Qemu vs VMware vSphere

Overview

VMware vSphere

Stacks608

Followers550

Votes30

Qemu

Stacks105

Followers131

Votes3

Qemu vs VMware vSphere: What are the differences?

Qemu and VMware vSphere are two popular virtualization platforms used by enterprises and individuals for running multiple operating systems on a single machine. Let's explore the key differences between them:

Architecture: Qemu is a software-based emulator, which means it emulates the underlying hardware to run guest operating systems. On the other hand, VMware vSphere is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform that utilizes a special layer called a hypervisor to manage and run virtual machines.
Performance: Qemu tends to have slower performance compared to VMware vSphere. This is because Qemu emulates the hardware, which introduces additional overhead, while VMware vSphere's hypervisor runs directly on the physical hardware, providing better performance and efficiency.
Operating System Support: Qemu supports a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and various BSD distributions. On the other hand, VMware vSphere primarily focuses on supporting Windows and various Linux distributions.
Management Capabilities: VMware vSphere provides comprehensive management features, including centralized management, high availability, fault tolerance, and live migration. Qemu, on the other hand, lacks these advanced management capabilities, making it more suitable for individual users and small-scale deployments.
Hardware Compatibility: VMware vSphere is optimized for specific hardware configurations and can take advantage of advanced hardware features like acceleration technologies. Qemu, being a software-based emulator, can run on a wider range of hardware configurations but may not achieve the same level of performance and optimization as VMware vSphere.
Cost: Qemu is an open-source software, available free of cost, making it a cost-effective choice for those with budget constraints. In contrast, VMware vSphere is a commercial product that requires purchasing licenses, making it a more expensive option for enterprise-level deployments.

In summary, Qemu is a software-based emulator with broader operating system support but slower performance and limited management capabilities compared to VMware vSphere, which is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform optimized for specific hardware configurations, provides advanced management features, and comes at a cost.

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Detailed Comparison

VMware vSphere	Qemu
vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform. Run fewer servers and reduce capital and operating costs using VMware vSphere to build a cloud computing infrastructure.	When used as a machine emulator, it can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance. When used as a virtualizer, it achieves near native performance by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. it supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, it can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, 64-bit POWER, S390, 32-bit and 64-bit ARM, and MIPS guests.
Powerful Server Virtualization;Network Services;Efficient Storage;Consistent Automation;High Availability;Robust Security	machine emulator and virtualizer; dynamic translation;
Statistics
Stacks 608	Stacks 105
Followers 550	Followers 131
Votes 30	Votes 3
Pros & Cons
Pros 8 Strong host isolation 6 Industry leader 5 Great VM management (HA,FT,...) 4 Easy to use 2 Great Networking Cons 9 Price	Pros 1 Free 1 Easy to use 1 Performance
Integrations
No integrations available	Linux KVM

What are some alternatives to VMware vSphere, Qemu?

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Proxmox VE

It is a complete open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization that tightly integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, software-defined storage and networking functionality on a single platform, and easily manages high availability clusters and disaster recovery tools with the built-in web management interface.

KVM

KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

Parallels Desktop

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to seamlessly run both Windows and MacOS applications side-by-side with speed, control and confidence.

Parallels

It is an application and desktop virtualization software vendor that offers management and delivery platforms for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows desktop deployments.

VMware Fusion

It gives Mac users the power to run Windows on Mac along with hundreds of other operating systems side by side with Mac applications, without rebooting. It is simple enough for home users and powerful enough for IT professionals, developers and businesses.

Xen

It is a hypervisor using a microkernel design, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was developed by the Linux Foundation and is supported by Intel.

VMware vSAN

It is enterprise-class, storage virtualization software that, when combined with vSphere, allows you to manage compute and storage with a single platform. You can reduce the cost and complexity of traditional storage and take the easiest path to hyperconverged infrastructure and hybrid cloud. Evolve to an integrated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution with vSAN to improve business agility, all while speeding operations and lowering costs.

Oracle VM Server

It is a zero license cost server virtualization and management solution that makes enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. Backed worldwide by affordable enterprise-quality support for both Oracle and non-Oracle environments, it reduces operations and support costs while increasing IT efficiency and agility.

Virtuozzo

It is an operating system-level server virtualization solution designed to centralize server management and consolidate workloads, which reduces overhead by reducing the number of physical servers required. Organizations use it for server consolidation, disaster recovery, and server workload agility.

Related Comparisons

Qemu vs VMware vSphere: What are the differences?

Architecture: Qemu is a software-based emulator, which means it emulates the underlying hardware to run guest operating systems. On the other hand, VMware vSphere is a hypervisor-based virtualization platform that utilizes a special layer called a hypervisor to manage and run virtual machines.
Performance: Qemu tends to have slower performance compared to VMware vSphere. This is because Qemu emulates the hardware, which introduces additional overhead, while VMware vSphere's hypervisor runs directly on the physical hardware, providing better performance and efficiency.
Operating System Support: Qemu supports a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and various BSD distributions. On the other hand, VMware vSphere primarily focuses on supporting Windows and various Linux distributions.
Management Capabilities: VMware vSphere provides comprehensive management features, including centralized management, high availability, fault tolerance, and live migration. Qemu, on the other hand, lacks these advanced management capabilities, making it more suitable for individual users and small-scale deployments.
Hardware Compatibility: VMware vSphere is optimized for specific hardware configurations and can take advantage of advanced hardware features like acceleration technologies. Qemu, being a software-based emulator, can run on a wider range of hardware configurations but may not achieve the same level of performance and optimization as VMware vSphere.
Cost: Qemu is an open-source software, available free of cost, making it a cost-effective choice for those with budget constraints. In contrast, VMware vSphere is a commercial product that requires purchasing licenses, making it a more expensive option for enterprise-level deployments.

Qemu vs VMware vSphere

Overview