DATA S H E E T

VMware vSphere

The Worlds Leading Virtualization Platform

AT A G L A N C E

Designed for organizations that want to virtualize

the entire data centers and deliver IT as a service,
VMware vSphere includes features for transforming
data centers into dramatically simplified cloud
computing environments that can deliver the next
generation of flexible, reliable IT services.
KEY BENEFITS

Efficiency through utilization and automation

Achieve consolidation ratios of 15:1 or more and
improve hardware utilization from 515 percent
to as much as 80 percent or morewithout
sacrificing performance.
Dramatically lower IT costs Reduce capital
expenditures by up to 70 percent and operational
expenditures by up to 30 percent to achieve 2030
percent lower IT infrastructure costs for each
application running on vSphere.
Agility with control Respond quickly to changing
business needs without sacrificing security or
control, and deliver zero-touch infrastructure with
built-in availability, scalability and performance
guarantees for all business-critical applications
running on vSphere.
Freedom of choice Use a common, standards
based platform to leverage existing IT assets
alongside next-generation IT services, and enhance
vSphere through open APIs with solutions from a
global ecosystem of leading technology providers.

What is vSphere?
VMware vSphere is the industry-leading virtualization platform
for building cloud infrastructures. It enables IT to meet SLAs
(service-level agreements) for the most demanding businesscritical applications, at the lowest TCO (total cost of ownership).
vSphere accelerates the shift to cloud computing for existing
data centers and also underpins compatible public cloud
offerings, forming the foundation for the industrys only hybrid
cloud model. With the support of more than 3,000 applications
from more than 2,000 ISV partners, vSphere is the trusted
platform for any application.

How Is vSphere Used?

Availability and Performance Deliver enhanced availability
and performance for business-critical applications and
next-gen applications, such as Hadoop
Storage Leverage server-side caching for enhanced
performance of applications
Scalability Support the largest workloads possible by
doubling configuration maximums in several key areas

Key Features and Components of vSphere

Virtualization Platform
VMware vSphere Hypervisor Architecture provides a robust,
production-proven, high-performance virtualization layer. It
enables multiple virtual machines to share hardware resources
with performance that can match (and in some cases exceed)
native throughput.
VMware vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing enables
the use of ultra-powerful virtual machines that possess up to
64 virtual CPUs.
VMware vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) allows
virtual machines to access shared storage devices (Fibre Channel,
iSCSI, etc.) and is a key enabling technology for other vSphere
components such as VMware vSphere Storage vMotion.
VMware vSphere Storage APIs provide integration with
supported third-party data protection, multipathing and disk
array solutions.

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Additional Components Available in Enterprise Edition

VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler
provides dynamic, hardware-independent load balancing
and resource allocation for virtual machines in a cluster, using
policy-driven automation to reduce management complexity
while meeting SLAs.
VMware vSphere Distributed Power Management
automates energy efficiency in vSphere Distributed Resource
Scheduler clusters by continuously optimizing server power
consumption within each cluster.
VMware vSphere Reliable Memory places critical vSphere
components (such as the hypervisor) into memory regions
identified as reliable on supported hardware. This further
protects components from an uncorrectable memory error.
VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions run Hadoop on
vSphere to achieve higher utilization, reliability and agility.
vSphere Big Data Extensions support multiple Hadoop
distributions and make it seamless for IT to deploy, run and
manage Hadoop workloads on one common platform.
Additional Components Available in Enterprise Plus Edition
(also inclusive of Enterprise Edition Components listed earlier)
VMware vSphere provides a complete virtualization platform with a comprehensive set
of application and infrastructure services.

VMware vSphere Thin Provisioning provides dynamic allocation

of shared storage capacity, enabling IT organizations to implement
a tiered storage strategy while reducing storage spending by
up to 50 percent.
VMware vSphere vMotion enables live migration of virtual
machines between servers with no disruption to users or loss of
service, eliminating the need to schedule application downtime
for planned server maintenance.
VMware vSphere Storage vMotion enables live migration of
virtual-machine disks with no disruption to users, eliminating the
need to schedule application downtime for planned storage
maintenance or storage migrations.
VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) provides cost-effective,
automated restart within minutes for all applications if a hardware
or operating system failure occurs.
VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT) provides continuous
availability of any application in the event of a hardware failure
with no data loss or downtime.
VMware vSphere Data Protection provides simple, costeffective backup and recovery for virtual machines. It is a newly
architected solution based on EMC Avamar technology that
enables agentless backups with built-in deduplication.
VMware vShield Endpoint secures virtual machines with
offloaded antivirus and antimalware solutions without the need
for agents inside the virtual machine.

