IBM Spectrum Virtualize vs. VMware Workstation Pro

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is very suitable for the virtualization part since it is easy to connect the hypervisors with the storage, also for the video surveillance part since it connects with the recording applications easily, it is also easy to create groups of volumes or hosts for the management of many units at the same time.

Incentivized

Some scenarios where VMware Workstation pro is best suited are: 1. Utilization for testing software - can install a virtual machine to simulate software requirements and testing it on your network. 2. Testing operating systems upgrades and installation on specific hardware requirements. 3. Virtualizing a physical server 4. Being able to backup a whole server and restore from it in the event of any issue occurring.

Incentivized

• Provision drives over fiber and/or iSCSI connections
• Perform volume replications between 2 storages efficiently
• The ability to virtualize other storage and make it easy to provision

Incentivized

• Not HTML based - Web applications are not always the best method to access VM's
• Isolation - VM's can be pulled off production networks for testing in a safe environment
• Operability - The interface mirrors the HTML format giving the user all of the features necessary to modify, access and manage VM's

Incentivized

• Costly but worth every dime in staff hours saved
• Each generation has its limits on Fibre Channel speed it supports and one must upgrade the nodes to get to higher speeds
• User Interface is now light speed ahead of where it started.

Incentivized

• Making it easy to export VMS is something that Workstation struggles with; exporting to OVA which is the primary type of VM we export to is cumbersome and can be difficult without proper knowledge on how to do this.
• Management of VMS could be a little bit more in depth.
• I think the networking portion of Workstation could use some slight improvements, more in-depth segmentation to support containers, however, this is a small issue and not something many people will miss or need.

Incentivized

It's a solid product, and if they make it compatible with HyperVM (WSL, Docker, etc.) it would be great

Incentivized

The equipment is easy to configure, implement and manage, it does not require investing a lot of time to manage them since they are very reliable and secure.The equipment is easy to configure, implement and manage, and does not require a lot of time to manage it as it is very reliable and secure.Its components are not easily damaged and any alert that occurs can be quickly corrected without interrupting services.

Incentivized

It is well documented since it is a long actor in the virtualization scene. Easy to use for most user cases. Pretty much not maintenance on the software besides the occasional software updates and/or compatibility issues from time to time.

Incentivized

I haven't had to call VMware Workstation support. The majority of the time, whenever I have a problem, I can perform an online search and find the answers I need. Online forums and users with similar situations are generally sufficient to answer any questions I have had, though, from previous experience at another company, their support is outstanding and responsive to circumstances. However, that is generally for a paid support contract and should be expected when you are paying for that support.

Incentivized

IBM Spectrum Protect Virtualize beats ALL competition hands down, and one does not need to deal with the complications that are put into some of the Disk Array/ block Storage systems. Excellent Storage management and can see performance of your SAN that goes thru it easily.

Incentivized

VMware Workstation does have a price unlike VirtualBox, that is free. But, Workstation Pro makes up for it by how many features comes with it. We are also able to take VM's in our vSphere Production environment and spin it up on and isolated laptop for sandbox testing within Workstation Pro. I'm not sure that VirtualBox is able to do that

Incentivized

• Positive ROI and saves labor costs of engineers
• Fast to implement
• Worth the cost !!

Incentivized

• The ROI on Workstation would be hard for us to compute. It makes things easier to do and to get access to, but there are other applications and methods to do much the same thing.
• Where there has to be a some form of ROI is in the fact that you will actually do things that you might not otherwise do simply because Workstation makes them easier. Sandbox testing is a good example of this idea.

Incentivized