IBM PowerVM vs Oracle VM comparison

IBM and Oracle are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. IBM is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.3, while Oracle is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.4. IBM holds a 1.2% mindshare in SVS, compared to Oracle’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

IBM PowerVM

Read 33 IBM PowerVM reviews

2,224 Views
1,913 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Oracle VM

Read 80 Oracle VM reviews

13,964 Views
10,003 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

IBM PowerVM

Oracle VM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

Oracle VM and IBM PowerVM are leading competitors in virtualization technology. Although both have their unique offerings, IBM PowerVM stands out in resource allocation and high-performance stability, making it preferred for high-end enterprise applications.

Features: Oracle VM offers integration with Oracle databases, compatibility with diverse operating systems, and significant licensing flexibility, making it an attractive option for those invested in the Oracle ecosystem. In contrast, IBM PowerVM is recognized for resource allocation efficiency, Live Partition Mobility, and high availability, ensuring performance stability and minimal downtime.

Room for Improvement: Users of Oracle VM note the need for interface stability, enhanced backup functionalities, and better API support. Improved documentation for setup and use is also requested. Meanwhile, IBM PowerVM users highlight its high costs, calling for improved price competitiveness and enhanced automation features. They also suggest expanding GUI development, as reliance on command-line usage remains significant.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle VM is versatile in deployment across multiple environments, including clouds, though technical support feedback varies. Customer service experiences range from exceptional to adequate. IBM PowerVM is typically used in on-premise or private cloud setups, and although earlier support feedback was less favorable, users now find IBM’s support services adequate once issues are properly escalated.

Pricing and ROI: Oracle VM is often viewed as more cost-effective, particularly when used with Oracle hardware, benefiting from its open-source nature. This makes it appealing to budget-conscious enterprises. IBM PowerVM, while more expensive, justifies its higher initial costs through robust performance and stability. Despite this, some users may find its pricing a deterrent, especially when considering its favorable long-term reliability.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM PowerVM vs. Oracle VM Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM vs. Oracle VM

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM PowerVM

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle VM

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of IBM PowerVM is 1.2%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle VM is 7.2%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Virtualization Software

Featured Reviews

Atif Najam

Chief Information Officer and Program Lead at Gatron Industries Ltd

Oct 18, 2022

A stable system for high-end data processing with a great support structure

The only problem with the IBM system is improving its hardware licensing model. For example, when you procure a server with 40 physical codes, you must also procure licenses to activate the codes. In Dell or any system, you procure the hardware and have the full right to use the hardware. For IBM, it's different because when you procure a 40-code processor and have 40 physical codes, you only have a license to use 20. As a result, the 20 alert codes will always be in activated mode. Hence, the hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured.

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Rasika Sudasinghe

Senior Director - Systems Architecture at MIT ESP

Aug 15, 2023

A cheap option available for Linux environments which is useful for many workloads

Oracle VM is an obsolete product in that no new features are coming for it. The new version is called Oracle KVM. The only improvement needed for Oracle VM is the look and feel of the interface. When comparing the user console with vCenter, the interface used to control VMware environments, Oracle VM's user interface is not that rich in terms of user experience. If Oracle could improve that, it would be good. Besides that, we don't know if the solution comes with a roadmap because it comes free of charge with Oracle x86. We can't expect something similar to vCenter in KVM, but at least if you can improve what users can experience, then it would be good.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"What I like about this solution, is that it is easy to configure."

"It is a stable solution with reliable performance."

"The most valuable feature is the flexibility in terms of managing the hardware resources such as RAM, CPU, and the network."

"The support is easily reachable."

"The stability is the most valuable aspect of this solution. IBM is the most powerful and stable platform."

"You can increase resources with it automatically."

"IBM PowerVM has the highest clock speed."

"Active Memory Sharing dynamically reallocates memory of running partitions based on changing workload demands. The memory for the pool is carved out from Physical memory and is made logical memory. The said memory is not available to be assigned to partitions as dedicated memory. A min, max and desired as well as weight is assigned to the memory of each lpar to help hypervisor make a decision in case a condition where priority is to be given to a certain lapr to use the memory form shared pool."

More IBM PowerVM pros

"It is a stable product that has been reliable for several years."

"Ability to patch with no downtime."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"It is a stable product."

"Oracle is probably the best database technology out there. I've never found anything as complete in terms of feature and functionality and sophistication."

"It's quite stable."

"We've noticed that when working with Citrix with our Oracle clients who also use Oracle Linux, the monitoring and testing is simpler and easier for us to do."

"In terms of server provisioning, it only takes a few clicks of a button and a bit of install automation."

More Oracle VM pros

Cons

"The solution's interface needs to be integrated with messaging analysis."

"It is solely command-line based."

"Stability could always be better."

"The biggest challenge is the limited flexibility in operating system compatibility. PowerVM, for instance, supports only a select few operating systems, which can restrict the types of workloads deployed."

"IBM PowerVM does not integrate with Microsoft."

"The licensing could be better."

"The hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured."

"The cost of this solution is high."

More IBM PowerVM cons

"The pricing could be cheaper. It is very pricey."

"The management can be improved more, and become more agile. It would be nice for it to become more rich in terms of UI. In addition, the replication to disaster recovery needs improvement."

"Incorporating analytics related to performance, particularly within the dashboard interface, would be beneficial."

"Productivity in Oracle VM could still be improved, and an additional feature to make the product better is compatibility with Kubernetes and other modern technologies."

