Item: VMware ESXi
Rating: 10
Author: Stefan Semo

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization makes extensive use of a datacenter and has virtualized hundreds of Windows servers on bare metal hardware. These servers work to process logins, provide access to our student information and registration data, hold and manage email, provide shared drives for file exchanges, websites for access by our schools and parents, etc.

Pros and Cons

Very efficient on bare hardware
Installs a very small hypervisor footprint

The web management interface utilizing HTML 5 is still not fully mature.
Could use the ability to clone a host configuration in case the bootable media fails.

Return on Investment

It is an expensive proposition but the best in class
Has allowed us to maximize the capabilities of our hardware and max out the number of VM's per host

Alternatives Considered

Hyper-V

Hyper-V comes free with Microsoft Windows Server and does a decent job for the "cost". However, it does not scale well. By comparison VMware ESXi is very efficient and can scale to many more VM's on the same hardware. ESXi is also performance optimized for specific servers, mostly due to its core design but also due to custom drivers provided by the server manufacturers.

Support Rating

VMware ESXi support is very responsive in my experience and very knowledgeable. They are willing to remotely access a management system and troubleshoot live, which saves a lot of time. They have great flow-through for cases and a great SLA for response times. Always received outstanding support, and the engineers are very familiar with the product. Finally, escalation to a higher level engineer is very easy and frustration free.

Key Insights

Do you think VMware ESXi delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with VMware ESXi's feature set?

Yes

Did VMware ESXi live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of VMware ESXi go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy VMware ESXi again?

Likelihood to Recommend

VMware ESXi is an excellent product to get the most out of your bare metal hardware. Lots of server manufacturers provide pre-built install images that are optimized for their servers, so that one can take full advantage of the hardware features and interface with the built-in sensors. However, VMware ESXi is a costly product and for small organizations going the Microsoft Hyper-V route will be a big cost savings even tho it is not as robust and efficient.

Leveraging computing, storage and memory resources to the max with VMware ESXi

Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi