Compare VMware vSphere Editions: Managed Virtualization & Cloud Computing

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Build a Flexible, Efficient Datacenter

vSphere with Operations Management combines the world’s leading virtualization platform with VMware’s award winning management capabilities. This new solution enables IT to gain operational insight into the virtual environment providing improved availability, performance, and capacity utilization. Run business applications confidently to meet the most demanding service level agreements at the lowest TCO.

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Compare vSphere with Operations Management Editions

Meet your specific business and IT objectives with the right edition of vSphere with Operations Management. One instance of VMware vCenter Server, sold separately, is required for all VMware vSphere deployments.

VMware vSphere with Operations Management combines the world’s leading virtualization platform with best in class management capabilities. vSphere with Operations Management is available in these edition: Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus. SnS is required for every vSphere with Operations Management Edition purchase.

For a complete, integrated cloud infrastructure suite, consider the new VMware vCloud Suite. The vCloud Suite includes the entire set of cloud infrastructure capabilities: Virtualization, Software Defined Datacenter Services, policy based provisioning, Disaster Recovery, Application Management, and Operations Management. vSphere Enterprise Plus is included in the vCloud Suite. Learn more about the VMware vCloud Suite.

	Standard	Enterprise	Enterprise Plus
Overview	Server consolidation & no planned downtime with proactive operations management	Powerful & efficient resource management with proactive operations management	Policy-based datacenter automation with proactive operations management
Product Components
Processor Entitlement License is required per physical processor.	Per 1 CPU	Per 1 CPU	Per 1 CPU
vRAM Entitlement Amount of vRAM that each license adds to the available pool. vRAM is the amount of virtual memory configured to a virtual machine. See vSphere 5.1 Pricing and Packaging White Paper for more information about vRAM.	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
vCPU Entitlement The number of virtual CPUs that may be allocated to each VM when using virtual symmetric multiprocessing (vSMP)	8-way	32-way	64-way
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware Qualified purchases of VMware vSphere entitle to free use of enterprise Linux (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware) as guest OS. This offer includes free subscription to patches & updates of the OS and ability to run unlimited number of virtual machines per vSphere license. For more information about Terms and Conditions use the link at the bottom of this page.
Centralized Management Compatibility
vCenter Server (Sold Separately) vCenter Server – Provides management for vSphere deployments and is available in two editions: vCenter Standard: Provides large scale management of VMware vSphere deployments for rapid provisioning, monitoring, orchestration, and control of virtual machines (up to 1000 vSphere hosts). vCenter Foundation: Provides powerful management tools for smaller environments (up to 3 vSphere hosts) looking to rapidly provision, monitor, and control virtual machines.	vCenter Server Foundation vCenter Server Standard	vCenter Server Foundation vCenter Server Standard	vCenter Server Foundation vCenter Server Standard
Features
Health Monitoring and Performance Analytics Help anticipate performance bottlenecks and enable vSphere infrastructure health with patented self-learning analytics.
Capacity Management and Optimization Ensures capacity consumption is right-sized and not overprovisioned to allow for the most efficient use of virtualized resources.
Operations Dashboard and Root Cause Analysis Provides intuitive operations dashboards and actionable recommendations.
High Availability Minimize downtime with automated restart of your VMs following physical machine failure.
Data Protection Provides simple, cost effective backup and recovery for virtual machines. It is a newly architected solution basedon on EMC Avamar technology that enables agentless backups with built-in deduplication.
vMotion Eliminate application downtime from planned server maintenance by migrating running VMs between hosts.
vShield Endpoint Secures virtual machines with offloaded anti-virus and anti-malware (AV) solutions without the need of agents inside the virtual machine.
Replication Enables efficient array-agnostic replication of virtual machine data over the LAN or WAN. vSphere Replication simplifies management enabling replication at the virtual machine level and enables RPOs as low as 15 minutes.
Hot Add Increase capacity by adding CPU, memory, or devices to virtual machines when needed without disruption or downtime.
Fault Tolerance Provide continuous availability for applications with zero data loss in the event of server failures.
Storage vMotion Avoid application downtime for planned storage maintenance by migrating live VM disk files across storage arrays.
Virtual Serial Port Concentrator Connect over the network via the serial port concentrator to the serial port console on any server.
Storage APIs for Array Integration, Multipathing Improve performance, reliability, and scalability by leveraging efficient array-based operations along with third party storage vendor multi-path software capabilities.
Distributed Resources Scheduler (DRS), Distributed Power Management (DPM) Align resources usage with business priority by automatically load balancing across hosts and optimize power consumption by turning off hosts during lower load periods.
Storage I/O Control and Network I/O Control Storage I/O Control - Prioritizes storage access by continuously monitoring I/O load of a storage volume and dynamically allocating available I/O resources to virtual machines according to business needs. Network I/O Control - Prioritizes network access by continuously monitoring I/O load over the network and dynamically allocating available I/O resources to specific flows according to business needs.
Distributed Switch Centralize provisioning, administration, and monitoring using cluster-level network aggregation.
Host Profiles and Auto Deploy Host Profiles - Capture host level configuration settings and save them as a template to configure other vSphere hosts. Monitor hosts for configuration changes and automatically alert vSphere administrators if a host falls out of compliance. Auto Deploy - Simplify host deployment and compliance by creating VMs from configuration templates.
Storage DRS and Profile-Driven Storage Storage DRS - Automated load balancing now looks at storage characteristics to determine the best place for a given virtual machine’s data to live when it is created and then used over time. Profile-Driven Storage - Reduce the steps in the selection of storage resources by grouping storage according to a user-defined policy.
Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) Support Allows one PCI express (PCIe) adapter to be presented as multiple separate logical devices to the VMs. Provides users with the ability to offload IO processing and reduce network latency.
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Note:
VMware vCenter Server: vCenter Server is licensed per instance. One instance is required in a vSphere deployment to enable centralized management and deployment of core vSphere features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler, and more. Learn more about vCenter Server.

vSphere Desktop provides the platform to deploy desktop virtualization offering scalability, high availability, reliability and optimal performance for all your desktop workloads. vSphere Desktop is also available as part of Horizon View. It can be purchased directly with VMware, through resellers or in the online store.

vSphere Kits for Retail and Branch Office: VMware offers three editions of vSphere kits specifically targeted at larger customers with a distributed network of retail and branch office environments. To find out more about these vSphere kits, visit VMware solutions for Retail and Branch Offices.