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Oracle VM vs VMware vSphere comparison

Oracle and VMware are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. Oracle is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.4, while VMware is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Oracle holds a 7.3% mindshare in SVS, compared to VMware’s 19.6% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Oracle users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of VMware users who would recommend it.
Oracle VM
Read 80 Oracle VM reviews
  • 13,524 Views
  • 9,690 Comparison Views
83% willing to recommend
VMware vSphere
Read 452 VMware vSphere reviews
  • 34,723 Views
  • 28,616 Comparison Views
94% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Oracle VM and VMware vSphere are key players in the enterprise virtualization space. VMware vSphere seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set and scalability, making it more suitable for complex deployments despite higher costs.

Features: Oracle VM is known for its integration with Oracle products, robustness, and cost-effectiveness. VMware vSphere stands out for its scalability, comprehensive management tools, and efficiency in handling large-scale environments.

Room for Improvement: Oracle VM could improve in performance, support, and integration challenges. VMware vSphere users point to high costs, complex licensing, and the desire for simpler pricing structures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle VM is straightforward within the Oracle ecosystem, but its customer service requires enhancement. VMware vSphere offers more deployment flexibility and is praised for strong support services, boosting user satisfaction across diverse setups.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle VM's lower setup costs are attractive for budget-conscious users. VMware vSphere, however, justifies its higher initial expenses with greater ROI due to its performance in large-scale operations.

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Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM vs. VMware vSphere
December 2024
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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
Oracle VM customer service excels with knowledgeable support, global issue resolution, and effective escalation, improving over time.
Sentiment score
7.2
VMware vSphere's support is praised for knowledgeable service but criticized for variable response times and declining quality over time.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
My team solves most tickets, needing support only about once or twice a year.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
4.8
Oracle VM users criticize its interface, performance, integration issues, limited language support, and desire improved documentation, automation, and security.
Sentiment score
4.9
VMware vSphere users seek improvements in cost, support, interface, integration, performance, setup complexity, automation, documentation, and fault tolerance.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
Jawed Iqbal - PeerSpot reviewerNeeraj Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
RJ
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Oracle VM is highly scalable with some flexibility but may present licensing and hardware limitations for certain organizations.
Sentiment score
7.4
VMware vSphere offers seamless scalability and flexibility, efficiently handling large environments with minimal performance issues and strategic adaptability.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
7.0
Oracle VM offers cost-effective virtualization with flexible licensing, favorable pricing, and manageable support costs compared to VMware.
Sentiment score
5.9
VMware vSphere pricing is high but offers value in stability; consult VMware or resellers to customize licensing.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Oracle VM is stable in later versions, with resolved initial issues; users rate stability between 7 and 10.
Sentiment score
8.0
VMware vSphere is highly stable and reliable, with minor issues often due to hardware or third-party integrations.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.0
Oracle VM offers enterprise virtualization with cost savings, scalability, OS compatibility, and efficient resource management, reducing downtime.
Sentiment score
8.0
VMware vSphere excels in ease of use, robust features, and efficient resource management, ideal for diverse virtualization needs.
No quotes available
For more quotes and insights, download the Oracle VM report
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
VMware vCenter is extremely useful as we can manage between 100 and 1,000 hosts using just one management tool.
The high availability feature is significant.
For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSphere report
Neeraj Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
RJ
Jawed Iqbal - PeerSpot reviewer
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle VM
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware vSphere
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
452
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Oracle VM is 7.3%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere is 19.6%, up from 18.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

