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Qemu

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VMware vSphere

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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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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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Pros of Qemu
Pros of VMware vSphere
  • 1
    Performance
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Free
  • 8
    Strong host isolation
  • 6
    Industry leader
  • 5
    Great VM management (HA,FT,...)
  • 4
    Easy to use
  • 2
    Feature rich
  • 2
    Great Networking
  • 1
    Free
  • 1
    Running in background
  • 1
    Can be setup on single physical server

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Cons of Qemu
Cons of VMware vSphere
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    • 8
      Price

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    What is Qemu?

    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.

    What is VMware vSphere?

    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.

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    What companies use Qemu?
    What companies use VMware vSphere?
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    What tools integrate with Qemu?
    What tools integrate with VMware vSphere?

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    What are some alternatives to Qemu and VMware vSphere?
    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.
    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).
    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.
    Docker
    The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere
    libvirt
    It is an open-source API, daemon and management tool for managing platform virtualization. It can be used to manage KVM, Xen, VMware ESXi, QEMU and other virtualization technologies.
    See all alternatives