if there are any issues, alerts, or anything else that goes wrong with the system, vROps will pick it up. 

It will then use an inbuilt algorithm, depending on the events and alert system that you have configured, to trigger an email. This can help you to avoid a lot of problems in the future. 

For example, if there are a few appliances that are being monitored by vROps and their root directory or any other issues are getting beyond thresholds, say 80%, it will automatically trigger an email. If you have any ticketing system integrated with vROps, it will then trigger a severity one or severity two ticket to the respective team so that they are aware that there is something that might go wrong if it is not looked at on time. 

So, it is basically helping customers to avoid those situations where they might get into any issues or trouble. So, it is monitoring your system. 

Another stuff, so it is like if you want to have any visual representation of the data, of the performances, or of the data that has gone through in the last hour, last week, you can create a lot of dashboards on that, which is a visual presentation of the data. 

So, it helps you in a long way to monitor and understand your environment.

What is most valuable?

One of the things that is really valuable is its ability to help you implement security measures into your organization's standards. It helps you to have full control over more than 90% of the hardware and network infrastructure where you are installing vROps, so that you can have granular control over the infrastructure, which is pretty important these days. 

It's deployed mostly on-premises, but you can deploy it on the cloud as well. So, as most customers today are going for hybrid cloud deployment, they need a tool like vROps to give them a standardized, centralized view to monitor their infrastructure across both on-premises and cloud environments. It provides a single pane of glass to see what is going on across the entire infrastructure. 

vROps is a VMware tool, and most of the applications that our customers are running are virtual machines. So, when you have an infrastructure that mostly uses ESXi hypervisors, vROps really help you to have better control over your infrastructure and what is going on. This can help customers to run their day-to-day operations more smoothly. 

Moreover, in the older days, we used to perform health checks and other stuff manually. vROps automates a lot of these tasks, which lowers the burden on the operations team so that they don't have to worry about keeping an eye on each and every sort of thing. Even in the off business hours, when no one is there to take care of any stuff, vROps is still monitoring all of the data, appliances, and everything else. This helps them out in a big way.

What needs improvement?

The first area of improvement is cost. VMware licensing is always a bit costly. It has never been an open-source tool or something like that. So there are costs associated with that. 

Another thing is that you somehow need to have high-end people to perform the integrations with vROps as well. It's not as easy as it seems to deploy and integrate it with the different systems you want to monitor. 

It is user-friendly, but everything needs some specific skill sets. For example, if you go for even vRealize Automation, it comes as a bundle. So vROps is just one part of vRealize Automation suite. So, we need to know the product before we can start deploying it or start using it. We need to have people who have experience with specific tools before we can use them in our day-to-day operations.

So, for me, based on my experience, costing is one thing, and then there are the integration challenges that our company faces. And along with that, it does take up a bit of resources as well. It is resource-intensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have not been using it directly because I work as an architect. Whenever there is a project for customers using vRealize Operations in their environment, we are the ones who have been designing the infrastructure with respect to vROps. 

So it has been around 12 months or more that I've been associated with projects where I have been helping customers deploy vROps and how to make proper use of this tool.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of vROps depends on the environment that you are using it in. vROps comes as a suite, and when you're using it with other VMware products, such as vRealize Automation (vRA), vRealize Network Insight (VRNI), and VMware Cloud Foundation modules, it is already compatible with those products and is generally pretty stable. 

For example, when you are using it for virtualized workloads or VMware Virtual Desktop, it's very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. You can scale it up depending on your configuration setup. 

There are different options for scaling, such as multi-node setups and collector setups. If you need to collect more information from different tools, you can simply add a collector to your environment. 

vROps is a good choice in terms of scalability. Even when you scale it up, it's not a big hassle to put more load into the system.

How are customer service and support?

As an architect, we mostly design vROps implementations. The day-to-day operations are typically the ones that reach out to the support team. So, the support is mainly for people who are managed in the customer environment. 

We provide guidance on which integrations or adapters to use, and how to get the endpoint systems integrated with vROps. But when it comes to support, it's a matter of cost. VMware offers different levels of support, and the enterprise level of support is quite expensive.

If you're looking for a higher level of support, then it comes with a cost.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When I started working with vROps three years ago, the company mostly used vROps. When I joined, I started with the vRealize Suite. And they have different types of monitors. For example, there are different tools for different monitoring purposes. Like, for security, they'll have different tools for log monitoring.

We use vRealize Operations. We use vRealize Automation (vRA). We use VMware Cloud Foundation. That's vCS. And then, we have been using vRealize Network Insight. Then, we have been using Cisco Insight or Cisco FlashStack. These are the few software that I've been working on in the last twelve months. So, different teams will have different tools which are being used.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite easy and straightforward.  The majority of the time, implementing vROps is not time-consuming. 

However, if you are migrating from one vROps version to another, you may need to take care of a few things, such as downloading the new configuration and other necessary changes. But overall,  vROps implementation is pretty simple.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

So, besides the license overall, you have to pay for the type of support you want. With the license, there is a support cost as well.

