IBM PowerVM vs RHEV comparison

IBM and Red Hat are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. IBM is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.5, while Red Hat is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.6. IBM holds a 1.3% mindshare in SVS, compared to Red Hat’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 78% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

IBM PowerVM

Read 36 IBM PowerVM reviews

1,834 Views
1,548 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

RHEV

Read 35 RHEV reviews

5,335 Views
3,875 Comparison Views

78% willing to recommend

IBM PowerVM

RHEV

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

IBM PowerVM and RHEV are competitors in the virtualization solutions market. IBM PowerVM holds the advantage due to its stability and performance in high-demand environments.

Features: IBM PowerVM offers robust security and stability with high availability through LPAR, shared processor pools, and active memory sharing. It efficiently manages hardware resources and integrates seamlessly with Oracle databases. RHEV provides open-source flexibility with ease of use, cloud management, and integration capabilities. It supports a wide range of environments and offers cost-effective virtualization features.

Room for Improvement: IBM PowerVM could improve with lower pricing, better OS compatibility, and enhanced cloud service integration. A more user-friendly GUI for VIOS and transparent pricing are suggested. RHEV needs an improved interface, detailed documentation, and faster updates. Enhancing third-party integration and management features would also benefit users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM PowerVM is primarily deployed on-premises, with users praising its reliable and prompt customer service, which is crucial for critical applications. RHEV offers deployment flexibility across various cloud environments but has average service in some areas compared to IBM.

Pricing and ROI: IBM PowerVM is more expensive but justifies the cost with comprehensive features, offering substantial ROI for Oracle deployments due to targeted core licensing. RHEV, as an open-source option, presents a more affordable alternative with subscription-based pricing, though it requires traditional enterprise feature enhancements to better compete with pricier solutions like VMware.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM PowerVM

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

RHEV

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

12th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of IBM PowerVM is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 3.6%, up from 2.6% 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

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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Sujeet-Kumar

Project Manager Cloud Infrastructure at Path Infotech ltd

The solution is scalable and affordable, but it lacks features, and it is not easy to manage

Management of RHEV is not as easy as VMware. Some features do not work. The product does not provide features similar to VMware’s VMotion. After creating the cluster, the VM is moved to another node if we move down. However, the VM does not move the parent node automatically. It has to be moved manually. VMware moves it automatically. RHEV moves it to the parent node only if we restart. Everything can be handled in VMware through the GUI. However, in RHEV, some things can be managed through UI, and others cannot. We have to troubleshoot and use CLI. A few features of the product do not work as well as those in VMware.

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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

"PowerVM excels in efficiently managing all systems and environments, including development, UI, and production."

"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."

"The case fileserver on the web server is the most valuable feature."

"Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM."

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

"IBM technical support is always good and quick."

"PowerVM excels in efficiently managing all systems and environments, including development, UI, and production."

"I rate IBM PowerVM a ten out of ten for its capabilities in the cloud environment."

More IBM PowerVM pros

"Red Hat is the most stable system."

"Customers are moving to open source and Red Hat is the leader in this particular space. I think customers feel more confident running Red Hat Virtualization than VMware."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the support portal."

"Stability and speed are the most valuable aspects."

"There aren't any bugs on the solution."

"Technically, the main reason why I'm using Red Hat is because of its stability."

"The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan."

"The solution makes migration easy."

More RHEV pros

Cons

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

"IBM PowerVM does not integrate with Microsoft."

"The interface is not user-friendly in places, so it could use some improvement."

"Automatic LPM is an area that is currently not available in IBM PowerVM, and it is a feature I want to see in the product's future releases."

"I don't know whether this has been trialed already, but IBM should give us an alert when we reach seven or eight failovers so that we can automatically switch it to manual mode. That would be great because if we cross the 10-day licensing limit, we have to pay a hefty license cost to Oracle. If IBM could view that feature, it would be helpful in license compliance."

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

"The solution is quite pricey."

"IBM PowerVM could improve the price because it is expensive."

More IBM PowerVM cons

"The support is tricky in a few places. We're facing some challenges within Malaysia where we don't really have the system integrators available who can provide extended support. When we need personnel on-site, we can't get them."

"The documentation is not as good as it should be."

"The solution has a very small lifecycle."

"My teammates and I often complain that VMware is well-documented and has a large community since it is the de facto standard. I would love to see better documentation and ease of use."

"The availability of technical expertise with the solution may be limited in some areas."

"Configuring the network interfaces is much better in Ubuntu and should be improved."

"This solution could be more secure."

"While everything needs improvement in some way, I have no specifics."

More RHEV cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM PowerVM's pricing is cheap."

"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 price of the solution could improve, it is expensive."

"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."

"We have to purchase the product's licenses."

"The license cost is bundled with IBM Power Systems as it is limited to RISC-based IBM systems only."

"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."

More IBM PowerVM pricing and cost advice

"This is an open-source solution."

"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."

"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."

"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."

"Its price depends on the use cases."

"I would say the price is acceptable."

"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."

"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."

More RHEV pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Thang Le Toan (Victory Lee)

CIO at Robusta Technology & Training

Jan 13, 2015

vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer

We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

50%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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 itself is free with the purchase of an IBM server. However, I find that the overall cost is higher, however, the total cost of ownership is cheaper for larger workloads.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM PowerVM?

PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features. IBM should consider models that combine x86 and Power processors for versatility in running Windows ...

See all answers

What do you like most about RHEV?

The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?

It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.

See all answers

What needs improvement with RHEV?

My teammates and I often complain that VMware is well-documented and has a large community since it is the de facto standard. I would love to see better documentation and ease of use. For newcomers...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSphere vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 66% of the time

KVM vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 11% of the time

Hyper-V vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 9% of the time

Proxmox VE vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle VM vs IBM PowerVM

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM PowerVM Competitors

VMware vSphere vs RHEV

Compared 53% of the time

Proxmox VE vs RHEV

Compared 17% of the time

Hyper-V vs RHEV

Compared 10% of the time

KVM vs RHEV

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs RHEV

Compared 6% of the time

More RHEV Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM

March 2025

Download IBM PowerVM product report

Buyer's Guide

RHEV

March 2025

Download RHEV product report

Also Known As

PowerVM

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

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.

IBM

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, or RHEV, is a leading open standard enterprise virtualization management solution. This solution supports virtualization of servers and desktops using the same infrastructure and a single easy-to-use interface.

Because RHEV is based on open standards, it is vendor-independent and a lot more cost effective and flexible than proprietary solutions.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

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

Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.

Buyer's Guide

IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV

March 2025

Free Report: IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV

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