We currently use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to support various applications, including web servers and databases. Its functionality spans numerous operational aspects, encompassing a wide range of tasks with the exception of AI applications.
Datacenter System specialist at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Enterprise-level support enhances system operations
Pros and Cons
- "We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its broad distribution, enterprise-level support, and robust stability."
- "I would like Red Hat to focus on continuous improvement."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has simplified patch management and centralized operations, eliminating the need for multiple distributions across various functions.
It performs well for our business-critical applications. It is a significant improvement over the various unsupported distributions used previously, providing reliable support and standardized update procedures across all deployments.
The built-in security features work well.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce risk in our environment by simplifying management, which is critical for maintaining stability and security.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux enhances business continuity and compliance efforts by providing a unified platform for various tasks, simplifying operations and reducing the complexity of managing multiple open-source solutions.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce our total cost of ownership through simplified management and comprehensive support resources, ensuring assistance if any issues arise.
What is most valuable?
We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its broad distribution, enterprise-level support, and robust stability. These factors are particularly crucial for our work in government-related IT, where stability and security are paramount.
What needs improvement?
I would like Red Hat to focus on continuous improvement.
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a year at this point. Although my experience with Linux is extensive, I am relatively new to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux world.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling is mostly about increasing the resources for specific virtual machines, and it hasn't been a problem.
How are customer service and support?
I have not personally used customer service, but it's reassuring to know that support is available if needed. I often try to resolve issues myself to learn new things.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What was our ROI?
The return on investment lies in the time saved due to simplified management, allowing me to focus on more important tasks rather than maintenance.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.
While not currently using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization, we have a Podman test machine that we use for our clients. We do plan to utilize it in the future.
Red Hat is an excellent choice due to its strong backing and foundation in open source. They have a comprehensive product stack, including not just Enterprise Linux, but also Ansible, OpenShift, and many other offerings. Red Hat also boasts extensive partner integrations with various manufacturers and developers through licensing agreements.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Oct 30, 2024
Flag as inappropriateProviders coordination at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The built-in features for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance are very important
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of stability and scalability."
- "Though the product has many features, the tool's virtualization area has certain shortcomings that require improvement."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company mainly for the operation system of the core business applications.
How has it helped my organization?
My company has experienced benefits from the use of the product, especially considering the agility that the tool offers in terms of the time to market in different areas of business and because of its compatibility with most of the applications in the market.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are the stability and scalability.
I run Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on a hybrid cloud deployment, and it has impacted our company's operations, but I would say that it has been quite simple to implement, especially considering the security, which has been a considerable piece of the infrastructure.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped centralize development in our company. The applications run with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and it became the standard for the operating system for the applications.
My company uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for containerization projects with OpenShift. This use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has had an important impact on containerization, as it is a simple process. Owing to the simplicity, we always involve the solution's experts and get faster solutions.
The built-in features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance are very important because our company is always aware of all these security issues that constantly happen.
What needs improvement?
Though the product has many features, the tool's virtualization area has certain shortcomings that require improvement. The product should also offer more containers and probably some financial services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a quite easily scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for the solution is very good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), my company used to use Windows. My company started to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) after we found that it offers more stability, sophistication, and security and serves as a standard for many products.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial deployment phase was easy and quick.
My company did follow some strategy to deploy the product, and we also had the support from the vendor.
The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises models.
What about the implementation team?
My company sought the help of a system integrator during the implementation phase of the solution.
What was our ROI?
In terms of ROI, I see that the tool offers stability, performance, agility, and resilience.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If I describe my experience with the product's price, I would say that we have to live with it for now.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company evaluated other Linux products, such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), against Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to a colleague who is looking at open-source cloud-based operating systems for Linux since it is a tool with more market experience and offers more documentation and support from the vendor, which is not easy to acquire when it comes to open-source software.
Red Hat's portfolio has affected the total cost of ownership across our enterprise landscape by around 10 to 20 percent.
My company has the product in two data centers, but the production happens only in one. Mostly, my company uses the cloud services offered by Azure.
