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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    VMware vCenter

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AVMware vCenter is an advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling vSphere environments for visibility across hybrid clouds. VMware vCenter is no longer sold as a standalone product and is now available as a part of VMware Cloud Foundation.

    $6,044

    per year

    VMware vSphere

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AAn enterprise workload platform, vSphere is used to improve the performance for a data center. It is used to boost operational efficiency, supercharge workload performance, and accelerate innovation.

    $995

    per year

    Pricing
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Editions & Modules
    Basic
    6,044
    per year
    Production
    6,244
    per year
    Standard
    $995.00
    per year
    Enterprise
    $3,995.00
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Considered Both Products
    VMware by Broadcom
    Chose VMware vCenter
    I have looked briefly at some competing products, but haven't used any of them in depth.
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vCenter
    I have used Hyper-V in the past which is a great product, but what VMware brings to the table is beyond comparison. It definitely is expensive and not for everyone, but the tools you can put together and ease of management makes them number 1!
    Incentivized
    VMware by Broadcom
    Chose VMware vSphere
    No other products were evaluated. vSphere is the leader in the industry and a known good solution. It is widely used across multiple verticals and has good support from vendor as well as user groups. IT personnel whether existing or new hires are almost always familiar with …
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vSphere
    VSphere is easier to use and more mature than Microsoft's offerings, coming as it is from the company that invented virtualization. It has a pleasant dashboard and pleasing layouts, which are intuitive and easy to navigate- they just make more sense (to me) than the Hyper-V …
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vSphere
    I have used AWS cloud, and no other virtualization product apart from vSphere, comparing both of them would not be good, as they both cater to different needs of the customer.
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vSphere
    1) VMware emulates virtual hardware and must account for all the underlying system requirements— subsequently, virtual machine images are
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vSphere
    For an enterprise solution, picking VMware vSphere was an easy choice for us. The combination of the small attack surface of the purpose-built hypervisor (i.e. not Windows), the powerful management platform, and the features (particularly intelligent load balancing via DRS and …
    Incentivized
    Chose VMware vSphere
    More options with vSphere.
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    30 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    30 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    17 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    31 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    18 Answers
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    25 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    18 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    26 Answers
    Features
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of VMware vCenter and VMware vSphere
    Feature
    VMware vCenter
    -
    Ratings
    VMware vSphere
    7.2
    67 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings7.062 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings7.067 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings6.060 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings8.065 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings8.062 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Small Businesses
    cPanel
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (55 ratings)
    7.0
    (70 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (25 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    VMware vCenterVMware vSphere
    Likelihood to Recommend
    VMware by Broadcom
    The VMware vCenter server is very useful in maintaining the CPU/RAM/datastore resources are balanced when there are multiple ESX/ESXi host servers. It is clear what resources are being used, and it is easy to migrate VMs to different ESX/ESXi hosts. Being able to remotely connect to the VM servers in vCenter when you cannot have other remote connections helps in maintenance and troubleshooting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    vSphere is well suited for multiple VMWare hosts and can be very useful in larger enterprises where vMotion is used to load balance and failover running virtual machines. In smaller businesses with one or two hosts then the features can be overkill. The addition of virtual TPM support is a very nice addition to provide vm security in a more Microsoft supported methodology.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    VMware by Broadcom
    • VSAN storage management and redundancy - high performance IO with built in fault tolerance across the cluster, not reliant on a single hardware item
    • VM fault tolerance. The ability to relocate a running VM and restart VMs from failed or isolated nodes
    • Resource management and alerting. Tracking load across physical systems and allowing us to rebalance for better utilisation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    • vMotion that provides seamless movement of Virtual Machines between physical hosts and datastores.
    • Ease of Manage: vCenter provides very good management experience to the users.
    • It provides hassle free upgrade of versions, which requires good planning.
    • Easy to manage datastore, networks, CPU and memory resources.
    • It also allows to convert the physical machine and bring it to vSphere Environment with minimum effort.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    VMware by Broadcom
    • Currently, the HTML 5-based vSphere Client lets you manage the essential functions of vSphere from any browser, however, it would be nice if they would port all management functions over to the HTML 5-based Client.
