Item: VMware ESXi
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

EXSi is the foundation for all of our virtual machines. Virtualization has allowed us to scale down our physical server count considerably, reducing overhead costs. It allows us flexibility in terms of spinning up new virtual machines and how we manage them with vCenter

Pros and Cons

Makes it incredibly easy to deploy new virtual machines.
Works well with our SAN and our backup software integrates nicely with ESXi.
Their support has been helpful when I've needed it.

We are on version 6.0 and it has some Flash problem with browsers. We could not manage vCenter after a Flash update in google and had to use the thick client.
It would be nice if it was easier to update. They have gotten better with subsequent releases but it's not great with 6.0.
It's not cheap compared to Hyper-V

Return on Investment

Lowered or electric bill by having fewer physical servers.
Lowered cost of overtime for engineers as it has streamlined and simplified management of VMs.
If you have a need to grow quickly and you start out with 'essentials' it's going to cost quite a bit to upgrade to the next level license.

Alternatives Considered

Hyper-V

It's more expensive than Hyper-V but our vendors seem to know how to support EXSi better than Hyper-V. It's easy to add hosts and build out tons of VMs, provided you have the funding to do so. The support is good and seems consistently better than Microsoft's.

Other Software Used

VMware vCenter Server, Cisco Meraki MS Switches, Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls

Likelihood to Recommend

I've enjoyed my experience with ESXi, it makes daily tasks easy and allows us to grow quickly when we need to. There is a learning curve so someone coming from a Hyper-V environment might need to study up or take a course to become proficient. It might be overkill for small business not needing the flexibility of ESXi.

ESXi fan because it makes my life easier

Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi