IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions vs. Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions
Score 7.8 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions is designed to make cloud adoption easier, allowing the user to optimize the value of existing on-premises infrastructure, while leveraging the same tools, technologies and skills in the cloud. The solution provides rapid scalability, deployment in 35+ global data centers and access to disaster recovery, backup, security and compliance solutions from an array of ecosystem partners. To address varying workload needs, IBM Cloud…
$0
IBM Cloud Object Storage Cross-Regional Smart Tier 1 GB (hourly)
KVM
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a virtualization solution developed by small Israeli software company Qumranet and supported by Red Hat since that company's acquisition in 2008.N/A
Pricing
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Editions & Modules
Add-on
$0
IBM Cloud Object Storage Cross-Regional Smart Tier 1 GB (hourly)
On-demand
$0
0.25 IOPs 1 GB
Reserved (monthly or 730 hours)
$0
0.25 IOPs 1 GB (Per gigabyte of storage (hourly))
Add-on
$0
IBM Cloud Block Storage 1 GB (hourly)
On-demand
$0.01
Per vCPU (hourly)
On-demand
$0.09
Per gigabyte of network and bandwidth egress (monthly)
Reserved (monthly or 730 hours)
$0.09
Per gigabyte of network and bandwidth egress (monthly)
Reserved (monthly or 730 hours)
$12.80
Microsoft license (monthly) per 1 vCPU²
Add-on
$13
Veeam backup license
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKVM
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Server Virtualization
Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions
8.0
24 Ratings
4% below category average
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
9.2
5 Ratings
10% above category average
Virtual machine automated provisioning6.224 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Management console8.324 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Live virtual machine backup9.023 Ratings9.73 Ratings
Live virtual machine migration8.322 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Hypervisor-level security8.324 Ratings9.53 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Small Businesses
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Score 9.3 out of 10
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(24 ratings)
9.3
(5 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM Cloud for VMware SolutionsKernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
I think IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions would be a good fit for a medium to a large company looking to outsource their current in-house VMware products. The IBM solution would allow them to outsource their current infrastructure so that the company could then concentrate on their core business, whatever that may be. A smaller company with a smaller VMware footprint would probably not be a good fit here. It's a pretty complex process to get things started, so it might not be worth it for a smaller company.
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Red Hat
KVM is the best solution in the case you need to test and turn up any virtual environment with limited vCPU/RAM resources. The obvious area of its use is a network environment when we want to avoid being tied to one type of hardware/vendor and being able to swap from one instance to another with no downtimes. The use of a vSwitch (that supports VLAN tagging) is a significant bonus for network engineers that some other hypervisors do not provide.
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Pros
IBM
  • Adaptable valuing relying upon size and scale.
  • The presentation is first rate. Our on-prem climate was continually experiencing slack and general languor. With IBM running everything, it's much smoother.
  • Start another group as little as one ESXi worker or scale a current bunch.
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Red Hat
  • KVM is really good at providing fast and reliable virtualization for Linux guests
  • Since KVM is a kernel module, every VM is a Linux process which can be managed by Linux system tools
  • KVM integrates very well with the management framework libvirt, which is why KVM can be integrated in automation tools as well
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Cons
IBM
  • Support is horrible and or non-existent
  • Documentation is out of date and incorrect for the most part
  • IBM employees and salespeople are not aware of features or offerings
  • Does not integrate the Zerto, only Veeam and has limited options for data migration
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Red Hat
  • Complex networking
  • GPU processing is not fully supported
  • It's hard to set up without support tools
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Usability
IBM
It is easy to use and setting it up is simple. The only con is that the pricing is a little bit high as well as documentation is a little low; so we had to do some personal learning to be able to fully utilize the product, or hop on the phone with someone.
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
IBM
Overall, just a great experience here. No one in my opinion gets a perfect 10/10 rating (no one is ever perfect), so 9/10 is probably as good as it gets! From initial planning to post implementation support, the IBM Cloud and professional services has been there for my group as much as we have needed them. Great job!
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
IBM
IBM professional services helped us plan and implement the project with great success. They guided the project from planning, scoping, pre-implementation, testing, roll-out, then production and post-production support. We were very impressed with their knowledge of VMware and really appreciated their desire to make our project a success. I would highly recommend them!
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Red Hat
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions stacks up against them, we fully agree there are so many features in IBM cloud for VMware Solutions that make it unique and different. The system provides us hypervisor security level and the system even has live backup and storage capacity of data. This system provides us with accuracy that helps us to reduce errors and vulnerability.
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Red Hat
Kernel-based Virtual Machine is an open-source and free solution, compared to Virtualbox which is a product from Oracle.
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Return on Investment
IBM
  • It has a positive impact on the cost required to maintain our vSphere environment by allowing us to get rid of our vsphere hardware and not worry about maintenance either.
  • There have been very few negatives, but one would definitely be the open-ended cost associated with cloud products in general.
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Red Hat
  • KVM just works and gets out of the way
  • KVM is working great with other open-source technologies like QEMU and libvirt
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ScreenShots

IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions Screenshots

Screenshot of VMware vCenter Server on IBM Cloud product informationScreenshot of IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions automated and on-demand services information, and How to OrderScreenshot of IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions Dedicated, Order ScreenScreenshot of IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions Shared, Order Screen