Description
VMware vSphere Standard – A solid foundation for modern IT solutions
VMware vSphere Standard is subscription software licensed per core, with a minimum licensing requirement of 16 cores per processor.
VMware vSphere Standard is a powerful virtualization platform that helps businesses manage their IT resources more efficiently and future-proof their digital processes. The solution provides a reliable foundation for setting up and controlling virtual environments and is particularly suited to businesses that value stability, ease of management, and proven technology.
vSphere Standard allows you to flexibly adapt existing infrastructures to new requirements and optimize the use of IT resources. Centralized management of virtual machines simplifies operational processes and reduces IT complexity. The platform is ideal for businesses seeking a robust and scalable solution without unnecessary complexity.
With its proven stability and focus on core functions, vSphere Standard is a smart choice for organizations that need a robust, future-proof IT foundation, regardless of industry or company size. It forms the backbone of modern IT strategies and helps to efficiently organize internal processes and maintain agility.
Operations Management – VMware vSphere Standard
vSphere Lifecycle Manager
Central platform for managing and automating host and image updates.
vCenter Server Profiles
Standardization and consistent configuration of multiple vCenter instances using predefined profiles.
vCenter Update Planner
Intelligent planning and verification of updates to ensure system compatibility.
Content Library
Efficient management and distribution of VM templates, ISOs, and scripts across different hosts.
Virtual Volumes (vVols)
Flexible storage architecture for better integration and management of storage resources.
Green metrics
Sustainability metrics to monitor and optimize energy consumption in data centers.
VMware vSphere Standard Features
vSphere ESX hypervisor
The basic virtualization layer for running multiple VMs on a physical host. The foundation of all vSphere functions.
High Availability (HA)
Automatic restart of VMs in case of host failure. Backup of critical applications with minimal downtime.
vMotion & vMotion Storage
Live migration of running VMs and their storage with no downtime – ideal for maintenance, optimization and load balancing.
vCenter Server
Central management platform for hosts, VMs, network, and storage. Enables efficient management of the entire environment.
Fault tolerance (2-vCPU)
Seamless protection thanks to synchronous VM copying. Available for VMs with up to 2 vCPUs.
vSphere replication
Asynchronous VM replication for backups and disaster recovery – independent of storage hardware.
Lifecycle Manager & Content Library
Automated patching and centralized provisioning of templates, ISOs and scripts – all from a single source.
Storage Policy & Virtual Volumes
Policy-based storage management and flexible use of external storage solutions for very fine control.
vCenter HA & Backup
Protection of the central management system through automatic failover mechanisms and integrated backup solutions.
Cloud integration & migration
Hybrid management via linked hybrid mode, vCenter Appliance migration and live/cold migration to the Cloud.
Security features & certifications
Supports TPM, vTPM, Identity Federation, FIPS and Common Criteria certifications and TLS 1.3 for maximum security.
Performance & Equipment
vSMP, DirectPath I/O, 4K storage support, Quick Boot and power analysis via Green Metrics.
Security features built into vSphere Standard
Federation of Identities
Enables the integration of external identity providers for centralized authentication and supports modern security standards such as SAML and MFA.
Hardware TPM 2.0 support
Enhances security at the hypervisor level through hardware-based encryption and integrity verification.
Virtual TPM 2.0
Provides VMs with a virtual Trusted Platform Module that enables modern security features like BitLocker within the VM.
FIPS 140-2 & Common Criteria
vSphere Standard meets recognized security standards such as FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria for cryptographic validation.
TLS 1.2 & TLS 1.3
Supports modern transport encryption with TLS 1.2 and 1.3 for secure data transfer between components.
Standard Key Supplier
Allows connection of an external Key Management System (KMS) for secure management of encryption keys.
Native key provider
Integrated key management directly in vSphere – ideal for vTPM and VM encryption without external KMS.
vSphere Standard – Overview of Supported Features
Business continuity
- vMotion
- vCenter vMotion
- vCenter enhanced linked mode
- vSMP
- High Availability (HA)
- Fault tolerance (only 2 vCPUs)
- vMotion Storage
- vSphere replication
- vSphere Quick Boot
- Support for native 4K storage
- vCenter file-based backup and restore
- Cross vCenter Mixed Version Provisioning
- Hot and cold migration to the cloud
External storage (VMFS / vVols / NFS)
- VMFS – Fibre Channel
- VMFS – iSCSI
- VMFS – FCoE
- VMFS – NVMe/FC
- VMFS – NVMe/TCP
- VMFS – NVMe/RDMA
- NFS – v3
- NFS – v4.1
- vVols – Fibre Channel
- vVols – iSCSI
- vVols – NVMe/FC
- vVols – NVMe/TCP
- vVols – NFS v3
Storage management and integration
- Storage I/O Quality Control (SIOC)
- Storage array integration (VAAI) for block storage
- Storage array integration (VAAI) for NFS storage
- Workload Clustering (VMDK)
- Auto-configuration with NFS
- 3rd-Party Storage Plugins
Host and cluster management
- Guest preparation
- Cluster management
Comparison of functions
| Function | vSphere Standard Link to product |
vSphere Enterprise Plus Product Link |
vSphere Foundation Product Link |
| Enhanced vMotion Per-VM (EVC) compatibility | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Instant clone | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Distributed Resource Planner (DRS) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| DRS storage | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Distributed Power Management (DPM) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Policy-based storage management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| I/O control (storage) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| vSphere Persistent Memory / Memory Tiering | ✓ | ✓ | |
| NVIDIA GRID vGPU | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Accelerated graph for VM | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Integrated security | |||
| TPM 2.0 hardware support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Virtual TPM 2.0 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Supports TLS 1.2 / 1.3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Virtual machine encryption | ✓ | ✓ | |
Supported operating systems (newer ones) |
|
| Category | Operating systems |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows | Windows Server (2025, 2022, 2019, 2016, 2012 R2, 2012) Windows Client (Windows 11, Windows 10) |
| Linux distributions | Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 7-10) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) / Desktop (SLED) (v12, v15) Ubuntu (e.g. 25.04, 24.10, 24.04, 22.04, etc.) Debian (11, 12) Oracle Linux (8, 9) AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux (8-10) Photon OS (VMware) Flatcar |
| Unix / BSD & similar | FreeBSD (e.g., 13.x, 14.x) |





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