VMware Cloud Foundation Reviews

We are a system integrator and this is one of the solutions that we provide to our clients.

The primary use of this solution is data center consolidation.

This solution gives you the option to have a second copy of your data center for disaster recovery. For VMware, you can achieve asynchronous replication, which means that you have active and passive replication between two sites. Active means that the production is up, but the disaster recovery is read-only. When you bring up the mirror, the other site becomes active and the production site becomes read-only.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the disaster recovery software.

The GUI makes this solution very easy to use.

We would like the ability to write to both sites at the same time, in a synchronous fashion.

This solution is very, very stable.

The scalability depends on your licensing.

The technical support for this solution used to be excellent. When you had a problem they would look at it and send you an action plan. The plan included steps on how to repair the problem, and the same information is available if you were to encounter the same problem again in the future. You didn't have to log a new support ticket. Right now, they no longer follow this procedure. Now, the first thing they do is look at your SLA to see if it covers the problem. Next, you are left to whoever might be able to help you.

They do have a good knowledge base that includes a lot of problems and issues that have been resolved. There are steps that lead you through to resolution. You start by typing the error that you are getting, and then you will either get answers you need, or it will point you to something that gives you an idea of how to solve the problem. It doesn't always happen if you are running a beta version since it is still in the test phase.

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward for me, although I have been using it for many years. If one of our customers is not tech-savvy then we don't expect them to handle the deployment on their own.

If you have had VMware training, I believe you should be able to perform the deployment. Normally, if a customer purchases a new IT infrastructure, we expect that they will go for training in order to support it.

It is always a good idea to go for training. I would not recommend this solution for somebody who has no idea at all. It is simple, but not so simple that you can't do it without training.

Over time, VMware has improved a lot in terms of the interface and it's getting easier to use with a cleaner dashboard.

One of the biggest things that I have learned from using this solution is how much I appreciate the GUI. I come from a background where I used the command line often. When I started using this solution, I loved the GUI. It is excellent to use and to troubleshoot.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

The mission aspect of the solution is the most valuable feature.

Typically, the ABA in comparison to other products needs improvement, but it depends on the customer.

They need to offer more support for Mac.

I would like to have IT virtualization options similar to a Raspberry PI, if that's possible.

The solution is very stable.

I believe the solution is scalable. We haven't had any problems with scalability yet.

I've only used technical support a few times and they usually get back to me within the same day or the next day if it's a difficult issue. However, I haven't used technical support in a few years. I've mostly focused on utilizing more of their professional services for guidance related to configuration examples.

The initial setup is straightforward. Usually there are a few conflicts. You're typically always adapting an old infrastructure.

The pricing is expensive, but you pay for what you get. The price ultimately could be more competitive in my opinion.

We use various deployment models; it's dependant on the client. We're a VMware partner.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use the solution for automated deployment and infrastructure maintenance features.

The solution's most valuable feature is automatic configuration and password management.

They should integrate the solution with Azure VMware Solution within the SDDC manager.

I have been using the solution for three and a half years.

The solution is very stable. It releases updates at regular intervals. Our customers are still running the VCF environment we deployed three years ago. 

The solution is scalable. We can deploy it to any architecture size.

We contacted the solution's technical support team when we encountered errors while deploying one of its versions. Their services are good, but sometimes the ticket takes time to process.

Positive

The solution's deployment generally takes several months because of design discussions. It requires one data engineer, one networking engineer, and a few executives from the vendor's technical support team to execute the process. Also, from an operational perspective, it requires two to three executives to maintain it.

I advise others not to keep a limited design approach toward the solution. They shouldn't just deploy it to manage Microsoft virtualization alone. It supports various solutions, including NXP, for automatic functioning.

I rate it a nine out of ten.