Best Virtualization Management Tools

What are Virtualization Management Tools?

Virtualization management tools administer, monitor, and maintain virtualized computer resources. They manage virtual workloads, tracking their performance and usage. Their monitoring and troubleshooting features generate alerts and provide insights to assist with problem resolution. High-end tools support dynamic resource allocation and use machine learning to optimize virtual infrastructure.

Virtualization management’s predictive analytics help with capacity planning. The software provides cost calculations for resource utilization. They ensure virtual machine hypervisor software is up to date and their APIs provide integration with in-house tools. These tools typically support a range of virtualization products from vendors such as VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, and Oracle. Most products can manage virtual environments in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid installations.

Virtualization management tools are essential in cloud computing solutions, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. They also facilitate the administration and allocation of IT infrastructure.

Virtualization management tools commonly manage:

• Network virtualization, which provides a single view of a network to facilitate administration.
• Server virtualization, which allows servers to support multiple functions.
• Storage virtualization, which allows all storage devices to be managed and accessed as a single device.
• Data virtualization, which creates a single data access layer for all consuming applications and services.
• Application virtualization, which runs an application without the need to install it on a user’s device.
• Desktop virtualization, which permits multiple operating systems to be installed on one computer, and enables their deployment over hundreds of devices.
• Operating systems virtualization, which allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single price of hardware.
• CPU and GPU virtualization, which allows a single CPU or GPU to support multiple VMs.

Virtualization management tool features commonly overlap with network performance monitoring tools, database performance monitoring tools, application performance management software, and cloud management suites.

Virtualization Tools vs Virtualization Management Tools

While virtualization software often includes some virtualization management features, virtualization management tools contain a wider range of functions and features. Virtualization software creates virtual resources, while virtualization management tools manage these virtual resources, making sure they efficiently utilize the physical hardware they run on.

Virtualization Management Tool Features

Virtualization management tools offer many of the following features:

• Resource monitoring
• Performance monitoring
• Provisioning and dynamic resource allocation
• Configuration
• Optimization, machine learning
• Alerting
• Troubleshooting
• Capacity planning, predictive analytics, and modeling
• Utilization cost calculations and chargeback reporting
• Programmable APIs
• Backup and recovery
• Metrics, analytics, and reporting
• Hypervisor version monitoring
• Security
• Dashboards
• Integration with virtualization software
• Manage cloud-based, on-premises, and hybrid virtualized infrastructure

Virtualization Management Tools Comparison

Consider the following when purchasing virtualization management tools

Use Case: There are a variety of virtualization management tools on the market. Tools like SolarWinds and vRealize have a broader scope and will manage a range of virtualized assets. Others manage specific virtualized resources such as virtual machines, networks, or desktops. Products such as Veeam One can manage both physical and virtual environments, while CloudPhysics specifically manages virtualization in the cloud. Make sure your chosen software matches your current needs, as well as any needs you expect in the future.

Existing Tools: Basic virtualization management tools are included in virtualization software, so you might not need a dedicated virtualization management tool for simple management. Some performance management solutions may include virtualization management tools as well. Make sure your needs are outside the scope of any existing solutions you may have.

Pricing Information

There are multiple free and open-source virtualization management tools available. For paid software, pricing depends on the type of tool, its features, and the scale of your virtual environment. Costs can range from $30 to $3,000 a month, with free trials commonly available. Large enterprise-scale installations will have to obtain a vendor price quote.