Typically, people don't just purchase vROps individually. It's usually part of a larger suite, like the vRealize Suite, which is expensive. So, the suite includes vROps along with other software. 

If a company purchases vCloud Foundation (vCF) or vRealize Suite, vROps comes with it. vCF and the vRealize Suite have been acquired or purchased by large customers who have the financial resources to support the licensing costs. 

For example, I've seen many banking sectors using vROps when they purchase vCS. Recently, I worked on a design for a major European bank, and they were using the entire suite. 

So, no one really goes for the individual product because its value is significantly higher when it's part of the suite. So, there are many customers who use it, but the number of people who use it within a team depends on the company. For example, service-based companies that support multiple customers may have different needs based on the number of customers they support. They may train or onboard more resources to use vROps, depending on their requirements.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The main reason my company goes with VCS is that they already have a current VMware setup. When people go with the VCS suite itself, suppose you have a VMware virtualized network and VMware workloads running on one platform. 

For the network, you may be using different switches, and for storage, you may be using different SANs. So, with this approach, you have to pay different vendors because you're not relying on the same vendor for everything. 

And whenever something goes wrong, you have to open different tickets, which can be costly and time-consuming. So, people go for VCS mostly because they are getting everything in one single setup.

VMware has your networking, your virtualization, vSAN storage, vRealize Automation for automating workloads, vROps for monitoring, and VRNI for monitoring specific networks. So, it comes as a bundle, and it's pretty easy for companies to know that if they buy everything from the same vendor, it streamlines their processes. 

It also leads to operational efficiency because they are dealing with one vendor. And then, when you have two different products bundled in a suite from the same vendor, compatibility is never an issue. That's one of the main things. Because if you have different vendors and products, there is always uncertainty about whether upgrading one product will be compatible with another product from a different vendor. 

And if we look at what VMware has done recently, every year they have validated design guides. So, through that, we'll have everything within that guide, which one is compatible with which, which doesn't work with which, and if there are any limitations with any releases. So, we get everything in one suite. 

So, that's the reason most people go with them because they can foresee their future development in terms of hardware, in terms of their workload, or in terms of their business.

What other advice do I have?

First of all, I would always suggest you go for vROps initially and always go for a temporary trial license. That way, you can check your VMware or any workload stuff you have, how your trial license works, and how it works with your production environment. If you have any workloads that you're going to manage through vROps, always go for a trial license first. Don't straight away go with the production license.

Also, always try to use different workloads, different metrics, and different configurations. This is because it also depends on the specific data center you have and the different products you're using. Ensure you are trying to integrate or get the alert generated for most of the products you are trying to integrate with vROps. A POC (Proof of Concept) kind of thing is always required before you go for the production license.

During the trial period, you can see how your dashboard looks, how the alert system is working, if it's not working, and if it's really meeting your security considerations as well. So, these are the things before you fully decide to go for the production license. Always take a trial license integrated with your current setup, which you have appliances and tests on, before you even decide to go ahead with it.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. The reason is that there are many new advancements coming into the market that are AI-enabled. VMware really needs to do more when it comes to preventing alerts. For example, many security tools use algorithms to detect alerts and give you a whole scenario of the reports that show how you can prevent this action from repeating again. These are a few things they absolutely need to work on more.

Also, security has been a boom for companies in the last few years, and considering how important security is, there have been a lot of tools that do the rating. So, it is more integration-friendly if the current tool can be used for any integrations in any environment, which is something VMware is not yet that efficient at. But I would still give it an eight because most of the workloads currently being used are virtualized ones, VMware workloads. For them, it's perfect.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Senior Specialist at HCL Technologies
Real User
Jul 23, 2023
Scalable platform with efficient capacity analysis feature
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a cloud-friendly application."
  • "The UI interface of the application has been stagnant for a long time."

What is our primary use case?

We use the application for capacity analysis and incident or threat analysis. We can fetch out reports and troubleshoot any incidents using it.

What is most valuable?

The application's capacity analysis feature gives complete insights into how many computing resources we may need soon. It helps us to procure the hardware accordingly.

What needs improvement?

The UI interface of the application has been stagnant for a long time. It could be improved to provide a good experience for the users.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the application for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

After the implementation, I never had any issues with the platform's stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable platform. It has become more user-friendly and supports a broader environment than previous versions. In my earlier experience, I had installed 4000 to 6000 virtual machines and those many hosts.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Along with the product, I am using Log Insight from VMware. Also, I have used SRM in the past.

How was the initial setup?

I have been using different versions of the tool for a long time. Thus, the initial setup process was relatively easy and error-free. It is deployed both on-premise and on the cloud. It took a couple of hours to configure all the prerequisites.

What other advice do I have?

It is a cloud-friendly application. Compared to other platforms, it is more stable, scalable, and easy to configure and deploy.

I rate it a nine out of ten, leaving one mark for more improvements or enhancements.

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementor
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware Aria Operations Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware Aria Operations Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.