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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    KVM

    Score9.5 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

    Nutanix AHV

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ANutanix AHV is presented as a modern and secure virtualization platform that powers VMs and containers for applications and cloud-native workloads on-premises and in public clouds. Its tools and automated workflows simplify the day-to-day administration of VMs and containers.N/A
    Pricing
    KVMNutanix AHV
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    KVMNutanix AHV
    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
    KVMNutanix AHV
    Considered Both Products
    Red Hat
    No answer on this topic
    Nutanix
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    Features
    KVMNutanix AHV
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and Nutanix AHV
    Feature
    Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
    9.2
    6 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Nutanix AHV
    8.9
    5 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning7.05 Ratings8.84 Ratings
    Management console10.04 Ratings8.85 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup10.04 Ratings9.15 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration10.05 Ratings8.55 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security9.04 Ratings9.15 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    KVMNutanix AHV
    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
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    KVMNutanix AHV
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (25 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (18 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (17 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    KVMNutanix AHV
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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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    Nutanix
    I think Nutanix AOS is a great product and, I would recommend it to anyone. The only reason I did not give it a 10 out of 10 is because I don't do that for any product. Every product has room for improvement.
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Nutanix
    • One component to support both compute and storage needs for virtualization.
    • Easy expandable as business needs arise both at the node level and larger with blocks.
    • Well outlined interface with good historical data.
    • API tools are available to obtain logging information from Nutanix that can be used with other monitoring tools such as Splunk.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Nutanix
    • Nutanix has a huge learning curve. We purchased the on-line training course when we moved to the platform and it was literally weeks of instruction. It was so extensive, in fact, that we ran out of time to complete it before the test.
    • Operations that cannot be done from the browser require running commands from a terminal emulator; perhaps owing to the newness of the platform, documentation is not robust. I highly recommend you buy the tech support.
    • Software updates are sometimes rushed to release. I've gotten to where I wait at least a few weeks after release before installing them, as I've run into significant issues with buggy software. Such installations have required time-consuming tech support calls to resolve.
    • While the promise of perpetual VM uptime is being fulfilled, the dashboard frequently reports issues that need to be resolved.
    • Because of significant hardware redundancy, the cost per byte of storage capacity is high.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    Nutanix
    We made a huge financial investment with this platform (four clusters, all-flash storage array), so we're in it for the long haul. Luckily it's a beast. I've had to use support more than any other platform I've administered, but the help has been very good. Nutanix continues to add features and innovations which increase the ROI
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    Read full review
    Nutanix
    Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central are easy-to-use HTML5-based web consoles. The layout makes sense; you're only a few clicks away from getting to where you need to be. The AHV hypervisor is integrated into the platform for a fast and seamless experience. Rich data on VM metrics is also available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    Nutanix
    Due to the cool DFS architecture, Nutanix has good read performance for loads. In general, everything works well. We only ran into problems with very specific workloads that did not allow multithreading. It is also worth noting that loads should be tuned according to best practices for best performance, which is not always an easy task.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    Nutanix
    Nutanix [AOS] is a leader in the HCI industry and it becomes evident after deploying the software. The solution runs effortlessly and can scale seamlessly. We ran the Nutanix solution on Lenovo Servers and since Lenovo has a close working relationship with Nutanix, you can procure the Nutanix software directly from Lenovo as part of your Lenovo HCI solution. The advantage of going this route is that the hardware has been tested and verified by Lenovo that it is thus certified for Nutanix. The support is then also directly with Lenovo for both hardware and software.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Nutanix
    We looked at both Simplivity and Cisco HyperFlex. Both are pretty good in their own right. Simplivity was very 'efficient' in the way they handled data, but we didn't like the idea of a propitiatory hardware card. Cisco's HyperFlex was our second choice, but we were so impressed with what Nutanix had done for us already, that we were already leaning toward that.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    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
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    Nutanix
    • Nutanix Beam helps enable enterprises to take control of their total cloud spend with automated cost governance policies. Beam provides unified visibility into public and private cloud spending, including clusters, VMs, and other services.
    • Lower administrative overhead, increased employee productivity, and costs savings.
    • Nutanix AHV is also generally free to use, which can benefit organizations with budget constraints.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots