VMware NSX Reviews

Our primary focus is to create a layer that effectively connects to the remote site. This involves optimizing and accelerating the VXLend component, which is highly popular in our setup. We usually configure VXLend to enhance disaster recovery capabilities, specifically for applications that operate within the same subnet. This approach ensures that in the event of a disaster, such as a WAN failure or when external layers are inaccessible, there's no need to change IP addresses. It allows users to connect seamlessly from any location since the servers maintain the same subnet, and data replication occurs between the data centers. The result is minimal disruption and no requirement to modify configurations during these critical scenarios.

Traditional network management often involves dealing with individual components separately while VMware NSX offers a more streamlined approach. It operates on a logical level, providing a comprehensive and centralized way to manage your network resources. This not only simplifies management but also enhances scalability. It enables us to create and adjust policies dynamically, allowing for real-time updates and enforcement so we can effectively oversee our entire data center from a single point of control.

One aspect that needs improvement is the need for further automation. We are already operating in a software-defined data center environment, and while the product is mature, there's room for enhancing automation.

I have been using it for approximately three years.

It provides robust stability features. I would rate it nine out of ten.

It provides excellent scalability capabilities. When it comes to micro-segmentation, it allows you to scale naturally. You can distribute firewall and load-balancing functionalities efficiently as your network grows. It also offers seamless integration with the physical network infrastructure, making it easy to extend your virtualized network into the physical world.

The customer support from VMware is exceptional. Recently we encountered a critical issue where one of our virtual machines failed to start and was displaying a blue screen. Despite the urgency of the situation, we logged a support case, and within twenty minutes, we received a response. A support representative promptly called us, established a remote connection, conducted a thorough analysis, and successfully resolved the problem.

Positive

I have experience with Cisco, but I find VMware to be a superior solution. The primary reason is the seamless integration that VMware offers, especially within a data center environment. When working within a data center, VMware's virtualization capabilities are all that we need. We no longer require separate hardware, edge products, load-balancing solutions, or firewall products. Everything can be fully integrated into a unified system and it allows us to accomplish everything from one console and one central point of control, making it a highly efficient and streamlined solution.

When it comes to VMware, there are two primary options: NSX-V and NSX-T. NSX-V is known for its user-friendliness and effectiveness. Setting up SD-WAN connectivity with NSX-V is straightforward.

The price is significantly high and it can be a hurdle for many potential users.

I would highly recommend VMware for a wide range of users, spanning from large enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses. It's an ideal choice for those who require disaster recovery solutions or cloud extensions. Its versatility and capabilities make it a valuable choice for anyone looking to scale their infrastructure, whether it's within a data center or by extending into the cloud. I would rate it eight out of ten.

Our clients are moving from traditional to virtual infrastructure, so we sold them vSphere, vSAM, and NSX to manage all the workloads inside VMware. All the VMs work just like traditional infrastructure inside an appliance.

NSX has excellent security features like virtual firewalls. I also like the micro-segmentation features, which are useful for the virtual machines inside the servers.

I started working with Nutanix NSX last year. 

I rate NSX eight out of 10 for stability. 

NSX is easy to scale. 

We sell Nutanix, Dell EMC, HPE, and IBM. Right now, I'm working with IBM Storage and Power Servers. We have Pure Systems, too, but I'm still new. It's my first week at the company, so I'm still studying other vendors that I'm unfamiliar with.

I'm not implementing. I am selling the solution. You can use it on-prem or in the cloud. If you are using SRM, including NSX in your workloads makes things easier. You can easily move everything, including the network security and several layers inside the appliance, to the cloud or any other site.

VMware has a subscription and perpetual license. In the New Year, they're changing many things about the licensing model. Previously, NSX was licensed according to the number of sockets inside the appliance, so we bought VMware licenses based on that. However, that may have changed this year. We are still contacting the vendors to understand the new licensing strategy.

I rate VMware NSX nine out of 10. I recommend it.

The solution is used for network virtualization. Normally, in my cases, I was billing it for the government clouds, for NIC, the National Informatics Computer of India. For them, I was making a cloud where a different government, a smaller government entity, wanted to buy a cloud from the government clouds.

Apart from the normal functionality, a few things are quite useful, including multi-cloud networking. They have container networking and load balancing. Those are quite useful in terms of when we are designing a solution.

It's a pretty mature platform right now. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

We found the solution to be stable. 

It's scalable. 

I haven't found any shortcomings. 

It might be nice to have more AI in the future. It would help keep us from redesigning every time. 

I've worked with the solution for four years now. 

The solution is stable and perfectly fine. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The solution can scale well. 

We had a user base of around 1200 people.

I dealt with tech support during pre-deployment, and they were fine. They were helpful when we were dealing with staging cases. I wasn't an active part of the actual deployment and can't speak of how helpful they were in that part of the process. 

I was the previous architect for the NSX, not the implementer.

My understanding is the setup process is quite straightforward. 

Our deployment was quite big. Including the staging and all the stuff, we were able to deploy in a four-month timeframe. That is not only NSX, that is the complete deployment of the cloud. We had a few issues here and there, however, overall, it was fine. 

It's easy to maintain for the most part. The orchestration layer for it was a bit hectic work for us. That needed a dedicated VMware team. Apart from that, everything was quite smooth for NSX or vSphere, et cetera, and it is quite simple to manage it.

The finance team handles the licensing agreements. I can't speak to the exact cost.

When going for multiple OEM solutions, like Juniper, Cisco, HPE, et cetera, NSX will be quite useful. Don't go for the ACSIs and all Juniper proprietary options since future upgrades will be a bit tough if something needs to be added. Therefore, if it is a multiple OEM architecture, go for NSX, it'll be more helpful.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the load balancing and routing of firewall rules. Many of the features are beneficial.

I have been using VMware NSX for approximately four years.

VMware NSX can be stable. However, before you start, you need a very thorough sturdy design. Once this is complete you can go on building your VMware NSX in your environment. 

I went to VMware to look at their best practice designs, but they didn't apply to our environment. I had to take some parts of different designs and build my own that was exactly what was right for us.

Get the designs first, study them very thoroughly and after that, you can implement what will work for you.

The scalability of VMware NSX is very good. However, you have to take into consideration that you have to study their documentation.

The amount of users or devices VMware NSX  can handle depends on the resource that you allocate to the Edges and to the management cluster. They are small, medium, and large. A large allocation can handle thousands of virtual machines. We mostly deploy medium to large-scale systems.

The support from VMware NSX could improve. We are a large company and when we have an issue we do not need to waste everyone's time with level one and two support. I try and explain to them I need level three support but they say they have to follow protocol and pass me through the different levels.   

I have used previously Cisco 1000V. It was much more expensive than VMware NSX. We cannot compare them because the Cisco 1000V is obsolete and I don't know if they have a newer version or something similar. They are not the same technology, Cisco 1000V is from 2015, and NSX-T is from 2021. There is a big difference between time and technology.

If you have experience with the setup of VMware NSX it is simple, but if you do not it could be difficult. I would advise new users to contact professional support from VMware.

The price of VMware NSX is reasonable.

I rate VMware NSX a nine out of ten.

It is for internal networking. Basically, we will be migrating the workloads to the cloud vCenter, and to manage those workloads, networking is required, which is called NSX in the VMware environment.

It provides a single pane of glass. You can do the switching, routing, load balancing, IPS, IDS, etc. Everything is under one umbrella. So, there is no vendor dependency over there.

They have some limitations in the firewall features as compared to the on-prem or dedicated hardware appliance. They can add more features, such as IPS and IDS, to the cloud firewall.

I have been using this solution for the last seven to eight months.

As per my last seven to eight months of experience, it is a stable solution.

It can be scaled.

I'm not technically involved with technical support. I'm not from the operational part where the day-to-day activities are performed. I'm from the project team, and my job is to deploy something on the product. Untill now, I haven't used VMware support for any issues. So, I'm not aware of the quality of their support.

It was easy to set up. It hardly took a week.

It provides all the networking features under a single umbrella. So, you can go with it. It is cost-effective because you don't have to spend money on different vendors.

I would rate it a seven out of ten because some of the features are missing.

VMware NSX is used for server virtual machines.

The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the ease of use and its user friendly. For example, it is simple to change the subnet masks.

The solution could improve by having a more streamlined setup.

I rate VMware NSX for approximately one year.

The solution is highly stable.

We have approximately 2,000 users using this solution.

VMware NSX scales well.

I have rarely used the support of the solution.

I rate the support from VMware NSX an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have not used a similar solution to VMware NSX.

The installation process for VMware NSX can be intricate. We obtained the executable file for the specific server we intended to install VMware NSX and then proceeded to configure it. This involved ensuring that the IP and ID matched the installation, as well as completing other necessary details such as setting up the gateways.

We are using the free version of the solution.

We have 10 analysts and administrators that do the maintenance of the solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate VMware NSX a nine out of ten.

We use the solution for our DMC firewall to micro-segment the networks for the CRUD matrix.

The most valuable feature is the integration with the firewall.

The cost of the solution has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for three years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable.

We have around 4,000 people using the solution.

The technical support is sometimes delayed but they always resolve our issues.

Positive

The implementation was completed by a vendor.

The cost of the solution is a bit high.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

The maintenance is done by our vendor.

The solution is great and I recommend it.

I primarily use the product as network virtualization software.

VMware NSX is a great product for network virtualization. No other vendor can offer this kind of solution up until now, and it's great for enhancing security at the virtual machine level. There is micro-segmentation, and a distributed firewall, and all network and network security components can be virtualized with the help of this NSX-T stack. It is a pioneer software solution for network security in a virtualized environment.

This solution comes with an API that can easily integrate with other solutions. 

NSX features include micro-segmentation, distributed IPS, IDS functionality, URL analysis, gateway firewall, logical routing, and all the staple networking solutions like DNS, DSCP, and routing. All these features are very interesting.

The solution is stable.

We can scale it if we need to.

It should support Hyper-V also. Nowadays, NSX supports the KVM and ESXi hypervisors only. It should also support Hyper-V and Citrix hypervisors.

There have already been lots of improvements. For example, they edited the intelligent plans and added an advanced load balancer. The latest version, 4.0, really has all the features you need.

It's a bit complex to set up the product.

I have a total of around three years of experience using the NSX-T solution. 

The stability is good architecture-wise. We haven't had any issues. 

The solution can scale well. 

It is not a user-based solution. We deploy it to about 20 servers. 

We did not previously use a different solution before this product.

It is a little bit complex to set up. It depends upon deployment. Either it is greenfield or brownfield deployment. If it is greenfield, it is very easy. If it is a brownfield deployment, so you need to take care of multiple scenarios of your network, and you need to understand the network architecture, then the deployment of services. 

While deployment requires a complete team, maintenance only requires on VMware administrator. 

We handled the initial setup with the help of a third-party SI team.

This product provides end-to-end visibility and security to your virtual environment. So it's a very huge return on investment in terms of security enhancement and maintaining cybersecurity posture.

The cost of the solution is moderate. I'd rate it three out of five in terms of affordability.

There is no other option available for this kind of product.

The product should be implemented in any IT infrastructure virtual environment. It is a must-have.

I'd rate it a ten out of ten.