ESXi is the gold standard for business virtualization
January 17, 2020
ESXi is the gold standard for business virtualization
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with VMware ESXi
vSphere ESXi is a hypervisor similar to HyperV or Xen, essentially a platform for running many virtual servers on one hardware server or cluster. Primarily it allows you to build out one hardware server on which you virtualize your application and/or role servers. It provides a layer of abstraction between the hardware itself and the application layer that gives you the ability to allocate and reallocate hardware resources and perform actions like cold reboots without having access to a power button or cable.
- Easy to install.
- Very powerful.
- Very picky about what hardware it will install on.
- Many features locked behind advanced licenses and/or additional products (like vCenter).
- Purchase one new piece of hardware while still allowing services to run independently.
- Expansive support as a resource for your IT department to tap into to save time on repairs.
vSphere has been in the virtualization game for a long time. It's hard to overlook this fact as you compare ESXi to Microsoft's less robust HyperV, Proxmox's immaturity and lack of polish. VMware has made clear that virtualization is its blood and has done a lot to push innovation that has made other solutions better. Ultimately, HyperV is the most similar solution, but its licensing can be frustrating and confusing, and its management tools are less robust. Proxmox has a very similar feature set as ESXi, but can be difficult to navigate and has limited support.
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