Rasika Sudasinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
A cheap option available for Linux environments which is useful for many workloads
Oracle VM is an obsolete product in that no new features are coming for it. The new version is called Oracle KVM. The only improvement needed for Oracle VM is the look and feel of the interface. When comparing the user console with vCenter, the interface used to control VMware environments, Oracle VM's user interface is not that rich in terms of user experience. If Oracle could improve that, it would be good. Besides that, we don't know if the solution comes with a roadmap because it comes free of charge with Oracle x86. We can't expect something similar to vCenter in KVM, but at least if you can improve what users can experience, then it would be good.
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Vikas Dhumale - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good performance and is useful for banking systems
Speaking about the application deployment process, I work at the L1 level in my company. In my company, the L3 is a different department that manages the application deployment process, and most of them go for tools apart from the ones under VMware to manage the VMs. I am only creating new VMs and assigning RAM space, and if something comes up, then I create new RHEL-based systems. When it comes to the application deployment process, my company manually deploys the applications. For automation purposes, our company uses Jenkins to collect the logs and provide a GUI with the help of a username and password to the end user, after which they can collect the logs from Jenkins. I work at an L1 level in my company. The integrations and infrastructure-related areas of the product are managed by another team in my company. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Nowadays, people don't prefer to go for cloud-based solutions. Most of the companies prefer VMware as they want some level of security in the environment. VMware allows users to have in-house products. Most companies or banks are not moving over to cloud-based tools. VMware is used in banking systems. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
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Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 10, 2015
Hyper-V 2012 R2 vs. VMware vSphere 5.5
I was won with Hyper-V 2012R2 recently and the table below based on customer RFP (edited). This articles all about technical, there is not related with TCO/ROI, licensing cost, “political”, etc. Another to noted is the Windows Server 2012 licenses is based on 2 socket CPU, meanwhile…
Read full review
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 22, 2021
Nov 22, 2021
Which is better - Oracle VM or VMware VSphere?
Oracle VM seems to me to be kind of outdated. Nevertheless, it is fairly straightforward to use and maintain. The solution can just be set and you can forget about it, and the scalability is considered to be quite good. Oracle VM’s customer service and technical support are really outstanding. With this solution, you have the ability to patch with no downtime. Oracle has been around for a long ...
2 out of 3 answers
FM
Nov 17, 2021
VMware VSphere is better than Oracle VM because on Oracle Virtual machine migration is not an easy task as in VSphere due to complications existing in Oracle VM.  Also, Oracle VM is limited in features compared to VMware. Oracle VM is limited also in communicating with other virtualization platforms like VMware.
Read full answer
Janet Staver - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 18, 2021
Oracle VM seems to me to be kind of outdated. Nevertheless, it is fairly straightforward to use and maintain. The solution can just be set and you can forget about it, and the scalability is considered to be quite good. Oracle VM’s customer service and technical support are really outstanding. With this solution, you have the ability to patch with no downtime. Oracle has been around for a long time. It is complete in terms of its features, functionalities, and sophistication. It may provide good documentation and be easy to set up, but it has a terrible licensing structure. Oracle VM may help a company manage its costs, but that can come at another expense for a company - you have to work with an antiquated system. VMware VSphere is fairly priced. Like Oracle VM, it provides near-zero downtime services. I think the way information is monitored needs to be improved. I feel like they need to have a better solution for hybrid clouds and migration to the cloud. It would also be nice to have additional integration options with different solutions at the application level (for example, Kubernetes). One of the biggest issues I have with it, is the firmware management of the underlying hardware. For firmware upgrades, for example, you have to take down your entire system. Even though it makes it easy to create virtual machines, it could be more user-friendly. In addition, the customer service and technical support seem to be average, but nothing spectacular. Overall, I would say that VMware VSphere is pretty stable and implementation is fairly easy. Conclusion:I’m not overly thrilled about either solution, but having had experience with both, I think VMware VSphere is better because it is easy to scale, pretty easy to use, easy to maintain and is mostly stable. And also, while Oracle VM may be more well known, I am not willing to work with an outdated product, especially since there are multiple other modern solutions available.
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See all 3 answers
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
46%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Oracle VM or KVM?
I would prefer if KVM was easier to scale and not so limited. Overall the product has been helpful. It is easy to use, and was quite straight-forward to set up. Since I have been using KVM, I have ...
See all answers
Which is better - Oracle VM or VMware VSphere?
Oracle VM seems to me to be kind of outdated. Nevertheless, it is fairly straightforward to use and maintain. The solution can just be set and you can forget about it, and the scalability is consid...
See all answers
What do you like most about Oracle VM?
If you want to access the VM from anywhere over the Internet, you put it in a public subnet. So, VMs are linked to that. The subnets are linked to it. So, it's perfectly secured if it's a private n...
See all answers
What is IOMMU?
DEEPEN DHULLA did explain well IOMMU. IOMMU has to be activated at the bios level. It exists on Intel and AMD platforms. It is used a lot inside virtualization platforms like VMware VSphere. It pr...
See all answers
Why KVM??? Help please!
We use VMware and KVM. We find that KVM is a lot simpler to use and it provides the virtualization we need for Linux and Windows. For us, VMware does not offer any advantage. Moreover, KVM is free.
See all answers
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Proxmox VE vs Oracle VM Logo
Proxmox VE vs Oracle VM
Compared 18% of the time
KVM vs Oracle VM Logo
KVM vs Oracle VM
Compared 17% of the time
Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Oracle VM Logo
Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Oracle VM
Compared 14% of the time
Hyper-V vs Oracle VM Logo
Hyper-V vs Oracle VM
Compared 4% of the time
RHEV vs Oracle VM Logo
RHEV vs Oracle VM
Compared 3% of the time
More Oracle VM Competitors
Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere Logo
Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere
Compared 25% of the time
Proxmox VE vs VMware vSphere Logo
Proxmox VE vs VMware vSphere
Compared 13% of the time
RHEV vs VMware vSphere Logo
RHEV vs VMware vSphere
Compared 10% of the time
KVM vs VMware vSphere Logo
KVM vs VMware vSphere
Compared 8% of the time
Citrix XenServer vs VMware vSphere Logo
Citrix XenServer vs VMware vSphere
Compared 6% of the time
More VMware vSphere Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM
November 2024
Oracle VM reportDownload Oracle VM product report
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
November 2024
VMware vSphere reportDownload VMware vSphere product report
 

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Oracle
VMware
 

Overview

Oracle VM for x86

Oracle VM for x86 is a Xen based server virtualization platform for public and private cloud and traditional on premise deployment. Oracle VM offers full lifecycle and application deployment from disk to cloud.

