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Fast, Reliable and Secure
May 01, 2019

Fast, Reliable and Secure

Valery Mezentsau | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with CentOS

In most cases, I have been and still am using CentOS operating system as the base for information/cyber security virtual appliances. In my practice, I have been using a lot of different virtual information security appliance from different vendors. Most of the vendors are placing their Infosec related software on top of CentOS operating systems. Also, I have been using CentOS servers for a telephony system.
  • First of all, CentOS is one of the most secure and stable OSes straits from the box.
  • High performance on the average hardware.
  • In most of my scenarios—easy and quick deployment.
  • Huge KB community that helps to build and support different services on CentOS.
  • Versions lifecycle.
  • Configuring network interfaces sometimes causes a lot of issues, especially when you are using it out of regular configuration.
  • Server updates—would be better to decrease the time for that.
  • CentOS is not a good desktop solution.
  • Being supported by Infosec software vendors provided us vendor documentation, knowledge bases and decreased time spent troubleshooting issues.
  • Fast and easy deployment: saved time and people resources for implementation.
  • Cost saving on deployment because no licenses needed.
Comparing to Ubuntu Server OS, CentOS is better from the security hardening side. RHEL: from my hands-on experience it is pretty much the same as CentOS, but in lots of cases, costs money. However, RHEL has better internal, community and software vendors support. Windows servers are more useful for most of IT specialists and once carefully patched can be the same secured solution, but requires purchasing a license(es).
VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, Veeam Backup & Replication, Windows Server, Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu Linux, Microsoft Office 365, MS SharePoint, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, NETGEAR Ethernet Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches, SonicWall TZ
For the same type of tasks/roles that I have been using, I would definitely recommend CentOS for my colleagues. 9 out of 10 because it is a very stable and secure solution, but for some different tasks, there are lots of other Linux OSes that could be a better fit. For example, RHEL sometimes has better support of software vendors. Or, Ubuntu-like systems are better for GUI and desktop experience.