I rate the tool a nine or ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Jun 3, 2024
Flag as inappropriateBuyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Systems Engineer & Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Extremely reliable and improves support for container management within our organization
Pros and Cons
- "The reliability and long support lifespan of RHEL are crucial for us. It lasts for ten years, meaning we don't need frequent changes."
- "We hope it will improve tasks we have found challenging in the past, like documentation searches."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use RHEL for data analysis servers supporting our scientific researchers, who access the systems remotely.
What is most valuable?
The reliability and long support lifespan of RHEL are crucial for us. It lasts for ten years, meaning we don't need frequent changes. Updates are quick, simple, and reliable, automatically backing out if issues arise, saving us from patching headaches.
What needs improvement?
I'm eager to see how the AI features in RHEL can enhance our capabilities. We hope it will improve tasks we have found challenging in the past, like documentation searches. We are particularly interested in automation and easily finding information.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using RHEL for 15 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
RHEL is scalable. We have scaled our data analysis clusters with it quite well.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the customer support as a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Deploying RHEL for the first time was simple. It was a long time ago, and we had documentation from previous admins which made it straightforward. We did the deployment on our own.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI with RHEL. Our biggest investment is in professional development through Red Hat Summit, online training, and a Red Hat Learning subscription, which we have used for courses.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our experience with RHEL pricing and setup costs has been good. We will be purchasing an extended license for another year.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have used RHEL since I joined my company about 15 years ago. We have looked at other options like Fedora and Ubuntu for more up-to-date libraries, but we keep coming back to RHEL for its reliability and long-term support.
What other advice do I have?
Using RHEL for containers has simplified our processes. While we, as system managers, aren't heavily involved in development, we provide RHEL containers for our developers. Overall, it has improved support for container management within our organization.
We rely on Linux for our web and file servers to ensure file integrity and service verification. Additionally, we use the host firewall regularly on all our hosts for enhanced security.
We started agile development and containers help us by making it easier for developers to teardown and recreate environments. This allows for more frequent updates, improving our workflow.
Our Red Hat portfolio reduced our cost of ownership by using RHEL Workstation instead of full server licenses where possible, saving money. We use full RHEL only on our enterprise production servers.
I would advise a colleague to check out Red Hat for its long-term support and reliability compared to other open-source Linux-based operating systems.
Overall, I would rate RHEL as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 26, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSoftware Development Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
A rich ecosystem regarded for its exceptional stability and robust security features
Pros and Cons
- "The knowledge base they offer has proven to be quite efficient and we haven't encountered any significant challenges."
- "I believe it would be beneficial to notify the customer in advance of any planned maintenance so that we can better coordinate and plan our customer interactions accordingly."
What is our primary use case?
We use containers to create RPM packages for graphics drivers.
How has it helped my organization?
The main reason to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux is to maintain support for creating images for various purposes, including what we use for gaming. We rely on a range of supported tools and resources, and this enables us to build images tailored for specific target devices.
What is most valuable?
The RPM manager is paramount for us, as we need to generate these packages for our customers, enabling them to install the packages on their systems at a later time. The knowledge base they offer has proven to be quite efficient and we haven't encountered any significant challenges.
What needs improvement?
The technical support should be improved. I believe it would be beneficial to notify the customer in advance of any planned maintenance so that we can better coordinate and plan our customer interactions accordingly.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for six years.
How are customer service and support?
Recently, we encountered issues when the Red Hat server was in maintenance mode, and we attempted to capture images directly from another server for our builds. Although I set up alerts for planned downtime on the Red Hat server, I didn't consistently receive these alerts. I would rate it seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What about the implementation team?
We follow a weekly patching schedule to fetch the latest updates. Our process involves applying these patches to the image and then generating containers, which we subsequently upload to our registry. We accomplish this using Ansible.
What other advice do I have?
The only inconsistency we've noticed so far is with the server, which might be the only aspect we could potentially raise concerns about. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Developer Principal Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides standardized processes, security effectiveness, and efficient updates
Pros and Cons
- "It has improved our organization. It has standardized processes."
What is our primary use case?
All our infrastructure uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Every service we run is all Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Even containerization is on it.
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved our organization. It has standardized processes. Everyone uses it.
The upgrades are straightforward which helps when you want to move a major version of an upgrade. It's done in a standard way.
What is most valuable?
Everything we do is all Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux's security has been good because I have never seen any application going down due to security reasons.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux enables us to achieve security standard certification. For example, we have a very tightly SCC-regulated company so there are many rules that we are to follow and we are able to achieve this using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for six years.
How was the initial setup?
We are all on-prem, but we also have some footprints in AWS but those images are also on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has supported our hybrid cloud strategy. We have a few things running on AWS. We have a few things on OpenShift. We are able to get all the basic images. It is easy to start and deploy anywhere.
One thing I like is the updates because when we patch it and upgrade it, we save a lot of time doing those upgrades and migrations.
Moreover, upgrades or migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux have been straightforward in some ways. For example, we are currently migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and we have all our servers running on RHEL 7. We have scripts that are very easy to migrate.
For our implementation strategy, we go environment by environment. We start with our development environment. Once we are done with it, we test it. We have some automation test suites, test them, and we go to the upper environment.
What about the implementation team?
We worked directly with Red Hat for the deployment. We are already working on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 migration. Every year, whenever there is a major version release, we migrate to the major version.
What was our ROI?
We see a return on investment in terms of saving time. One thing I like is the updates because when we patch it and upgrade it, we save a lot of time doing those upgrades and migrations.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Offers efficient performance tuning capabilities, enhancing overall system performance
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of RHEL are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation."
- "The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating."
What is our primary use case?
My use cases are mainly limited to databases. I'm also involved in other ETL tools; I worked on migrations from older vendors, like Windows, and transitioning to RedHat Linux.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation. If you wanted to automate while adapting with different vendor scripts or your own development because it's Linux, it's not like an operating system itself. It is always going to perform how you expect it to. IAQt's not like other operating systems. It is based on Linux.
These are the main features. Storage management is another valuable feature that is very critical in an operating system. It works along hardware and software.
The most valuable features are security, performance tuning, storage management, and OS-level automation. If you wanted to automate while adapting with different vendor scripts or your own development because it's Linux, it's not like an operating system itself. It is always going to perform how you expect it to. IAQt's not like other operating systems. It is based on Linux.
Compared to other OS', Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the best from my 20-plus years of experience. It is well-suited for production environments. In 2003 and 2006 I worked with one of the vendors in another country. We were able to run a database instance on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for two years without restarting it. The database was located in a remote location, and the team could not be on-site to provide support. We installed it ourselves and it worked for two years. We restarted the database instance. We didn't need to touch it internally. It works like a charm.
If it works, it works. You don't need to attach anything at all. You just monitor them remotely. Nobody was there on-site. That's the beauty of it. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great. I love it.
What needs improvement?
The GUI has room for improvement. It needs to be managed by many administrators. It has basic command lines. They could improve it with better automation. We'd like to be able to create a script, and then have the ability to deploy it where we don't need to write everything manually. That part can be useful for automating.
We'd like it so that a coder wouldn't need to go through it, read it, go to GUI, and then generate a script. If they want to modify it, they could modify it. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux is going to build something, the REST API can be helpful instead of writing their own, starting from scratch. That would make it easier.
For future releases, there could be more integration. Regarding security, we used a different tool for scanning, but having a tool within Red Hat could enhance it.
Support is essential for open-source software. If they improve aspects like prevention against hacking, it would be beneficial.
Before, with a surge in hacking incidents, companies lost data, and once lost, it remains lost forever. You never know when it might be used. Improving security, especially in terms of prevention, is crucial. I would like to see ongoing improvement in this aspect.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've worked with different companies. In my over 20 years of experience, in the last five or six companies I've worked for, all of them have been using Red Hat. They use it mostly for databases.
I'm in the database sector, primarily working as a senior technical architect. End-to-end, we always find that Red Hat is best suited for Linux, especially for Oracle and other NoSQL databases. It's reliable, first and foremost, and it offers stability and performance. Performance tuning is crucial, and once it's set up, you can rely on it.
With the cloud, it's moving into containerization, and most of them support the cloud.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and support are really good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with many different operating systems in the past, including Windows, Linux, and RedHat Linux.
We switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because it is a reliable and well-supported enterprise operating system. It is easy to manage, use, and upgrade.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment.
What other advice do I have?
As a consultant, I handle sizing, design, and optimization for new infrastructures and I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux to anybody considering it.
Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Infrastructure Manager at Linuxfault
We get great support, and stability, and it helps us save costs
Pros and Cons
- "The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas."
- "Upgrading between versions needs to be easier."
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run our GS and PSP applications.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us avoid cloud vendor lock-in.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helped us save on costs.
What is most valuable?
The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas.
What needs improvement?
Upgrading between versions needs to be easier. For example, if we have Red Hat Seven running now and a Java exploit is found on Red Hat Seven, we need to be able to upgrade to Red Hat Nine online without any downtime in the environment. This is because it is not possible to reinstall the environment from Red Hat Seven to Red Hat Nine in production without causing downtime to the applications. Red Hat needs to have tools that ensure that we can upgrade from Red Hat Seven to Nine online without any issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is extremely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable. We have around 1,790 end users.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is quick to respond.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Proxmox and switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the price.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward because it is well-documented. The deployment time depends on the application. A small application can take around 20 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is based on each organization's budget and infrastructure.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.
The ease of moving workloads between the cloud and our data center depends on the application architecture. If the application has a monolithic infrastructure, it may be easier to move to the cloud. However, if the application is already running mostly in the data center, it may be more difficult because we would need to recreate all of the infrastructure and topology from scratch. This is because there are so many parts to consider when migrating a microservices-based application to the cloud.
For someone who wants to use an open source Linux operating system, I would recommend Rocky Linux. However, they should be aware that open source solutions do not come with the same level of support as Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Four network team members are required to maintain Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The Red Hat knowledge base is good and well-documented.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the only Linux solution that is supported for enterprise-level organizations. I recommend this solution for large organizations that want professional support for their Linux systems.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Deputy General Manager Delivery at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
A robust and secure operating system with competitive pricing
Pros and Cons
- "It is very stable and robust."
- "Its pricing is good and competitive."
- "I don't prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux for desktop over other options."
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for servers. We have deployed application servers and database servers on it. We run Oracle Database, WebLogic, Apache, and JBoss on it.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very important for our organization. We are very sensitive to security.
It is not difficult to move workloads between the cloud and the data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Mostly, our teams use file servers centrally, and then they use scripts so that it is done automatically in the background. Initially, they may get problems while connecting due to the security or firewall, but once the connection is established, we do not see any problem with that.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has helped to avoid cloud vendor lock-in. I am not sure how much our organization has saved in costs by avoiding cloud vendor lock-in, but we would have saved a good amount.
What is most valuable?
It is very stable and robust. My team is very comfortable working with it for all end-to-end activities. They can work with it very easily. They prefer working through the console rather than the GUI.
Its resiliency is good. There is no doubt about that.
What needs improvement?
I don't prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux for desktop over other options.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a good amount of time. It has been eight to ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of scalability. It is highly available and scalable for servers.
How are customer service and support?
It is good. I do not see any challenges. I would rate their support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We choose an operating system based on the needs and the use case. We use different operating systems for different purposes, so they are not comparable. For example, for desktops, Linux is not the best. For desktops, Microsoft Windows is the best. Similarly, if you are using any Microsoft products, such as SQL Server, Microsoft Windows is the best option. However, nowadays, we also have Microsoft products installed on Linux.
How was the initial setup?
I am not involved in its deployment and maintenance. We have a separate team with 40 to 50 people around the globe for that.
We most probably have both on-premises and cloud deployments on a private cloud, but I am not sure. Our infrastructure services team takes care of that.
What was our ROI?
We have got a good ROI, but I do not have the metrics. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its pricing is good and competitive.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it based on the use case and the budget. If it meets your needs and budget, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the best option.
Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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