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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM PowerVM

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AIBM PowerVM provides a server virtualization environment.N/A

    KVM

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AKernel-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 PowerVMKVM
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Red Hat
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of IBM PowerVM and Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
    Feature
    IBM PowerVM
    8.2
    6 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
    9.2
    6 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning6.24 Ratings7.05 Ratings
    Management console8.06 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup7.02 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration10.05 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security9.86 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Small Businesses
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    VMware Workstation Pro
    Score8 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.8
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM PowerVMKVM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    IBM PowerVM only is available on IBM POWER machines. It makes live much easier, compared to bare metal machines (OPAL) or machines with KVM. Personally I would not like to manage systems that don't have IBM PowerVM. The current line-up always includes IBM PowerVM (firmware built-in).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • IBM PowerVM is used for virtualization on IBM Power series hardware to utilize the hardware resources more efficiently like micro partitioning for CPU, NPIV for fibre port...etc
    • IBM PowerVM provides the feature of live partitioning mobility (LPM), which allows moving the running virtual machine from one hardware to another hardware without any disruption on a virtual machine.
    • IBM Power VM provides the feature of Integrated virtual manager (IVM), which helps to manage the single IBM Power hardware. There is no need to purchase a separate hardware management console to manage the Power hardware. This works well for small organizations having small environments.
    Incentivized
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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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • The ability to run Windows. Hardware architecture does not allow this, but it is a limiting factor.
    • More performance monitoring and management could be built in.
    • Sometimes is marketed and packaged in some rather unusual ways
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    • KVM itself doesn't ship with a management interface
    • KVM itself is a bit complicated to handle
    • KVM needs Qemu to virtualize Windows guests
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    The product works. It provides the proven environment to support IBM's primary operating systems that run on the IBM Power processing systems. This by extension includes the IBM various storage products that work within that environment. It has proven to be seamless as the environment has grown and as various new products and version updates have been added. As with most IBM products, the support is excellent.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    IBM
    I give it a solid ten. For what it is built for it delivers exactly what we need: predictable, controlled and reliable infrastructure. Even though it does have a learning curve, its not too steep to get to grips with and the reward and usability of the system is great. There is fine grained resource control ensuring optimal use of resources. Workload isolation and dynamic lpar reconfiguration ensures consistent and dependable results. Day to day management is handled with ease and confidence. If coupled with an automation solution, it becomes a highly usable platform at scale, allowing teams to standardize workloads
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    It does the job and stays out of the way. The specifics of usability relies on the implementation, but with things like Icarus and libvirt, things are standardizing nicely.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Our company utilizes VMware and PowerVM. VMware is very user friendly from an IT support view and makes supporting Windows OS easier. PowerVM is moving in that direction. PowerVM is better in that you can prioritize workloads across different VMs and be granular in your reservation of cores and virtual CPUs. PowerVM allows you to modify VM characteristics while the VM is up and running
    Incentivized
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    Red Hat
    It is a very reliable solution that can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with low overhead. It is a free and open source software. Easy to use withOpenStack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • We are able to run several LPARs on one frame, which means we do not need to buy as many physical servers. That saves on floor space, power, and heating and cooling of the data center, among other things.
    • Using LPM allows us to do maintenance on a frame without impacting the LPARs, giving us greater uptime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    • Fast provisioning of new servers.
    • Huge drop of the cost of servers compared to bare metal.
    • Easy upgrades of resources, sometimes now even requiring a server restart.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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