Vagrant Providers - VMWare Support Out Of The Box
Since version 1.1.0 Vagrant supports multiple virtualization solutions through a new concept called providers.
They are very easy to use and install. The learning curve is really low.
Usage
Installing a provider is as easy as installing any other Vagrant plugin:
The workflow is exactly the same. When running a machine with a specific provider you only need to add the --provider option when you type vagrant up:
The rest is exactly the same.
Read more about providers at Vagrant's documentation site.
VMWare Workstation & VMWare Fusion Support
Vagrant now provides a paid providers for VMWare Fusion (for Mac OS X) & VMWare Workstation (For Windows & Linux).
A license for one of these providers costs 79$ per person for a seat (two computers).
Why is this exciting?
Because VMWare outperforms VirtualBox in almost every aspect if you are managing a serious virtualization layer.
I have never encountered a serious VirtualBox virtualization layer, it is just never done but not only for performance reasons.
Both VMWare & Hashicorp provide paid support for their software which is very important for major cooperations because they can get instant support when something goes wrong and someone can be held accountable.
If you are interested in an extensive comparison between VMWare & VirtualBox InfoWorld has already written an excellent and accurate one.
Providers For The Cloud
There are two official providers for:
Both cloud services are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which means that they fit well to what Vagrant does, managing the virtualization layer configuration items and provisioning them.
What's Missing?
The only thing that in my opinion is missing is a provider for VMWare Player for those who prefer it over VirtualBox. It's not really a must but a very nice to have feature.
Another thing that is clearly missing is the ability to package multiple images into one box file in order to use the same box for multiple providers. This is evident if you read about the Vagrant's box format.
I have filed issues #1773 & #1774 on these subjects. Follow them and this post for updates.
Updates
As it turns out it is impossible to add VMWare Player as a provider due to missing features and licensing restrictions.