vSphere review
Bottom line
vSphere is a virtualization product for running and monitoring virtual servers and machines, with a feature list that also reaches into data cleansing and machine learning. Its clearest strengths are virtual machine encryption, templates, load balancing and an API for automation. The main cost to watch is the $576.96 per user per year starting price, with no free plan or trial to test it first. Teams that need broad virtualization features and can commit to per-user annual pricing should consider it.
What is vSphere?
vSphere is a virtualization product for running, managing and monitoring virtual servers and virtual machines. It addresses the cost and sprawl of maintaining separate physical servers by consolidating workloads onto shared infrastructure. Its feature set covers virtual machine monitoring, server monitoring, bandwidth monitoring and performance management.
Day to day, administrators use dashboards to watch server and virtual machine performance and bandwidth, and configuration management helps keep settings consistent across systems. Templates let teams create new virtual machines from a standard build, and version control tracks changes to those templates over time. Virtual machine encryption secures individual machines, while load balancing spreads work across resources. Data migration and namespace management help teams move workloads and organize resources. The product is deployed through a web interface and includes an API for automation.
Typical customers include freelancers, small businesses, mid-size businesses and enterprises, so the product covers a wide range of team sizes. Pricing starts at $576.96 per user per year. No free plan or free trial is offered, so buyers should budget before they evaluate it. Support is provided through FAQs, a forum and a knowledge base.
Most tools in the virtualization category handle only infrastructure. This one also lists data cleansing, data discovery, model training and an ML algorithm library, so it reaches into data and machine learning work alongside server and virtual machine management. That mix is less common among infrastructure tools.
Who it's for
- Infrastructure teams managing virtual servers
- Organizations consolidating workloads onto shared resources
- Teams automating virtual machine tasks through an API
Who should look elsewhere
- Buyers who need a free plan or trial
- Teams that require phone or live support
- Buyers who need a list of prebuilt integrations
Typical uses
- Standardizing new virtual machines from templates
- Monitoring server and virtual machine performance on dashboards
- Securing virtual machines with encryption
- Preparing datasets for machine learning model training
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vSphere alternatives and comparisons
vSphere is the only virtualization product we list so far. Browse the category as more are added.