Designed and optimized for security, efficiency and performance Oracle VM supports major hardware vendors x86 and storage platforms and can run workloads on Linux, Windows and Oracle Solaris. Uniquely for our virtualization platform it offers live patching via Ksplice enhancing security and minimizing service disruption. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.

Oracle VM for SPARC

Oracle VM for SPARC is a firmware based virtualization platform for Oracle and Fujitsu SPARC based servers running Solaris. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.

VMware vSphere is a powerful and complete server virtualization platform that allows its users to create and manage virtual data centers and machines. VMware vSphere is designed to help IT departments set up and run applications using the most cost-effective computer resources. By using vSphere, organizations save the time and energy necessary for purchasing infrastructure and software and reduce ongoing maintenance and operational burdens on IT teams.

Infrastructure administrators and network operators can access and manage the vSphere server by using a web-based cross-platform client application or via the vSphere client tool provided with vSphere. 

VMware vSphere provides visibility into VMs and enables its users to carry out operations to manage VMs. This includes tasks such as:

  • Powering VMs on and off
  • Launching the VM console
  • Shutting down guest operating systems
  • Settings configurations
  • Taking system snapshots

VMware vSphere Benefits

Some of the benefits of using VMware vSphere include: 

  • Reduced costs: Since VMware applications are run on a server, it is not necessary to spend large amounts of your organization’s money on hardware, software, and infrastructure.
  • Increased productivity and customer satisfaction: VMware is able to operate multiple complex processes simultaneously. With all your applications being managed and run on the cloud, downtime, failures, and application errors are rare. VMware easily scales up and down to meet your computing needs. The high availability that VMware provides allows your IT staff to focus on other issues and keeps your customers satisfied with the service they receive.
  • Unlimited access to your VMs: VMware’s user-friendly cloud-based interface allows any employee to work from any location at any time.
  • Enhanced security: VMware’s security tools deliver full visibility into your entire system. This keeps your applications and data more secure, in any type of environment. VMware provides multiple protective tools including antiviruses and anti-malware, as well as backup and recovery services.

VMware vSphere Features

Below is a list of some of VMware vSphere’s key features:

  • Transferable virtual machine images: Export and import virtual machine images from your local environment. This gives users the ability to set up and configure their systems locally and only upload them to the server once everything is working properly. VM images can be moved back and forth between vendors, ensuring that your company is never tied up to a specific cloud vendor.
  • User-friendly interface: Using VMware’s intuitive console, you can easily create, manage, share, and deploy virtual machines.
  • API integration: VMware’s APIs support integration with third-party applications for data protection, multipathing, and disk array solutions.
  • Distributed power management: Automate efficiency by continuously optimizing server power consumption within each cluster.

Reviews from Real Users

VMware vSphere stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. A few major ones are its virtualization abilities, its flexibility and availability, and its user-friendly interface.

Felix D., an Automation project administrator, DCS, I&E at Centennial Cayman Corp, writes, “The connectivity is fantastic, and many functions can run together in one server. If you need to scale, we can continue to add components or modules. It's a beautiful virtual solution that has many advantages over physical hardware, where you have to use devices and wiring to connect all your projects.”

 

Sample Customers

Ambulance Victoria, Australian Finance Group (AFG), Avnet Technology Solutions, CERN, cloudKleyer, Danish Tax Authority (SKAT), Data Intensity, Dubai World, Engineers Australia, Enkitec, Groupe FLO, Guerra S.A. Implemento, s Rodovišrios, Interactive One, IT Convergence, Jesta Digital, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, KT, Kyoto Prefecture, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory / National Ignition Facility, Multinet Pakistan, National Australia Bank (NAB), Navis LLC, Overhead Door, Overstock.com, Paragon Data, Parks Victoria, Pella, Sunway Shared Services, St. Louis Metro, Terminales Ro de la Plata S.A., University of Massachusetts, Versace,
Abu Dhabi Ports Company, ACS, AIA New Zealand, Consona, Corporate Express, CS Energy, and Digiweb.
Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM vs. VMware vSphere
December 2024
Free Report: Oracle VM vs. VMware vSphere
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