VMware vSphere Distributed Switch simplifies and enhances

virtual-machine networking in vSphere environments and enables
those environments to use third-party distributed virtual switches.
VMware vSphere Storage I/O Control and VMware vSphere
Network I/O Control set storage and network quality-of-service
priorities for guaranteed access to resources.
VMware vSphere Auto Deploy performs quick, as-needed
deployment of additional vSphere hosts. When vSphere Auto
Deploy is running, it pushes out update images, eliminating
patching and the need to schedule patch windows.
VMware vSphere Host Profiles help IT administrators simplify
host deployment and compliance.
VMware vSphere Storage DRS automates load balancing by
using storage characteristics to determine the best place for a
virtual machines data to reside, both when it is created and when
it is used over time.
VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage reduces the steps in the
selection of storage resources by grouping storage according to
a user-defined policy.
VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache virtualizes server-side flash
providing a high performance read cache layer that dramatically
lowers application latency.
vSphere App HA adds a new level of availability that allows
vSphere to detect and recover from application or OS failure.
Supports the most common applications on the market and can
extend to the VMware ecosystem through its APIs.

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Customer Success Stories

How to Buy

Marshall University, the oldest public institution of higher learning

in West Virginia, has leveraged vSphere to extend the life of an
overcrowded data center while reducing IT expenditures and
accelerating server provisioning time.

VMware vSphere is available standalone and as part of VMware

vSphere with Operations Management or VMware vCloud
Suite. Use the online VMware Partner Locator to find an authorized
reseller in your area: http://partnerlocator.vmware.com/.

Read the Marshall University success story: http://www.vmware.

com/go/customer_success/marshall_u.

You can also visit the online VMware store to determine which kit
or edition of vSphere is right for your organization: http://www.
vmware.com/vmwarestore/datacenter-products/.

EGIS Nyrt., one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in the

Central Eastern European region, has used vSphere to consolidate
the number of servers managed and has virtualized its businesscritical applications to help improve performance and uptime.
Read the EGIS success story: http://www.vmware.com/go/
customer_success/EGIS_Nyrt.
QIC, one of Australias largest institutional investment managers,
has used vSphere to virtualize 80 percent of its Microsoft Windows
Server production servers. The company not only has streamlined
its infrastructure; it also has leveraged the backup and recovery
capabilities of vSphere to further its disaster recovery and businesscontinuity planning.

If you are an existing vSphere or VMware Infrastructure customer,

visit the vSphere Upgrade Center to determine the appropriate
upgrade path for your organization: http://www.vmware.com/
products/vsphere/upgrade-center/.

Find Out More

For information or to purchase VMware products, call
877-4-VMWARE (outside North America, +1-650-427-5000),
visit http://www.vmware.com/products or search online for an
authorized reseller. For detailed product specifications and
system requirements, refer to the vSphere documentation.

Read the QIC success story: http://www.vmware.com/go/

customer_success/QIC.

Additional vSphere Products and Add-Ons

VMware vCenter Server provides unified management for
the entire virtual infrastructure and enables many key vSphere
capabilities, such as live migration. vCenter Server can manage
thousands of virtual machines across multiple locations and
streamlines administration with features such as rapid
provisioning and automated policy enforcement.
Note: vCenter Server is a required element of a complete vSphere
implementation and is licensed separately on a per instance basis.

Support and Professional Services

VMware offers global support and subscription (SnS) services to
all vSphere customers. For customers requiring additional services,
VMware also offers professional services engagements on best
practices and getting started with your vSphere deployment,
both directly and through an extensive network of certified
professionals: http://www.vmware.com/services/.

VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
Copyright 2013 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed
at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be
trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: VMW5162-DS-vSPHR-USLET-103 08/13