NVIDIA Virtual PC (vPC) vs. Oracle VirtualBox

Nvidia GRID is the only real ready-made hardware solution available for streaming game services, 3D graphics acceleration in Virtual Desktop Infrastructures, and 3D enhanced streaming apps. Grid is also great for processing large quantities of small data-sets, such as financial, trading, science, astronomy, and much more. Grid is also well known for digital currency mining, such as Bitcoin.

Incentivized

It is best suited when you want to have different operating systems on your laptop or desktop. You can easily switch between operating systems without the need to uninstall one. In another scenario, if you expect some application to damage your device, it would be best to run the application on the VM such that the damage can only be done to the virtual machine. It is less appropriate when time synchronization is very important. At times the VMs run their own times differently from the host time and this may cause some losses if what you doing is critical. Another important thing to take note of is the licensing of the application you want to run your VM. Some licenses do not allow the applications to be run on virtual servers so it is not appropriate to use the VM at this time.

Incentivized

• Streaming Game Services.
• Dedicated graphics processing form virtual desktop infrastructures, allowing the use of Photoshop, CAD, Video Editing, and more.
• Enhanced computing & processing of data thay consists of large amounts of smaller data sets.
• Financial based calculations.

Incentivized

• It is simple to install - there is no advanced knowledge required to begin building virtual computers
• It is easy to use - adding new virtual machines is simple with wizard-based deployment
• It enables easy portability - moving virtual machines from one host to another is straight-forward and simple
• It is free

Incentivized

• The cost for Nvidia GRID capable hardware is still very high, but is & has been dropping fairly rapidly.
• Latency is a large problem for "interaction" based systems (Gaming, remote desktop use) and requires high-speed data, and hosting close to the client.
• No real solutions for smaller businesses, but cloud hosting providers like SoftLayer are beginning to offer affordable hosted grid-capable environments.

Incentivized

• I have had issues in the past when it has come to resizing VM disk storage. The issue is entirely detailed here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9103 -- the problem was caused because of having existing snapshots (which error message output was not detailing). I haven't had to deal with the issue due to my dynamic disk sizes not being small from the start anymore (this is mostly an issue for my Windows VMs where the base disk may need significant size for the OS). It looks like, for a resize, that a merge of all snapshots has to occur first -- one user on that list details a workaround to maintain snapshots by cloning the VM. (Note: 5.2 was just released a few weeks ago, and looks like it should prevent the problem happening in the future by properly informing users that it isn't possible with snapshots).
• Certain scenarios, like resizing disks, required dropping into a terminal as there were no options to previously do so via the GUI. According to some recent posts, I've seen that v5.2 has added disk management stuff like that to the GUI (or will be adding it). I'm comfortable with dropping into the terminal, but in a teaching scenario or when evaluating the learnability of the tools, it complicates things.

Incentivized

I give this rating because virtual box is inexpensive but there is another product such as vm ware that can also be used

Incentivized

I love using the Graphical User Interface. The VirtualBox Manager is very easy to understand and use. You can quickly create, configure and manage all your virtual machines in one window. It makes operating virtual machines easy and simple. When using VBoxManage it gives the user comprehensive control over VirtualBox so that you can use automation and scripting at the command-line interface

Incentivized

Dependency on the Host OS means it is as reliable as it is possible to be. Application errors are beyond the purview of the application.

Incentivized

No issues, especially with the extensions addons.

Incentivized

Oracle have a very fast response rate and a strong user community. One can geet help from many sources if they choose to research for themselves.

Incentivized

We really enjoy using virtual box. We do not require to buy expensive hardware but instead we can minimize costs and maximize profits.

Incentivized

Nvidia invented the graphics processor, and continues to provide high quality products, even in a new industry

Incentivized

VirutalBox is very similar to using Vmware with the slight difference in appearance and what might be considered a less polished look. However, what it lacks in polish and looks it makes up for in functionality, easy of use and the wide range of operating systems and features it supports without the need of buying the full professional edition

Incentivized

The only problem I have found is that the deployment is dependent and intrinsically linked to the Host OS. This is different from bare metal solutions which remove that dependency on a Host OS. The latter is more reliable and removes a layer of potential failure.

Incentivized

• Allows us to simplify all of our VDI designs, as power users can be managed like all other cloud users, instead of requiring individual systems.
• Provides a way of offering a substantial processing increase for computing/calculations over and above what additional CPUs could offers.
• Offers the only "ready-made" solution for on-demand gaming services, after Sony purchased OnLive, and provides an affordable method for startups to enter the Industry.

Incentivized

• Minimal-to-no support needed from the DevOps team.
• Provides a direct and an easy way to access multiple VMs inside the same machines which enables performing various testing and QA tasks without the need to switch hardware.
• Automatic provisioning using tools (esp. Vagrant) which enables developing a base image once, and allows for exporting/importing anywhere across the developers team.
• Very cost-effective (no fees or monthly subscriptions).

Incentivized