VMware vSphere 8 Standard Edition

vSphere 8 Standard

This edition focuses on core virtualization capabilities and business continuity features without some of the advanced automation and resource management tools found in the Enterprise Plus edition. Key included features typically are:

• vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi): The foundation for server virtualization, offering a robust, high-performance layer.
• vCenter Server Standard: Required for centralized management of your virtual infrastructure, offering a single point of control.
• vMotion: Allows for live migration of virtual machines from one physical server to another without service interruption (zero-downtime).
• Storage vMotion: Allows for live migration of a virtual machine’s disk files from one storage array to another without service interruption.
• High Availability (HA): Automatically restarts virtual machines on other hosts in the cluster if a server fails, minimizing downtime.
• Fault Tolerance (FT): Provides continuous availability for applications by creating a live shadow instance of a virtual machine that is synchronized with the primary one. (Note: FT has limitations in this edition, often supporting only up to 2 vCPUs).
• vSphere Replication: Enables array-agnostic, VM-centric replication for disaster recovery.
• Content Library: Centralized management for VM templates, virtual appliances, ISO images, and scripts.
• Basic Security Features: Includes features like hardware TPM 2.0 support, Virtual TPM 2.0, and VM encryption.

vSphere Standard provides the essentials, but for large-scale or demanding environments, Enterprise Plus offers significant advantages, including:

In short, vSphere Standard is best suited for organizations that need core consolidation and business continuity features without the advanced, automated resource balancing and simplified host configuration tools of the Enterprise Plus edition.