VMware Player used to support legacy applications, while keeping your system up to date
October 09, 2015
VMware Player used to support legacy applications, while keeping your system up to date
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Overall Satisfaction with VMware Player
VMware Player has been used in multiple applications that address software compatibility issues and operating system compliance. With VMware Player we have been able to continue the use of legacy applications running on VMs of older OSs while maintaining an up to date host OS across our network.
- VMware Player is easy to use.
- VMware Player supports a wide variety operating systems.
- Unity mode makes it easy for the end user to utilize needed legacy applications while maintaining their familiar Host OS desktop. It's seamless to the point where the end user doesn't know they're running applications from a VM.
- As intended, VMware Player is capable of running a single VM at a time and you must be logged into the host machine in order to run the guest VMs. In order to run VMs without logging in and/or to run multiple VMs simultaneously requires VMware Workstation.
- VMware Player was a very affordable investment that allowed our organization to keep a third party business partner's application running on an old version of Internet Explorer while we continued to stay compliant on our workstations by keeping them up-to-date.
VMware Player is easier to use for administrators and end-users when compared to anything else on the market.
Using VMware Player
20 - Allows our customer service representatives to maintain a needed connection to a third party web-based application that requires Internet Explorer 8, while allowing our host machines to run newer versions of IE and not worry about updates effecting access. VMware Player also utilizes unity mode so that the end-user can easily use the old browser version from the VM seamlessly on their host desktop just like any other installed application.
5 - A short training on VMware Player allows you to support it, there are many online places available where you can read or watch tutorials for anything needed within the application. Even if you go at it alone without reading online tutorials of watching videos you'll be able to figure out the application relatively quickly.
- Keeping our host systems compliant with software updates that effect access to older legacy applications.
- Allowing access to legacy applications via the guest OS that can run older application versions.
- Ability to secure and lock down the guest OS so that it can be used for its sole purpose, this reduces the risk of the guest OS inadvertently being used for other tasks where the host OS should be used.
- Best use for when you need a legacy application on a user desktop that can't otherwise be compatible with the host OS.
- Good use where you don't need the VM to be run 100% of the time.
- Access a remote site secured over a site-to-site VPN connection, while using the old legacy browser and OS.
- Unity mode was a great addition for our users.
- Enabled us to lock down the guest OS to only use the applications we wanted to be used in the guest OS.
- The next time we run into a compatibility issue on a needed application which has no alternative other than compromising our host OS security, we will then stand up a VM with the needed insecure settings and setup the needed accesses required to perform the needed job function.
Evaluating VMware Player and Competitors
Yes - Hyper-V was replaced on the user desktop for what we were needing to accomplish. Hyper-V was free with our versions of Windows but it wasn't robust enough to effectively implement our required configuration. In the end VMware Player was worth the purchase over the free Hyper-V available within the Windows OS.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
- Third-party Reviews
Previous knowledge of VMware products. Price was also a strong factor in choosing VMware Player. I knew how the product functioned and we knew that it could be used as a solution to our issue. We chose VMware Player because we only needed the VM running while the user was logged in and we only needed a single VM per user.
I most likely would use the same evaluation and selection process where we research the available software and look at what existing relationships we have with our software vendors. Then we choose the best software to implement in our environment that is within the budget. VMware Player met all the right boxes.
VMware Player Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - There were 20 users that needed the legacy application that was run within a virtual machine using vmware player. these 20 users were easily and quickly setup with the application and the Virtual Machine which they required to complete their jobs. Therefore there wasn't much if any change management that needed to be implemented other than watching for updates to our version of vmware player and deciding if we needed them and when.
- we encountered no significant issues implementing VMware player.
VMware Player Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - We have premium support available to us for VMware Player and our VMware ESX infrastructure. It is a great investment when the time comes and you need them to help with a business critical application of VM server that isn't operational. It's worth every penny when reducing down time and resolving the root cause of the issue. VMware support is very knowledgeable.
When we initially purchased the product and were given a great demo and explanation of the product and unity mode. The resources available to us were very helpful in getting the product launched and functional very quickly. This wasn't at any extra cost and was a great bonus from VMware.
Using VMware Player
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Adding additional hardware is very easy and straightforward.
- Passing through physical hardware from the host to the guest is also easy and useful.
- Configuring unity mode is also a great and easy to use feature.
- In VMware Player there isn't a native built in way to modify the network configuration, it requires the installation of an additional vmnetcfg application.