Server Virtualization Software
Server Virtualization Software Overview
Top Rated Server Virtualization Products
These products won a Top Rated award for having excellent customer satisfaction ratings. The list is based purely on reviews; there is no paid placement, and analyst opinions do not influence the rankings. Read more about the Top Rated criteria.
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Server Virtualization Software TrustMap
TrustMaps are two-dimensional charts that compare products based on trScore and research frequency by prospective buyers. Products must have 10 or more ratings to appear on this TrustMap.
Server Virtualization Products
(1-25 of 28) Sorted by Most Reviews
The list of products below is based purely on reviews (sorted from most to least). There is no paid placement and analyst opinions do not influence their rankings. Here is our Promise to Buyers to ensure information on our site is reliable, useful, and worthy of your trust.
Scale Computing offers edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions for customers around the globe. Scale Computing HyperCore software promises to eliminate traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these…
Key Features
- Management console (124)88%8.8
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (112)86%8.6
- Hypervisor-level security (113)86%8.6
Nutanix in San Jose, California offers their software-defined Enterprise Cloud as a hyper-converged infrastructure solution. The Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure solution combines the Nutanix Acropolis virtualization solution, Nutanix AHV hypervisor (though Acropolis works with other…
Oracle Linux, which is 100% application binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is free to download, use, and share. There is no license cost, no need for a contract, and no usage audits. Cost-effective, 24/7 enterprise-grade support is available for business critical…
Key Features
- Live virtual machine migration (63)82%8.2
- Hypervisor-level security (63)81%8.1
- Management console (68)78%7.8
Key Features
- Live virtual machine migration (62)94%9.4
- Management console (64)94%9.4
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (59)91%9.1
Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired with Sun Microsystems in early 2010. The software was originally developed by Innotek GmbH.
Key Features
- Live virtual machine backup (38)83%8.3
- Management console (45)72%7.2
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (37)72%7.2
VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC.
Key Features
- Live virtual machine migration (20)91%9.1
- Live virtual machine backup (20)84%8.4
- Management console (21)83%8.3
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions is designed to make cloud adoption fast and easy, allowing the user to optimize the value of existing on-premises infrastructure, while leveraging the same tools, technologies and skills in the cloud. Gain rapid scalability, deployment in 35+ global…
Key Features
- Hypervisor-level security (22)88%8.8
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (22)85%8.5
- Management console (22)85%8.5
Virtual Machines (VMs) are available on Microsoft Azure, providing what is built as a low-cost, per-second compute service, available via Windows or Linux.
Key Features
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (20)83%8.3
- Live virtual machine backup (16)81%8.1
- Management console (18)79%7.9
Red Hat Virtualization (formerly Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, broadly known as RHEV) is an enterprise level server and desktop virtualization solution. Red Hat Virtualization also contains the functionality of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktop in later editions…
Key Features
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (10)80%8.0
- Management console (10)73%7.3
- Live virtual machine migration (10)70%7.0
Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) is a virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.
Key Features
- Live virtual machine migration (10)90%9.0
- Management console (10)90%9.0
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (9)80%8.0
Proxmox Virtual Environment is an open source server virtualization management solution based on QEMU/KVM and LXC. Users can manage virtual machines, containers, highly available clusters, storage and networks via a web interface or CLI. Proxmox VE code is licensed under the GNU…
Key Features
- Live virtual machine backup (8)89%8.9
- Management console (8)86%8.6
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (8)79%7.9
Key Features
- Management console (7)80%8.0
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (7)70%7.0
- Live virtual machine backup (6)67%6.7
Kernel-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.
Key Features
- Virtual machine automated provisioning (5)91%9.1
- Live virtual machine migration (5)90%9.0
Nerdio provides streaming IT services over the Internet by virtualizing hardware and software. Companies using Nerdio no longer have to maintain servers, desktops and software, but instead plug into virtual services in the cloud.
