Red Hat Virtualization Review

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Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) is an enterprise x86 virtualization platform on the KVM hypervisor that supports key virtualization workloads and is built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and KVM. It allows virtualizing resources, processes, and applications with a stable foundation for a cloud-native and containerized future.

Red Hat Virtualization was initially released in 2009 at the Red Hat Summit in Boston. It uses the SPICE protocol and Virtual Desktop Server Manager (VDSM) with an RHEL-based centralized management server. The virtualization solution is based on two primary components, including Red Hat Virtualization Manager (RHV-M) and Red Hat Virtualization Hypervisors or RHV Host (RHV-H).

See below to learn all about Red Hat Virtualization and where it stands in the hypervisor sector:

Red Hat and hypervisor market

The hypervisor market size was estimated at $1.21 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $4.46 billion by 2027, at a 29.78% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to Maximize Market Research. In addition, the embedded hypervisor market value was $5.21 billion in 2021, and it is projected to reach $7.36 billion by 2028, registering a CAGR of 5.90% from 2022 to 2028.

The virtualization market value was $62.7 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach $120.41 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 11.5% from 2021 to 2026.

Red Hat Virtualization has an estimated 8.03% of market share in the virtualization-platform market, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization has an estimated 0.37% of the market share in enterprise virtualization, according to Maximize Market Research.

Red Hat Virtualization features

Red Hat Virtualization comes with a rich feature set that supports automating, managing, and modernizing virtualized workloads by providing effective and efficient virtualization services.

Centralized management and security

Red Hat Virtualization Manager delivers centralized management with a search-driven graphical user interface (GUI), and the dashboard includes a global-use overview of CPUs, memory, and storage host resources.

RHV allows directly managing and controlling virtual machines (VMs) running in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platforms. Secure virtualization (sVirt) and Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) technologies are incorporated to help secure and harden the hypervisor against attacks.

Automation and integration

Red Hat Virtualization integrates with OpenShift and Ansible automation platforms. OpenShift virtualization modernizes virtualized workloads to ease workload migration to private clouds or design applications, and Ansible streamlines administration and operations by configuring infrastructure and resources.

RHV also natively supports Red Hat Gluster Storage, the RESTful API automates management and programming configurations, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) allows third-party monitoring systems integration.

Availability and workload management

RHV allows VMs to be configured for high availability in case of a host failure, and the hosts can be configured for power- and storage-based fencing. An advanced service-level agreement (SLA) manager allows defining host and VM policies for underlying infrastructure resources. Additional memory and CPU resources can be added without disrupting applications, and the resource optimizer automatically balances existing VMs within a cluster.

Differentiators

Some of the key areas of differentiation for Red Hat Virtualization are below:

Expanded integration

Red Hat Virtualization allows users to create, start, stop, pause, migrate, and template a large number of VMs with different other hardware or software by using a single virtualization platform. RHV is built on an ecosystem of platform and partner solutions that reduce overall cost and supports integration with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenStack Platform, and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to improve overall IT productivity.

Cross-platform and migration

Red Hat Virtualization supports cross-platforms, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows Server, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. RHV determines migration effort and risk for modernizing VM workloads with Red Hat Migration and Modernization Solutions, and RHV Manager and command-line tools help migrate workloads from VMware vCenter.

Easy deployment and use

Red Hat Virtualization has many useful tools that help speed up deployment, so users can start using RHV quickly and even automate migration from another vendor. RHV has a wide variety of tools a user expects from an enterprise virtualization solution that supports desktop and server profiles. Moreover, RHV developed, tested, and supported enterprise virtualization solutions based on over 10 years of open-source KVM and oVirt innovation.

Red Hat Virtualization use cases

Red Hat Virtualization is used by organizations in a range of industries for several reasons, including scalability, security, and performance:

“As an operation that functions 365 days a year with a plane always in the sky, high availability is key for the safety of our operation and ultimately our customers. Red Hat Virtualization now enables us to have a single-pane view to see what is going on in the whole environment, which we didn’t have before.” -Richard Dawson, UNIX and Linux infrastructure consultant, British Airways

“Compared to the competition, Red Hat was really the clear choice. With the option for support from a Technical Account Manager and consulting services, Red Hat offers the whole package businesses need for success.” -Jeff Shaw, EVP and CIO, Employers

“As an Enterprise Architect, I deal with the virtualization capabilities of Red Hat on a daily basis. Red Hat allows for an easy, standardized image to be quickly applied into our cloud environment; typically in less than an hour. This allows us to provide prompt delivery of approved, architected solutions for our user community. The users can get their applications up and running in a day versus several weeks using a standard process.” -Ron Goulden, infrastructure architect/capacity planner, Syntel

User reviews of Red Hat Virtualization

Red Hat Virtualization services receive mostly positive reviews and recommendations from several user review sites. Users at G2 rate Red Hat Virtualization at 4 out of 5. According to Gartner Peer Insights, users rate Red Hat Virtualization at 4.3 out of 5, with 83% saying they would recommend it.

Based on the Gartner Peer Insights user review Customer Experience ratings are given below:

  • Evaluation and contracting: 4.3 out of 5
  • Integration and deployment: 4.3 out of 5
  • Service and support: 4.3 out of 5
  • Product capabilities: 4.4 out of 5

And according to TrustRadius, users rate Red Hat Virtualization at 7.2 out of 10, with features receiving ratings, such as:

  • Virtual machine automated provisioning: 8 out of 10
  • Management console: 7.3 out of 10
  • Live virtual machine backup: 7.3 out of 10
  • Live virtual machine migration: 7 out of 10

Red Hat Virtualization pricing

Red Hat Virtualization is a highly scaled deployment with budget constraints, and the virtualization subscription includes both workstations and server virtualization. Red Hat Virtualization pricing depends on the number of years and the number of the hypervisor.

There are two pricing editions: Cloud Standard and Premium. The Cloud Standard edition pricing starts from $999 per year per hypervisor, and the Cloud Premium edition pricing starts from $1,499 per year per hypervisor.

Diogo Santos, CTO at CorpFlex, said, “We want to help customers run workloads in the most appropriate environment to meet their time, cost, or security requirements. We know we will be able to deliver this possibility with Red Hat.”

Conclusions

Red Hat Virtualization supports up to 400 hosts in a single cluster, and there is no limit to the number of VMs. It also supports hot-plugging virtual CPUs and allows unlimited guest machines in contrast with RHEL. Red Hat Virtualization delivers a flexible and highly available solution, it also helps enterprises to reduce overall infrastructure costs.

The right hypervisor services help companies to achieve their business goal by enhancing hardware functionalities. Red Hat Virtualization can be a good option.

Al Mahmud Al Mamun
Al Mahmud Al Mamun
Al Mahmud Al Mamun is a writer for TechnologyAdvice. He earned his B.S. in computer science and engineering from Prime University, Bangladesh. He attained more than 25 diploma courses and 100 certificate courses. His expertise and research interests include artificial intelligence (AI), artificial neural networks, and convolutional neural networks.

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