Azure VMware Solution vs. VMware ESXi

Cloud-Native Applications: If you are building cloud-native applications that are designed to run on Azure, AVS may not be the best solution. In this case, you should consider using Azure-native services, such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) or Azure Functions.Minimal Workloads: If you have a small number of workloads, it may not be cost-effective to use AVS. In this case, you can consider using Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) or other Azure services that are better suited for small workloads.Custom Hardware Configurations: If you require custom hardware configurations or specialized hardware, AVS may not be able to meet your requirements. In this case, you can consider using other Azure services, such as Azure Dedicated Hosts, that offer more flexibility in terms of hardware configurations.Cost-Sensitive Workloads: If you have cost-sensitive workloads, AVS may not be the best solution. While AVS offers many benefits, it can also be more expensive than other Azure services. In this case, you should consider using Azure services that are more cost-effective, such as Azure Virtual Machines.

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If you're looking for the industry standard in server virtualization, I would recommend ESXi. After decades of expertise in the field, VMware continues to provide a strong product, production-ready, with an easy-to-learn interface that allows for quick management along with less costly upfront onboarding and training. Grab the free personal-use license and install in your homelab to start!

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• Provide hardware and infrastructure for hosting VMs
• Ability to backup and restore between On Premise and cloud
• Make it easy to implement a DR solution

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• Resource management. The automatic load balancing works very well to ensure no host is taxed disproportionately compared to the others.
• Templates and cloning. It is very easy to set up a template and spin up new servers based on a specific setup. This makes server management very streamlined.
• VM management. The vSphere interface is very easy to use and navigate. Everything is responsive and it works when you need it to. The options are also robust while also being arranged in a straightforward manner.

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• More regions to deploy
• More clarity on billing
• Reduce latency

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• VMware ESXi can improve on the UI that is installed on the bare metal machine. The menus can be hard to navigate when looking for simple configuration items.
• VMware ESXi can improve on the stability of their overall hypervisor. There have been a few times we had to reinstall due to corruption of VMware ESXi.
• I would like to see VMware ESXi do better at adding more standard free features in their consumer version of VMware ESXi. For example, having the ability to back up virtual machines is good practice and something that would be very nice if offered in their free version.

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It is critical to our business, what started out as a way to do certain functions, it has now become core to ensuring our product is available to our customers and reducing our costs to operate and reduce our recovery time and provisioning servers. Their support is great and the costs to renew is reasonable.

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It feels good for our techs who already used VMware on prem. However, there was significant difficulty adjusting to a new networking model.

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The interface is fairly intuitive for most things, and the areas that are a little less obvious usually have fantastic documentation in the online knowledgebase. In 3-4 years of managing our ESXi hosts, I think that I have only opened 4-5 support cases for things that I could not figure out myself or find answers to on the website.

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Without the need to patch the servers with bug fixes and enhancements we whave not experienced any downtime with VMware issues. Even the bug fixes and updates do not cause of downtime as we just migrate the servers to the opposite node and update the one and then move servers back. Very simple and painless.

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We do not notice any difference between a physical and virtual server running the same workload. In fact we can scale quicker with the virtual server than we can with the physical.

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I can't say enough good about VMware's support team. To an individual they take ownership of the case, provide thorough answers, and follow up regularly. On one occasion, a problem we experienced with NSX Endpoint was escalated to development for a permanent resolution after a workaround was found. In my experience, most companies would have tried to find a way to close a case like that instead of taking it all the way. Most importantly, when production is down and every second counts, they VMware teams understand that urgency and treat your issue as if it were the only one they had to deal with. You can't ask for better.

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Jsut read and follow anything your storage provider may require to allow the integration of VMware with storage operations, outside of that VMware jsut works.

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It's very good compared to its competitors as great uptime, easy support and interactive User Interface makes it a wonderful solution.

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As long as you're using Nutanix AOS on Nutanix hardware and are paying their software support fees, AOS is a valid competitor to VMware and can save money due to not needing a license and having their server management system built into the base host management system. If you aren't using Nutanix hardware, however, VMWare is in most cases the best way to go. I cannot comment on HyperV, but most IT people I know either use it because they have to (most) or they like it better (not many).

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it has been fair and easy to understand. I know VMware is looking at wanting to change from CPU to core pricing so we will see what that looks like when it happens.

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We started out with a two-server cluster and adding a third or fourth is very straightforward and simple with no issues. You just need to be aware of the size of your Vcenter Server to handle the workload, but still the resources needed is very minimal

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• Cost Savings: One of the key benefits of AVS is that it can help businesses save money by reducing the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading on-premises infrastructure.
• AVS can help businesses improve their agility by enabling them to quickly provision and scale VMware workloads in Azure.

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• VMWare ESXi licensing is affordable for our business - and the licensing model is simplistic. Not like that of Microsoft with having to keep track of server licenses and CAL licenses for users.
• VMWare ESXi also has hardware-monitoring built-in, so that further saves us money from having to be spent with another vendor.
• As much as I hate the saying "a single pane of glass" does fit for this product. You can manage your servers, monitor hardware status, create and export backup snapshots, manage virtual NICs, connect to various storage devices. We're very happy with this product.

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