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Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) vs. Red Hat OpenStack Platform

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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

    Red Hat OpenStack Platform

    Score7.5 out of 10
    N/ARed Hat OpenStack Platform is a cloud computing platform that virtualizes resources from industry-standard hardware, organizes those resources into clouds, and manages them so users can access what they need—when they need it.N/A
    Pricing
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    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
    Features
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and Red Hat OpenStack Platform
    Feature
    Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
    9.2
    6 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Red Hat OpenStack Platform
    -
    Ratings
    Virtual machine automated provisioning7.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management console10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration10.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    Small Businesses
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    KVMRed Hat OpenStack Platform
    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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    Red Hat
    Best suited for - any organization where you have people who already have expertise on OpenStack, Linux & IP networking. Otherwise, the maintenance & operations will be difficult. When the number of deployed VMs reaches its capacity, it becomes very difficult to manage Red Hat OpenStack because there are no in-built fault management & performance management tools available within Red Hat OpenStack. Not suited for - Organizations where people have a culture of working on automated GUI-based tools. Here VMware wins over Red Hat OpenStack. Also where you have mission-critical applications where downtime cannot be tolerated.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Red Hat
    • Scaling of application components (VMs).
    • Managing the networking between virtual machines.
    • Management of VNFs & the underlying infrastructure.
    • Availability & uptime of VMs because of features like VM migration & evacuation.
    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
    Red Hat
    • User management really needs improvement - when compared to AWS or GCP.
    • Security of the overall platform needs to be improved.
    • The whole architecture needs to be modular which is not. Ex - Upgrading any particular component (nova, neutron, cinder) should be possible without upgrading the whole Red Hat OpenStack version.
    • The creation of HEAT templates for complex applications is still a challenge & has a dependency on external tools.
    • Stack creation still requires parameters modification at controllers & compute because of the complex nova-scheduler algorithm.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Red Hat
    Only because of low cost & zero licensing of Red Hat OpenStack
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Red Hat
    • Saved CAPEX for sure (I can't quote a figure).
    • Saved Opex also - because a large support community is already available.
    • Increased complexity of system setup though.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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