    • Performing updates and upgrades to the infrastructure is a bit challenging for someone that may not be as intimate with vSphere. I think the updates/upgrades should be more integrated into the UI and provide the ability to push to the hosts, etc...
    • It would also be nice to have a more robust snapshot management tool to prevent snapshot overgrowth. It would be nice to be able to set a lifespan for the snapshot(s)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    • Allow enable EVC without requiring host shutdown
    • More detail in recent tasks. Instead of just showing a task called "Reconfigure virtual machine" also have a link to more detailed information as to what was reconfigured, changed or removed.
    • Allow searching tasks or events
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    VMware by Broadcom
    We are very dependent on this software, it has become a much needed tool to perform the daily tasks that are required to maintain the virtual server environment. VMware has become very pricey over the years, so we are looking for alternatives for cost savings strategy, but nothing has been found to be on par to what we are currently using
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    We are constantly looking for change that will benefit our company. We are not ones to stick with a product simply because it is what we know, but rather looking for what fits us best. We can't imagine another product on the market today doing a better job of handling our infrastructure than vSphere.
    Read full review
    Usability
    VMware by Broadcom
    I work with vCenter for 10+ years and i love it. I can find my way around and can help building and expanding the platform. It is easy to use and there are a lot good communities for the extra support when needed. Even the Homelab community is of great value.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    Very useful for environments where space and energy consumption are issues and management is not very keen on upfront spending on hardware every time whenever requirement comes from any dept for provisioning a machine for their occasional use, easily can be done in case of VMware vSphere in few clicks. Backup, security, monitoring and management everything is covered but at additional cost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    VMware by Broadcom
    VMware support has always been fantastic and they have been invaluable in solving tougher issues that have been run into. Most of the time, any oddities encountered are fixed by available updates. This can be deduced by support quickly with logs within vCenter. We have not run into something yet that support was unable to help with. They either have a solution already, or they are able to find one quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    I rarely ever have to contact support and when I do need to resolve an issue, there is always an abundance of kb articles and research information available that can help quickly resolve the issue. Depending on the type of support contract you have, you may get support from some offshore group in another country and this could be a little challenging because of the language barrier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    VMware by Broadcom
    Since moving away from the Windows Server hosting the vCenter application and instead using a virtual appliance, it has become much easier to implement and deploy the new versions. We can easily create a snapshot or clone of the vCenter vApp to ensure any problems encountered during the upgrade can be mitigated with a fall back to the old version to prevent unscheduled downtime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    Just make sure that when you implement, that the person implementing truly knows what they are doing and has a plan of action coming in. Since our initial implementation using a consulting service, I have implemented a few vSphere just from what I learned at the initial implementation and use over time, and the person implementing really needs to know what they are doing or you will miss out on features that may help you down the line
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    VMware by Broadcom
    Citrix Xen Server.... Great Hypervisor but very limited in terms of functionality
    MS Hyper-V... [VMware vCenter Server] is better for almost everything and appliance form makes a clear winner for security and ease of deployment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    vSphere has a lot more feature sets than Hyper-V but at a much higher cost of entry versus MS Hyper-V. I have not been able to play with Hyper-V as much as I would have liked, but the setup and ongoing maintenance seems to be easier in vSphere than with Hyper-V
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    The contract terms are very clear and can be updated as per the project requirement. Customer support is also included in the contract which help us to troubleshoot critical issues very easily. Training included in contract will really help the client team to empower and hands-on on the latest updates and enhancements
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    As I said earlier, they're always ready to understand our issues and propose the best and most appropriate solution for issues all the time. The security patches solution is accordingly to the business needs. Another scenario is their Knowledge Base where
    they're many articles that help you in order to solve something which
    is wrong.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    VMware by Broadcom
    • The positive impact of vcenter is definitely felt in larger organisations in terms of being able to manage multiple servers all in one environment
    • It will decrease the amount of time your server engineers will have to spend in the server room or datacenter.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    • Having vSphere helped my business quickly recover from a ransomware attack which would have crippled us for weeks if we were not virtualized. I think the ROI on something like that is immeasurable.
    • vSphere has allowed my company to purchase bigger server hardware to host 3 or 4 virtual servers, which was at a cost much lower than buying 3 or 4 server hardware boxes, saving us thousands each time we need to upgrade hardware.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots