KVM and Oracle VM VirtualBox compete in virtualization platforms. KVM has the upper hand in kernel integration, scalability, and performance, supported by a strong open-source community and low cost. Oracle VM VirtualBox is favored for its ease of use and multi-platform support, making it ideal for desktop virtualization.
Features: KVM provides strong performance, live migrations, and excellent scalability. Its open-source nature allows for integration with other software, and it is suitable for both embedded systems and supercomputers. Oracle VM VirtualBox is praised for its simplicity, rapid setup, multi-platform compatibility, and robust community support, all while being cost-effective.
Room for Improvement: KVM could enhance user-friendliness, GUI, backup features, and Windows guest support. It also needs better disaster recovery solutions and integration with other systems. Oracle VM VirtualBox users seek improved network management, more enterprise-level features, enhanced resource management, and better USB and 3D graphics support.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: KVM supports various deployment models, especially with Linux systems, but lacks structured customer service beyond community forums. Oracle VM VirtualBox is mainly used on-premises with community support and some structured support, ensuring easy deployment.
Pricing and ROI: Both KVM and Oracle VM VirtualBox are open-source and free, offering cost savings over alternatives like VMware. KVM's zero licensing cost reduces expenses, while Oracle VM VirtualBox's pricing is competitive with no licensing fees, providing high value for budget-conscious users.
KVM definitely saves costs since it is open-source and does not obligate us to pay for licenses as necessary with other virtualization solutions.
Paid support is also obtainable from companies like Red Hat for more critical issues.
The snapshot functionality in Oracle VM VirtualBox is effective for management purposes.
In comparison to VMware, which offers a more balanced set of management features, KVM could improve in terms of user-friendly tooling.
Compared to VMware and Microsoft, KVM offers better pricing and licensing options.
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
The most valuable feature of KVM is its superior real-time performance, which results in lower latency compared to alternatives like VMware and Microsoft.
Its snapshot functionality helps with backup management.
KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, which is an open-source virtualization technology that is embedded in Linux. KVM allows users to seamlessly transform their Linux system into a hypervisor that, in turn, will enable a host machine to run numerous, isolated virtual environments or virtual machines (VMs).
KVM is part of Linux. Users with Linux 2.6.20 or newer already have KVM. As KVM is already a component of the current Linux code, it automatically improves with every new Linux fix, feature, or upgrade. So KVM users are always current and up to date.
KVM automatically transforms Linux to a type -1 (bare-metal) hypervisor. All hypervisors need operating system components, such as a process scheduler, I/O stack, device drivers, memory manager, and more, to run a VM. KVM already has these components embedded, as it is part of the Linux kernel. Each VM is generated as a basic Linux proces,s which is maintained by the standard Linux scheduler, with dedicated hardware such as a graphics adapter, memory, disks, network card, and CPUs.
KVM Key Features:
KVM has many valuable key features. Some of its most useful features include:
Reviews from Real Users
“The most helpful aspect of KVM is the fact that the interface is so minimal. It includes just what you need to set up the VMs and manage them, and it's very simple to do so. KVM, as a native virtualization solution, is a complete and fully adequate system for small businesses that need to reduce costs, and also to make maintenance easier. “ - Georges E., Business Engineer and Consultant at All-Tech
“The most valuable feature of KVM is the hypervisor environment and how we can configure it with ease. Additionally, the interface is intuitive.” Sonu S., Senior Solution Architect at Micro Focus
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a robust AMD64/Intel64 and x86 next-generation virtualization solution that functions well for home use and is also powerful enough to handle the needs of a busy enterprise organization. This professional solution is open source and provides super-fast high performance in addition to many outstanding value-added features. VirtualBox functions effectively on Windows, macOS, Solaris, Linux, and more. Users can benefit from VirtualBox's dedication to continually developing the product and providing continual progressive updates and releases. The solution is supported by a trusted dedicated professional community and is backed by Oracle, which guarantees that the product is able to consistently meet and exceed quality controls and protocols at all times.
Oracle VM VirtualBox Features
Oracle VM Virtual Box provides many value-added features. Some of these features include:
Reviews from Real Users
“Oracle VM VirtualBox is easy to use and does not require much training. It uses fewer resources. Teams using new operating system releases can quickly test and implement. This would make the development of new software releases faster and easier. It also helps users to write the program, test, and support it on multiple platforms. It has a good community as it is open-source.” - Satishbabu G., Oracle ACE
“It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge. It uses less resources, which is a requirement as it is used to onboard hardware with very little resources available.” - A PeerSpot user who is an IT Architect - AI at CGI
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