Directory DevOps & Platform EngineeringInfrastructure as CodeVMware vSphere

VMware vSphere

About VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere is an enterprise workload engine that modernizes compute infrastructure. It provides a platform for running traditional and next-gen applications. It supports running virtual machines and containers on a single platform with a built-in Kubernetes runtime. It enforces regulatory compliance and detects real-time threats. It supports hardware such as GPUs and DPUs for AI workloads.

Products

vSphere Standard: Provides basic server virtualization for development and testing environments.
vSphere Enterprise Plus: Serves as an enterprise workload engine to power on-premises environments running on virtual machines.
vSphere Foundation: Optimizes IT infrastructure, runs virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters, and deploys HCI.
VMware Private AI: Provides AI capabilities with lower TCO.

Used for

Upgrading vCenter to version 9 using reduced downtime upgrade.
Activating memory tiering with NVMe for VM consolidation.
Migrating a content library to a new datastore.
Applying a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image to a cluster with multiple hardware vendors and models.
Managing multiple cluster images from one single pane of glass.

From VMware vSphere's own website, read 2026-10-24. How we build listings.

How to evaluate Infrastructure as Code

This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of VMware vSphere. It comes from our Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Platforms buyer guide.

25%

Language & Authoring Model

Declarative DSL (HCL) vs. general-purpose language (TypeScript, Python, Go, C#); readability for reviewers vs. expressive power (loops, conditionals, abstractions); module/component reuse and registry maturity; testing and IDE support; learning curve for the people who will actually write infrastructure

20%

State Management & Drift

Where state is stored, remote-state locking to prevent concurrent-apply corruption, state encryption and secret handling, plan/preview fidelity, drift detection and continuous reconciliation, import of existing resources, and blast-radius controls on apply

20%

Policy-as-Code & Governance

OPA/Rego and Sentinel support, pre-apply guardrails (block non-compliant resources, mandatory tags, region/cost limits), RBAC and SSO/SAML/SCIM, audit logging, approval workflows, and integration with cost-estimation and security scanning in the pipeline

15%

Provider Ecosystem & Portability

Breadth and quality of providers/resource coverage, day-one support for new cloud services, multi-cloud and on-prem reach, third-party SaaS providers, and how locked-in the resulting code is to one vendor or one cloud

10%

Collaboration & Workflow (TACOS)

Run orchestration and queuing, VCS/PR-driven plans, stack dependencies, self-service environments with TTL/ephemeral teardown, drift remediation workflows, and whether you self-host in CI (Atlantis-style) or buy a managed platform

10%

Licensing & Project Health

License (open-source MPL/Apache vs. source-available BUSL vs. proprietary), governance and ownership after recent M&A, release cadence and roadmap, community/foundation backing (CNCF, Linux Foundation), and how easily you could exit or fork

Other Infrastructure as Code Vendors

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