Announcing the Top Rated Server Virtualization Software for 2019

**This post was updated on October 9, 2019 to reflect recent changes in the Server Virtualization industry**

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Server Virtualization Software for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line product in Server Virtualization Software based solely on positive user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products.

Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer. So without further ado…

Here are the winners:

Scale Computing HC3

Scale Computing HC3 is a server virtualization platform that integrates server, storage and virtualization into a single appliance. HC3 features self-healing tools that automatically identify and fix issues in the infrastructure without downtime. Simplified browser based management reduces the time spent managing the IT interface. Unlike some competitors, Scale Computing HC3 users pay no virtualization software license fees and have no external storage to buy. Most (74%) Scale Computing HC3 users on TrustRadius are from mid-sized companies. Users consistently appreciate that Scale Computing H3’s integrated solution replaces several stand alone solutions, thereby reducing costs. 

“We implemented Scale clusters in both of our offices as a replacement for the prior HyperV-Based VM infrastructure. We utilize Scale’s built-in snapshot and replication technology to provide VM-level backup & DR protection. All of our primary storage is now managed as part of the Scale environment. Scale integrates VM operations, management, and protection into a unified system that provides more capability at lower cost than the multi-vendor collection of products we used previously.”

– David Roden | Director of Technology | Law Practice

vSphere

vSphere is a server virtualization platform from VMware for the software defined data center. vSphere increases centralization, security, and control by providing a single operating environment for enterprise apps. With its policy-driven model vSphere is designed to provide automated security and monitor threats using machine learning guided behavior analytics. vSphere may be bundled with VMware AppDefense to provide application and workload security, as well as a variety of additional tools. On TrustRadius, many reviewers are from mid-sized companies (47%). Reviewers appreciate vSphere’s superior core functionality of reducing dependency on hardware and ease of setting up and migrating virtual environments.

“vSphere is heavily used by my organization, it especially helped to increase the density of the virtualized servers. It also helps to achieve great performance improvements and improve the operation of the whole organization and what we do every day, as it enables us to manage and provision the huge quantity of servers and other resources we have… This, added in NSX, combined with the ability to have encrypted VMotion as well, has been great. It is also great if you need to run tens of hosts in the cluster and don’t want any degradation in performance.”

Akos Krommer | Solution Specialist (Data Analytics) | Computer Software

VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi is an enterprise level bare metal hypervisor from VMware. VMware ESXi is a type-1 hypervisor, which means that it installs directly on the server, not on the OS. This direct access to the system allows for better management of resources and applications and, consequently, increased utilization and performance. VMware ESXi allows for creation of up to 128 virtual machines, enhanced security, and user support for different apps and operating systems. Almost half (49%) of the VMware ESXi users on TrustRadius are from mid-size companies. Reviewers appreciate VMWare ESXi’s centralized management and its associated savings in personnel costs. 

“We use ESXi for nearly all servers in our school district, very few things left on physical servers. This makes it easy for me (I am the only one in my department managing servers) to work on everything from one centralized location. I almost never have to be on-site with our hosts, and I can spin up new machines on the fly in a few minutes. This also saves us thousands of dollars in hardware costs, which is incredibly important for public education.”

– Verified User | Technician in IT | Education Management Company

Oracle VM VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox is an open source x64 server virtualization platform from Oracle. Easy to use and feature rich, it appeals to both home and enterprise level users. It can be installed on any OS and supports up to 32 virtual machines. It provides environment replication and portability, storage emulation and storage support features, and offers users guides and community-based user support. A significant portion (40%) of the Oracle VM VirtualBox users on TrustRadius are from mid-sized companies. Users appreciate the ease in creating test environments in Oracle VM VirtualBox, in addition to being free solution.

“I use Oracle VM VirtualBox to build isolated virtual workstations and for building development and test environments. Isolated virtual workstations allow me to access customer environments without the need to reconfigure my primary workstation to match the specific remote access requirements of each system. This dramatically speeds up access and prevents unintentional damage to my own system and access to my primary environment. I can also quickly spin up entire virtual environments to test specific design scenarios.”

– David Currier | Senior Communications Engineer | Telecommunications Company 

Hyper-V

Microsoft’s Hyper-V is available through Windows operating systems, and allows multiple software virtual machines to be deployed from a server where Windows installed. This allows IT administrators to consolidate servers, extend a virtual desktop infrastructure, or provide more services across a private cloud. Hyper-V features allows the administrator to limit and control the amount of hardware resources that Hyper-V will consume, and shields VMs from intrusion and tampering. On TrustRadius, Hyper-V is reviewed most often by users from midsize companies (48%). Reviewers appreciate how simple it is to deploy and administer Hyper-V instances with the excellent Hyper-V Manager administrative console.

“The largest business problem [Hyper-V] solved was the physical space and requirements needed to continue to use physical servers… [Hyper-V’s] Virtual Machine Management and Resource Management is very good. You can adjust many resources while the VM is running and take Advantage of reducing impact to production… Cluster Management is very easy to set up and allows you to “live migrate resources” while in use not affecting production, minimizing downtime… There was an extreme positivity to migrating our environment to Hyper-V. The Hardware cost savings are exponential and Microsoft Licensing can also be a cost savings depending on how you license your hosts.”

Michael Jipping | Senior Systems Engineer | Hospital & Health Care

Congratulations to the winners of the Top Rated Server Virtualization Software Award!

What is Server Virtualization Software?

Server virtualization software allows multiple operating systems, or virtual machines (VMs), to be deployed from a single server. The software allows these VMs to share in the use of hardware resources, and also controls what resources are consumed by virtual machines running on the server. This high-density computing maximizes the efficiency of physical hardware resource usage. Through centralization achieved in virtualizing servers, IT gains more control and visibility over workloads. 

Additional conveniences supplied in server virtualization software include automated provisioning of virtual machines and workload rebalancing, as well as support for distributed endpoints and remote offices. To provide a stable experience for end users, server virtualization software provides migration services so that maintenance and patching does not interrupt work. These software also provide security features, such as hypervisor level security (e.g. antivirus for the VM) and remote access control. VMs may also run a different operating system than their host server or access resources across multiple physical hosts. Server virtualization software provide ease of use via rapidly and automatically deploying and maintaining VMs, unobtrusive maintenance and backup operations. This ultimately saves organizations from over-investing in hardware.

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2019 Top Rated Server Virtualization Software list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap as of August 1st, 2019. To qualify for the Server Virtualization Software Top Rated Award, products must have at least 10 reviews written within the past year, a TRScore of at least 7.5 out of 10, and must receive at least 1.5% of the traffic in their category.  Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the TrustMap based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.