"The solution is at its end of life and is about to be discontinued."

"The performance could be better because I need to purchase a lot of CPUs to perform in the workbench."

"The product could improve network virtualization and hardware utilization functionalities."

"Oracle VM needs to add a backup feature."

More Oracle VM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM PowerVM costs more than other products but the customer does not need to pay additional money for the licenses. In VMware, you need to license everything. With IBM PowerVM it is unlimited and all-inclusive in the price you pay."

"The cost is on the higher side. Typically, we invest in the machine and support for two, three, or five years."

"The price varies from case to case and you have to negotiate it for every project."

"Even if the product is expensive, it works well in the long term. The tool is more or less expensive, and I would presently describe it as an optimally priced product."

"The pricing for PowerVM is on the higher. Regarding the license, it can be on a monthly or annual basis, depending on the deal. Customers may choose to pay annually, one-time, or monthly based on their agreement with the sales team. As for additional costs, customers need to pay for support if they opt for it. If not, they only pay for the hardware cost as per the agreement."

"The solution is expensive."

"The tool is competitively priced, especially right now."

"IBM PowerVM's pricing is cheap."

More IBM PowerVM pricing and cost advice

"The price of the license is expensive."

"I have heard from my colleague that it comes with a high price tag."

"Oracle VM pricing is expensive."

"The solution is free but we have to pay for technical support."

"The solution as a standalone product can not be purchased."

"Pricing and licensing is one of the main decision making reasons for going to Oracle VM because it was cost effective."

"All other vendors are selling their licenses to use the VM, but Oracle isn't doing that, which is its biggest advantage. It is free. All you have to do is get the hardware. You can create an unlimited number of VMs for free. With VMware, you have to purchase licenses for the number of VMs that you want to create. You only pay for their premium support, and even that is optional. I am now learning this product, and we can even do without the support."

"The pricing for the platform is aligned with other enterprise virtualization solutions."

More Oracle VM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

46%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM PowerVM?

Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM PowerVM?

PowerVM is expensive but worth the investment for the reliability and performance it offers.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM PowerVM?

Currently, all the necessary features are working fine for us. However, technical support could be improved, especially when seeking solutions to issues.

See all answers

Which is better - Oracle VM or KVM?

I would prefer if KVM was easier to scale and not so limited. Overall the product has been helpful. It is easy to use, and was quite straight-forward to set up. Since I have been using KVM, I have ...

See all answers

Which is better - Oracle VM or VMware VSphere?

Oracle VM seems to me to be kind of outdated. Nevertheless, it is fairly straightforward to use and maintain. The solution can just be set and you can forget about it, and the scalability is consid...

See all answers

What do you like most about Oracle VM?

If you want to access the VM from anywhere over the Internet, you put it in a public subnet. So, VMs are linked to that. The subnets are linked to it. So, it's perfectly secured if it's a private n...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSphere vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 62% of the time

KVM vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 12% of the time

Hyper-V vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 8% of the time

Proxmox VE vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM PowerVM Competitors

VMware vSphere vs Oracle VM

Compared 38% of the time

Proxmox VE vs Oracle VM

Compared 18% of the time

KVM vs Oracle VM

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Oracle VM

Compared 15% of the time

Citrix XenServer vs Oracle VM

Compared 0% of the time

More Oracle VM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM

November 2024

Download IBM PowerVM product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle VM

November 2024

Download Oracle VM product report

Also Known As

PowerVM

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IBM

Oracle

Overview

Power is server virtualization without limits. Businesses are turning to PowerVM server virtualization to consolidate multiple workloads onto fewer systems, increasing server utilization and reducing cost. PowerVM provides a secure and scalable server virtualization environment for AIX, IBM i and Linux applications built upon the advanced RAS features and leading performance of the Power Systems platform.

Oracle VM for x86

Oracle VM for x86 is a Xen based server virtualization platform for public and private cloud and traditional on premise deployment. Oracle VM offers full lifecycle and application deployment from disk to cloud.

Designed and optimized for security, efficiency and performance Oracle VM supports major hardware vendors x86 and storage platforms and can run workloads on Linux, Windows and Oracle Solaris. Uniquely for our virtualization platform it offers live patching via Ksplice enhancing security and minimizing service disruption. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.

Oracle VM for SPARC

Oracle VM for SPARC is a firmware based virtualization platform for Oracle and Fujitsu SPARC based servers running Solaris. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.

Sample Customers

Sto, Soitec, SNO, Bundesrechenzentrum GmbH, Al Mansour Holding, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Huhtamaki, ELK Group, IT-Informatik, Arkansas Tech University, Pneuhage

Ambulance Victoria, Australian Finance Group (AFG), Avnet Technology Solutions, CERN, cloudKleyer, Danish Tax Authority (SKAT), Data Intensity, Dubai World, Engineers Australia, Enkitec, Groupe FLO, Guerra S.A. Implemento, s Rodovišrios, Interactive One, IT Convergence, Jesta Digital, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, KT, Kyoto Prefecture, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory / National Ignition Facility, Multinet Pakistan, National Australia Bank (NAB), Navis LLC, Overhead Door, Overstock.com, Paragon Data, Parks Victoria, Pella, Sunway Shared Services, St. Louis Metro, Terminales Ro de la Plata S.A., University of Massachusetts, Versace,

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM vs. Oracle VM

October 2024

Free Report: IBM PowerVM vs. Oracle VM

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM PowerVM vs. Oracle VM and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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