Item: VMware ESXi
Rating: 9
Author: David Thornton, CISSP

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to consolidate our servers and infrastructure. It is being used across the company to better use assets. Ultimately, it is used to take anywhere from four or five systems and consolidate them to 1 host, or on the other extreme 60 plus systems combined down to one host.

Pros and Cons

It manages physical systems and resources.
It has a minimal footprint on hosts -- hundreds of megabytes, and very efficient code.

I have been using ESX since version 3.5 -- they have regular improvements, so while there has been "missing functionality," I have used it when it was very basic, and they keep adding features that have improved it.

Return on Investment

Effective use of space.
We're able to go from 10 to 15 racks of servers to three.

Alternatives Considered

It is the standard. Engineers and Admins are most likely to know this virtualization product, so it is easier to find skilled labor. Most of the other virtualization tools have bolted it on to their OS. This is OS agnostic. The product works, where other vendors' products probably do not have a feature you might want.

Support Rating

We had a case this week with our hosts and storage vendor -- with no prompting, the two began working behind the scenes on troubleshooting the root cause of the issue -- without our asking them to work together. That is rare; most of the time vendors point at the other vendor and say "good luck."

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?

Yes

Other Software Used

Veeam Backup & Replication, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), Infoblox DDI

Likelihood to Recommend

It's suited to Data Centers that are short on space. You are able to consolidate systems anywhere from 5 to 100 to one host. It's also good for Data Centers purchasing new hardware that want to use the space most efficiently. The multi-core systems of today cannot be used effectively without a virtualization product, why waste your peoples time messing with a lower-tier "free" product that requires more management time and is harder on compatibility
It is less appropriate if a company has little money and wants to waste their employees' time -- you are trading VMware $$ to save employee time.

ESXi will save your employees time

Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi