VMware vSphere Foundation Reviews

My team runs VMware Aria Operations, but I have limited experience.

I'm most familiar with the VMware vSphere Foundation solutions, specifically the virtual, the enterprise, and the vCenter components and all that stuff.

VMware vSphere Foundation runs our virtualization platform, the drawing platform, managing all our enterprise components.

We utilize the high availability and DRS components that come with VMware vSphere Foundation for managing our VMs.

VMware vSphere Foundation is positioned in the top right quadrant in a Gartner chart and offers the best virtualization solution to help manage enterprise components.

It's a fairly decent product, and it's very adequate to facilitate seamless data center operations and helps us get the job done.

It obviously helps in reducing downtime and mitigates risks when we have potential failures in hardware by moving VMs around, so it does what it needs to do to help us mitigate issues.

The impact of VMware vSphere Foundation performance monitoring capabilities is somewhat limited; therefore, you have to look at the additional components built around it.

They can always use some improvement in task logging and all that stuff. It would be nice if they could provide a command interface right through the GUI so we don't have to go into the back end to figure things out.

It's a very well-established product, a mature product. There's always room for improvement. I don't prefer what they did with VMware 8, but maybe it's me getting used to it. I don't appreciate how the annotations component works, and I think they can work on the annotations and the summary aspects.

I've been using VMware vSphere Foundation for approximately 15 years.

I would give their customer service a seven. I think they're good at certain things and not so good at other things when we get technical.

I think they're very good at things they know, but with Broadcom coming in, they've created a lot of havoc in the VMware environment.

VMware has engaged in a practice of trivializing their customers to the degree that makes us want to go elsewhere, and they have a negative attitude concerning their customer.

Positive

It's a hard question to answer regarding ROI with VMware vSphere Foundation, as it's hard to justify against what. It allows us to run lots of VMs on-prem instead of going to the cloud compared to past physical machines.

VMware vSphere Foundation is currently more expensive, and we are looking for alternatives.

Broadcom is screwing their customers.

Overall, I would rate VMware vSphere Foundation a nine out of ten.

Our use case for the VMware vSphere Foundation is in a true data center where we have vSphere on an HP Synergy with a storage device, and it's utilized in both the production environment and the QA environment.

The most valuable features with the VMware vSphere Foundation solution are vSphere, vCenter, and basic features only, but we don't have MSGs or MS in the text or the other features.

The VMware vSphere Foundation has helped us as we plan to change to VCF in the next review because it has many more features, and we are considering starting with other features.

Other than the price being expensive, there are no other areas that could be improved with the VMware vSphere Foundation.

[Full sentence answer to 'For how long have I used the solution?' from the text.]

The VMware vSphere Foundation is scalable.

The VMware vSphere Foundation is very good, and the support is also good, but the price now is very expensive.

I would rate the support for the VMware vSphere Foundation a six because currently, we have access to engineers, but I have to wait more time to resolve my case due to basic questions.

Neutral

Setting up the VMware vSphere Foundation is easy.

On a scale of one to ten, if ten is the easiest, the ease of setting up VMware vSphere Foundation is about an eight.

In my company, it takes one week to deploy the VMware vSphere Foundation environment, which is sufficient for us.

For the deployment of the VMware vSphere Foundation, only two people are involved, and currently, there are two people who work with vSphere, along with a team member who works with DevOps and the tops.

I don't know the exact pricing for the VMware vSphere Foundation, but I think the last license model to upgrade is three or four times more expensive.

This year, we had a review of the VMware vSphere Foundation subscription, and we have an old license about core, with support until twenty twenty-six. Last year, we needed to renew this environment, and I think next year we'll have more investment in this environment.

I would recommend the VMware vSphere Foundation as a solution to others; I really love the VM, but I am a remote leader and need to speak about it.

My company is a customer with VMware and not partners or resellers.

Overall, I would rate the VMware vSphere Foundation a seven.

We mostly use VMware vSphere Foundation for data center, enterprise-level data centers. We use it for data center virtualization.

VMware vSphere ensures high resilience in the data center. A failure of one of the hosts does not result in failure in services or the entire infrastructure. The workload will move to the adjacent load and continue operating. It consolidates our physical servers, giving us a lower physical server footprint and manages our infrastructure efficiently. These features are beneficial.

At the moment, nothing comes to mind. What does is not the technology. It's more of how Broadcom is managing their services, which have not been the same since the acquisition. Management of support cases is not as efficient as it used to be.

We have been using VMware vSphere Foundation since 2009 or 2010, thereabouts.

There is very low management required. Once deployed, you can be at ease. Occasionally, you will check alarms, mostly hardware-related. Stability is optimal.

The return on investment is high because we can maximize the use of one server for multiple workloads. VMware vSphere Foundation has a good level of third-party provider integration capabilities. The scalability is ten out of ten.

Before Broadcom, VMware's support was an eight or ten out of ten. Now, with Broadcom's management, I would rate it a three out of ten.

Neutral

Before the name change, we were on VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus. Broadcom acquired it, leading to changes that have confused everyone.

For the initial setup, one can attach an ISO, load the machine console, and follow the installation steps. In a live environment, it’s necessary to disconnect your shared storage from the host before installation.

We needed between two to six people for deployment.

Server consolidation is one return on investment where we can use one server for multiple workloads. It improves recoverability and scalability.

VMware is expensive and rightly so. It is a good and reliable product. It's expensive, however, the stability it offers is optimal. We pay a few hundreds of thousands of dollars mostly for support annually.

Earlier, we considered Hyper V since it was prominent at the time.

Even after Broadcom's acquisition, VMware vSphere Foundation remains a ten out of ten in terms of product quality. The handling of support has changed, and Broadcom appears more interested in profitability than in customer satisfaction.

I can describe the use cases for the product.

VMware vSphere Foundation works well for what it is. It is fairly easy to use and fairly easy to install.

The product includes disaster recovery features. The disaster recovery capability is quite good. The security features help to protect critical applications in general.

It is not the best because something is bothering me and could be enhanced. I want to discuss disadvantages because I have covered some positive things. There are potential areas that could be better.

I have been working with VMware vSphere Foundation for several years. I am also selling it.

When comparing CloudStack or Proxmox with VMware vSphere Foundation, there are significant differences from technical standpoints and pricing. VMware vSphere Foundation is easy to install. I have utilized VMware vSphere Foundation's Hybrid Cloud deployment.

Regarding stability, VMware vSphere Foundation needs some ratings to assess its performance.

Regarding the scalability of VMware vSphere Foundation, there are questions about whether it is completely scalable or if there are limitations. The clients have it in both cloud and on-premises environments.

I have worked with other virtualization tools apart from VMware.

We used Oracle solutions, including a discontinued product called Secure Global Gateway. We are now using a product from Amitigo, a German company, called Visulox, which is currently based on Oracle Secure Global Desktop. They are working on a new release that will be based on a different backend solution.

I work with Red Hat and Commvault. I am a reseller for Red Hat.

My overall experience with VMware vSphere Foundation would be rated as NA out of 10.

I have been selling to companies through distribution channels, reaching out to government entities like in Sao Paulo for solutions such as backup systems where the base of that backup solution was VMware. I am not sure about the final use, however, these have been the main solutions I have sold recently.

One valuable feature of vSphere is the possibility to distribute file systems in a hyperconvergent foundation. This allows virtualization and the establishment of a private cloud, serving as a first step to the public cloud. VMware provides the tools needed to move environments between private and public clouds seamlessly.

In the last year, the main issue was pricing. With the Broadcom acquisition of VMware, there were delays and confusion in Brazil and some LATAM countries involving quoting and purchasing. Historically, these issues may have been related to the acquisition period.

I have been selling vSphere and VMware suites for 15 years through various companies.

vSphere has good scalability for common environments and also in hyperconverged environments.

The support from VMware has been excellent. There is nonstop support available around the world, which allows issues to be resolved continuously without interruption, regardless of whether the problem occurs in the USA, India, or another location.

Neutral

The initial setup is of medium difficulty. It requires knowledge from those implementing it, as they need to have a background in what they want to accomplish. Though not overly difficult, it involves understanding the intended application thoroughly.

A team typically involves a VMware specialist and someone with expertise in the client's core business area to ensure all solutions align with business needs. Generally, two people are sufficient for an enterprise-level deployment.

In 2021 and 2022, the price was high. The specifics under Broadcom's management remain uncertain. In Brazil, we are increasingly using open-source alternatives like Proxmox due to their lower prices in comparison.

We have been considering alternatives like Proxmox due to pricing issues with VMware.

I rate the VMware vSphere Foundation solution a seven out of ten. 

