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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Webex Support

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Webex Support was a remote access and support tool that has been discontinued and is no longer available.N/A

    VMware ESXi

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AA bare-metal hypervisor that installs directly onto a physical server. With direct access to and control of underlying resources, VMware ESXi partitions hardware to consolidate applications and cut costs.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    67%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    93 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    83%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    86 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    94 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    67%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    4 Answers
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    82 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    91 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Remote Administration
    Comparison of Remote Administration features of Cisco Webex Support (discontinued) and VMware ESXi
    Feature
    Cisco Webex Support (discontinued)
    6.8
    9 Ratings
    15% below category average
    VMware ESXi
    -
    Ratings
    Screen sharing8.99 Ratings00 Ratings
    File transfer8.99 Ratings00 Ratings
    Instant message7.17 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication9.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access to sleeping/powered-off computers6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Over-the-Internet remote session8.99 Ratings00 Ratings
    Initiate remote control from mobile1.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote management of servers & workstations2.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Remote Active Directory® management7.95 Ratings00 Ratings
    Centralized management dashboard8.87 Ratings00 Ratings
    Session record8.67 Ratings00 Ratings
    Annotations7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Monitoring and Alerts8.95 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-platform remote control1.57 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Cisco Webex Support (discontinued) and VMware ESXi
    Feature
    Cisco Webex Support (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    VMware ESXi
    8.2
    128 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings8.0112 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings8.0117 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Small Businesses
    N-able Take Control
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Remote Desktop Manager
    Score9.6 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access
    Score9.1 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (11 ratings)
    9.0
    (129 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (55 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.1
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Webex SupportVMware ESXi
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    We use WebEx Support Center in the IT department to support users as well as work with vendors remotely. This applies to physical desktops, laptops, and Virtual Desktops. We have around 200 employees. Most employees work in one of our offices, but we do have at least 5-10 users who are more frequently remote than they are in the office. It helps us remotely access machines we wouldn't otherwise have access to, due to lack of physical access. It's excellent for troubleshooting access problems from users' personal machines, as well.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    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!
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • Simple Remote Access - WebEx Support Center works with either a permanent install or temporary executable, so you don't have to worry about users being particularly comfortable or knowledgeable about software installation. It also doesn't matter if the user is on an account without admin rights, you can still connect and see what's going on using the temporary executable.
    • Robust Access Options - You can take see the user's screen, take control of their screen, send files, and retrieve files. It's a great tool for troubleshooting issues that users might be experiencing and doesn't depend on them being able to find the files that you need to properly troubleshoot their issues.
    • Great performance - Even when users don't have a particularly great internet connection, you can still typically get good results and help them quickly. You're not going to do it over dial-up (if that even still exists for anyone), but it works acceptably well even over very modest DSL or satellite internet connections.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • During initial setups it can be a little confusing.
    • The look and feel is a little rigid. It feels like it is in need of a smoother UI update.
    • When a new user is introduced to webex and they are asked to share their desktop, it maybe a little difficult for the user to navigate to the correct buttons.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    The Enterprise package we purchased (Event Center, Remote Support, Meeting Center, and Training Center) for 100 users is the same annual price as GoToMeeting for 25 users. We will renew as it is a package deal. If it were just WebEx Remote Support, we would not renew at all.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Honestly, there are people available. But none of them will help you with your issues. They just keep assigning new service engineers who are often clueless.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    The support team is highly incompetent. The only thing that they are able to do flawlessly is register an issue and open the case. But this case related to the issue is never resolved. They will forward the case or assign a new service engineer. But the case will never be resolved. At least not soon. They take weeks to resolve issues.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    I would say that Cisco Webex Support stacks up pretty evenly in capability, but in some regards (video clarity, toll-free access, etc.) they were even better. Where they did provide a better solution for toll-free access on audio bridges, their audio quality was worse for those that wanted to use VoIP for the audio conference bridge.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    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).
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    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
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • WebEx Support Center works pretty excellently for us as we are a small shop. We are experienced and have pretty good skill sets. WebEx Support Center is an excellent product for our use cases with our users and client to troubleshoot issues.
    • WebEx Support Center is more expensive than our previous product MXIE or Logmein. It has a more user-friendly UI, and overall performance is better and reliable.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots