The two core components of vSphere are VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server®. ESXi is the hypervisor on which you create and run virtual machines. vCenter Server is a service that acts as a central administrator for ESXi hosts connected to a network. With vCenter Server, you can pool and manage the resources of multiple hosts. vCenter Server allows you to monitor and manage your physical and virtual infrastructure.
vSphere Features
Enhanced Lifecycle Management
Achieve faster updates without reboot and VM evacuation with ESXi Live Patching.
IaaS Control Plane
Enable declarative API for infrastructure and workload management with IaaS services like VM Service and TKG Service.
Increase Performance of AI/ML Workloads
High availability failover with Dual DPU support with DSE. Easily scale up or scale down your Kubernetes clusters based on demand.
Reduced Planned Downtime for Upgrades
Upgrade vCenter instances with minimal disruption.
Self-Service Access to Easily Consume Infrastructure
Easy access to infrastructure services via a Local Consumption Interface (LCI) and Cloud Console Interface (CCI).
Run Modern Apps
Easily upgrade to the latest Kubernetes releases independent of vSphere releases. Build and run modern apps using containers and VMs on a unified platform for simplified management.
vSphere Green Metrics
Track power consumed at the host and VM levels. Uncover opportunities to optimize consumption and make contributions to your organization’s sustainability goals.
Maximize ROI of GPU Resources
Improved utilization and performance delivered by GPUs with heterogeneous vGPU profiles and DRS enhancements.
Security & Compliance
Comprehensive Identity Federation providers support and improved security hardening.
Solve Traditional and Next-Gen Application Challenges
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Get the enterprise-grade data center, cloud and edge infrastructure you need for advanced AI/ML services and workloads.
Big Data and Modern Data Applications
Simplify Big Data infrastructure management and minimize downtime with cost-effective, uniform failover protection. Easily prioritize and share data center resources for intelligent decision-making.
High Performance Computing (HPC)
Get insights faster with infrastructure on demand, centralized management and data governance, including control of sensitive data. The vSphere HPC option is custom-built to scale with HPC workloads.
Compare vSphere Editions
vSphere Essentials Plus Kit
All-in-one solution for small businesses to virtualize physical servers and reduce hardware costs.
- vSphere Essentials Plus
- vCenter Essentials
vSphere Standard
Industry-leading server virtualization solution for data centre consolidation and enhanced application availability.
- vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)
- vCenter Standard
vSphere Foundation
Enterprise workload engine to optimize the data centre for organizations of all sizes.
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Standard
- Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
- Aria Suite Term Standard
- Plus available add-ons