This rating is influenced by pricing as well as the transitional issues related to the acquisition by Broadcom.

We deploy various technologies like Python, Node.js, and other applications on our on-prem infrastructure. We mainly use VMware for testing purposes.

Our production environment is on the cloud, while our UAT (User Acceptance Testing) environment is on VMware. All the deployments and changes are tested on VMware first.

The product has remained largely the same. I previously used VMware ESXi, and while it's now a licensed product, the core features haven’t changed much.

Compared to older versions, the current version provides better visibility into hardware usage, including bare-metal usage. It helps us see whether our configuration is adequate and prompts us with questions if there are potential issues, asking whether we want to proceed.

The visibility feature is very helpful. These features have improved the IT efficiency significantly. 

You can have the best product in the world, but if it’s not accessible to customers, it doesn’t matter. That’s my main concern.

People might be confused about where to purchase the product like vSphere. I don't even know who handles this.

Broadcom hasn't advertised much since the merger. So, are the same vendors who used to work with VMware still handling purchases? No one really knows.

The only obstacle is the purchase of the product. If you're trying to buy a product and you can't find vendors that provide support or product details, then who will help with the purchase?

The only challenge was procurement. Other than that, everything has been smooth. No issues.

I’ve been working with VMware since 2015. After the Broadcom acquisition, the process of purchasing products became more difficult. We no longer had clear contacts from Broadcom, and it was challenging to place orders or even know who to reach out to for support. Before this, I had no issues with VMware.

I work with version 8. 

I would rate the stability a six out of ten.  It still has room to improve.

Since, I haven’t explored the product in-depth yet.

Since we use it in our UAT environment, I don’t think any issues with scalability would currently affect our business. If we were using it in production, that might be a different story.

I would rate the scalability a six out of ten. I need more time to explore. I want to understand all the options it offers and how they can benefit our business.

Some VMs are used by all employees if they are in the repository. Other VMs are for project-oriented deployments, and only about ten to fifteen members access those.

We plan to increase the usage of vSphere Foundation in the future.

At my current company, I work with Intel severs, Dell, and VMware. As a technical professional, I provide solutions for organizations. I work with both physical hardware and cloud technology.

It’s easy to set up. No issues at all. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, with ten being the easiest. 

It took around 45 minutes to deploy it. It was pretty quick. 

For deployment, we took backups of VMs, like email backups. While doing that, we exported the VMs as well.

For us, with only two servers, one person was enough.

We don’t need a large team for maintenance. If it's something specific to voice, we might need an expert, but for VMware, we don’t need a dedicated person to manage it.

I haven't needed any support for installation or anything.

There will be organizational value because after upgrading, there are many features we still need to explore and engage with the business. Once that happens, we'll see the value. We haven't seen a direct return on investment yet.

The purchasing process became more complicated after the merger with Broadcom. We don’t have the same level of access to Broadcom representatives as we did with VMware. It’s difficult to know who to contact for support or where to submit orders.

I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with one being very cheap and ten being very expensive. It's quite expensive because you can get a cloud instance at a lower cost for the same configuration.

The price could be lower.

I was working on VMware ESXi. It's an open-source tool. We wanted to upgrade our infrastructure. So, it was an upgrade.

We had a lot of data on other options, but this one was user-friendly.

So user-friendliness was the crucial factor for me.

I would rate it a six out of ten. If the pricing and procurement process are addressed, it could be a good product. Those are the main concerns. There’s competition like Microsoft Hyper-V, which is cheaper than VMware.

Our primary use case for VMware vSphere Foundation is virtualization.

The most beneficial features of VMware vSphere Foundation for IT infrastructure are its licensing, scalability features, and user-friendliness.

The area where VMware vSphere Foundation has room for improvement is in its licensing.

I have more than ten years of experience reselling these VMware solutions.

I'd rate the stability of VMware vSphere Foundation at ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of VMware vSphere Foundation on a scale from one to ten.

I rate VMware's technical support at eight or nine out of ten. I have not seen any troubles with technical support or any long-term waiting as mentioned by my clients.

Positive

Regarding the initial setup, VMware vSphere Foundation is a straightforward solution, although it can be a bit complex.

The pricing and licensing of VMware vSphere Foundation is quite expensive. I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, where ten is expensive.

Based on my experience, I would wholeheartedly recommend VMware vSphere Foundation to others as it is my number one choice.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.