Item: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been selected as the operating system of choice for our business critical development servers. With its reputation for stability, Red Hat Enterprise Linux was the obvious choice to support our business critical applications. Coupled with professional technical support and services, RHEL has been both reliable and stable in our deployment.

Pros and Cons

Stability. RHEL is well recognized for its stability while maintaining good support for necessary security patches.
Support. Unlike many free Linux distributions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is run like a true first-class enterprise offering, with professional support.

Latest Features. By nature of it offering such strong stability, RHEL is often slow to offer newer packages, favoring stability over newness.
Price. All of the stability and support comes at a cost, and it can't compete when you don't need the added support.

Return on Investment

Uptime - Has helped reduce service costs by having a high availability.
Stability - RHEL is slow to update feature packages but quick to offer security updates.

Alternatives Considered

Windows Server and CentOS

While many enterprise applications offer Windows Server support, I never really seriously considered it for our application, as Windows simply Blue Screens too often for serving a business critical application. Instead, I took a look at Red Hat's upstream distro, CentOS. Had my deployment case been different, I probably would have considered CentOS more strongly. However, I needed the confidence of having someone to call if we had issues in order to ensure uptime for our applications. In short, RHEL was the ideal choice.

Support Rating

Anytime I've needed to contact our support representative, they've been polite, knowledgeable, and helpful, even in instances where it's been an issue on our side. They are patient and willing to fully understand the scenario I'm encountering before jumping to a conclusion. I do think the online support documentation could be better or more comprehensive, which is why I didn't give them full marks.

Key Insights

Do you think Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Windows Server, Apple iCloud, Backblaze

Likelihood to Recommend

As I've discussed previously, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is really well suited to environments where one requires near absolute stability. RHEL's reputation for extensive uptime is well deserved, and if you're hosting an enterprise application on a RHEL server, it's unlikely that the operating system will be a source of instability.

You should avoid RHEL if you're looking for a Linux development environment, as you'll not be satisfied with the speed of package updating, nor the daily user interface.

Simple. Stable. Secure. Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Overall Satisfaction with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)