KVM and VMware vSphere are leading solutions in the virtualization market. KVM's advantage lies in its cost-effectiveness and flexibility due to its open-source nature, whereas VMware vSphere is recognized for its enterprise-level features, justifying its higher price.
Features: KVM is admired for its simplicity, seamless integration with Linux, and flexibility, particularly benefiting organizations with Linux expertise. VMware vSphere offers advanced management tools, significant scalability, and high reliability, making it appealing to large enterprises seeking comprehensive virtualization solutions.
Room for Improvement: KVM could enhance its graphical management tools, provide better scalability options, and strengthen support for diverse virtual environments. VMware vSphere might focus on simplifying license management, reducing costs, and enhancing integration with third-party tools for broader adaptability.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: KVM is favored for easy deployment in Linux environments, supported by an active community. VMware vSphere, although complex in deployment, is supported by extensive vendor assistance, reflecting the differing expectations of user expertise between ecosystems.
Pricing and ROI: KVM's open-source model minimizes setup costs, offering excellent ROI for budget-conscious users. VMware vSphere's higher initial costs are balanced by features that promise substantial returns over time for users focused on persistent value and reliability.
Paid support is also obtainable from companies like Red Hat for more critical issues.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
My team solves most tickets, needing support only about once or twice a year.
In comparison to VMware, which offers a more balanced set of management features, KVM could improve in terms of user-friendly tooling.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
Compared to VMware and Microsoft, KVM offers better pricing and licensing options.
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
The most valuable feature of KVM is its superior real-time performance, which results in lower latency compared to alternatives like VMware and Microsoft.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
The high availability feature is significant.
VMware vCenter is extremely useful as we can manage between 100 and 1,000 hosts using just one management tool.
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
VMware vSphere is a powerful and complete server virtualization platform that allows its users to create and manage virtual data centers and machines. VMware vSphere is designed to help IT departments set up and run applications using the most cost-effective computer resources. By using vSphere, organizations save the time and energy necessary for purchasing infrastructure and software and reduce ongoing maintenance and operational burdens on IT teams.
Infrastructure administrators and network operators can access and manage the vSphere server by using a web-based cross-platform client application or via the vSphere client tool provided with vSphere.
VMware vSphere provides visibility into VMs and enables its users to carry out operations to manage VMs. This includes tasks such as:
VMware vSphere Benefits
Some of the benefits of using VMware vSphere include:
VMware vSphere Features
Below is a list of some of VMware vSphere’s key features:
Reviews from Real Users
VMware vSphere stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. A few major ones are its virtualization abilities, its flexibility and availability, and its user-friendly interface.
Felix D., an Automation project administrator, DCS, I&E at Centennial Cayman Corp, writes, “The connectivity is fantastic, and many functions can run together in one server. If you need to scale, we can continue to add components or modules. It's a beautiful virtual solution that has many advantages over physical hardware, where you have to use devices and wiring to connect all your projects.”
We monitor all Server Virtualization Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.