LXD is a system container and virtual machine manager. It offers a unified user experience around full Linux systems running inside containers or virtual machines. LXD is image based and provides images for a wide number of Linux distributions. It supports various use cases, with…
VSOM from VMware was a solution that delivered vSphere server virtualization, and also added capacity management and performance monitoring features. It is discontinued as of February 2019. Users were migrated to VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware vRealize Operations Standard.…
VMware Cloud Foundation on IBM Cloud brings together VMware vSphere, vSAN, and NSX into a natively-integrated stack of virtual compute, virtual storage, and virtual networking built upon IBM Bluemix bare metal servers.
VMmanager automatically creates KVM / LXD based virtual machines. It provides flexible features to control and manage virtual infrastructure. The free version of VMmanager comes without any feature limits for 30 days. Modern interface. VMmanager boasts interface and smart UX…
OpenVZ is container-based virtualization for Linux supported by Virtuozzo and fundamental to that company's commercial offering. It is open source and free.
Firecracker is an open source virtualization technology that is purpose-built for creating and managing secure, multi-tenant container and function-based services. Firecracker enables users to deploy workloads in lightweight virtual machines, called microVMs that may provide security…
UDS Enterprise is a multiplatform VDI connection broker for open systems. It manages virtual desktop lifecycle and user access for virtual desktop platforms and physical resources in the Data Center or Cloud. Users of the connection broker can automatically manage the full life cycle…
Learn More About Server Virtualization Software
What is Server Virtualization Software?
Server virtualization software allows multiple operating systems to run independently of each other on a single machine in a data center. Virtualization software called Hypervisors encapsulates a guest version of the operating system and emulates hardware resources. In this way, virtualization software uses hypervisors to allow multiple server instances to run on a single machine.
Virtualization software reduces the need for physical hardware systems. The resulting increase in resource utilization lowers server costs. Containerization, however, popular since the emergence of Docker, supplies an alternative to server virtualization for organizations that only require the use of one operating system. Containerization achieves greater efficiency than server virtualization software by foregoing a hypervisor and sharing a single instance of the operating system and running on the “bare metal” of the server.
Server Virtualization Software Features & Capabilities
Server virtualization software provides these common features:
- Type 1 or type 2 hypervisor
- Run multiple virtual machines using different OS on same server
- Automated virtual machine provisioning
- Manage remote physical locations, branch locations with rapid provisioning
- Server health monitoring, performance bottleneck, workload rebalancing
- Centrally control and optimize virtual machine environment
- Patch or backup virtual machines without interrupting service
- Migrate live virtual machines between hosts during scheduled maintenance
- Hypervisor-level security, including antivirus and anti-malware
- Secure apps and infrastructure with guest operating system lockdown
- Auditable activity, performance log
Types of Virtualization Software
Virtualization software can be distinguished by the type of hypervisor they utilize. Hypervisors are an important part of virtualization software as they allow a host machine to manage multiple virtual machines.
Type 1 hypervisors are installed directly onto the server. As a result, type 1 hypervisors provide high efficiency and stability. Server virtualization software that uses a type 1 hypervisor is ideal for larger operations that use many server instances.
Type 2 hypervisors are installed on top of a server’s operating system. Virtualization software using a type 2 hypervisor is easier to install and manage for smaller projects but can become more difficult to manage as projects grow.
Pricing Information
Server virtualization inherently reduces data center costs by improving resource utilization. Virtualization software subscriptions are available at a monthly or (more common) annual cost, with reduction in cost for up-front multi-year commitments. Subscriptions are priced according to managed hypervisor socket pairs, or per number of physical processors featuring virtualization. Free trials ranging from 30 to 60 days are available from some vendors. Server virtualization is also sometimes offered with on-demand pricing (e.g. compute capacity per hour).
Server Virtualization Software Best Of Awards
The following Server Virtualization Software offer award-winning customer relationships, feature sets, and value for price. Learn more about our Summer Best Of Awards methodology here.