Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
reviewer1006923 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Architect at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It's easier to maintain and more agile than our previous solution
Pros and Cons
  • "RHEL been stable, and we could do anything we wanted with it. OpenShift is a concise environment, and RHEL is one of the most stable Linux distros on the market."
  • "The only issue for us was the cost. RHEL is expensive."

What is our primary use case?

In the past, we ran almost everything on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but now we use it for applications that are only supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, LDAP servers, and other stuff that runs better on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We've migrated the rest to Ubuntu. We don't use it for containerization yet, but I'm learning about OpenShift. 

We are considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux for some AI projects at the university, some for researchers and research groups, and others for administration or student enrollment. There are many opportunities to use AI. 

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has made us more agile, and more applications were ready-made for Linux. It was also easier to maintain the environment. 

It enabled us to centralize development, but we had some issues with cost, so we migrated off. We use the Linux security heavily.  I'm unfamiliar with the new security stuff incorporated in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but SELinux and all the security features are good. It doesn't particularly reduce risks, but there are some added layers of security for internet-facing applications we like

What is most valuable?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux been stable, and we could do anything we wanted with it. OpenShift is a concise environment, and it is one of the most stable Linux distros on the market. 

What needs improvement?

The only issue for us was the cost. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is expensive.

Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a long time. We started using it on version 4, and now we are on 7, but we migrated most of our environment to Ubuntu a few years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable and mature.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux can scale to fit our needs. 

How are customer service and support?

I rate Red Hat support nine out of 10. I was happy with it. Their expertise and technical knowledge were good. It was one of the best support experiences I've had. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

When Oracle acquired Sun, we migrated from Sun Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It wasn't easy, but it was a light effort.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of 10. If you're purchasing commercial Linux, I would look into Red Hat Enterprise Linux because it's highly stable and mature overall. It's a true enterprise OS. 

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.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
App group manager at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
Contributes to business continuity and compliance efforts.
Pros and Cons
  • "The built-in security features are quite good."
  • "Red Hat Enterprise Linux has ongoing potential for improved integration with hosting solutions and VPNs as the demand for these technologies grows."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Ansible, network monitoring systems, and similar applications.

We implemented Red Hat Enterprise Linux because it is widely used in our region and offers excellent support.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled partial centralization of our development processes.

It performs well for our business-critical applications and has robust built-in security features.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has contributed to business continuity and compliance efforts.

What is most valuable?

The built-in security features are quite good.

What needs improvement?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has ongoing potential for improved integration with hosting solutions and VPNs as the demand for these technologies grows.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for around 15 years.

How are customer service and support?

The support has a good community. It's easy to find almost every resource needed.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What was our ROI?

The biggest return on investment when using Red Hat Enterprise Linux is that it's Linux. I've lived so long with Red Hat Linux, so it has always had a good history.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.

When considering a third-party Linux OS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a strong option due to its excellent support and robust ecosystem.

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.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2519571 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers built-in security features, helps with compliance and is highly stable
Pros and Cons
  • "Red Hat's greatest asset is its extensive community, which provides valuable support and advice when issues arise."
  • "While Red Hat offers essential starting and security documentation, I would like to see it officially recognize the more detailed and customized documents available in the community and make them accessible on its website."

What is our primary use case?

I used Red Hat Enterprise Linux to construct systems according to the application team's requirements. I build and support these systems through the development, testing, pre-production, and production phases, fulfilling both developer and operational roles. To ensure the systems can handle the application's demands and meet our cybersecurity standards, I implement all security measures outlined by our cybersecurity team.

How has it helped my organization?

The extensive knowledge base offers a full path from beginner to advanced levels. We can access everything needed to study, pass exams, and apply knowledge immediately. The information is presented clearly, without any abstract concepts.

Red Hat offers built-in security features that simplify risk management. Unlike Oracle Linux, which overlooks critical security features like C Linux, Red Hat actively develops and maintains robust security measures. As a result, Red Hat prioritizes system security, consistently providing updates to fortify its machines against potential threats.

Red Hat helps us maintain compliance by enabling us to create and modify firewall rules as needed, allowing for strong security measures that can be adjusted.

The security reports generated every three months are valuable for provisioning and patching as they identify vulnerabilities requiring remediation. I find all the necessary information to address these vulnerabilities and implement patches through the Red Hat Enterprise portal and community resources.

When I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux five years ago, I noticed the benefits incrementally over time.

What is most valuable?

Red Hat's greatest asset is its extensive community, which provides valuable support and advice when issues arise. Due to the robust nature of this community, I have never required direct assistance from Red Hat Enterprise.

Red Hat offers customizable tools, such as Assemble, that enhance flexibility within enterprise products. Assemble is a platform capable of managing multiple systems from a single console.

What needs improvement?

While Red Hat offers essential starting and security documentation, I would like to see it officially recognize the more detailed and customized documents available in the community and make them accessible on its website.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most stable system I have ever worked with.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I changed jobs five months ago, and my new company uses Oracle Linux instead of Red Hat, so Oracle provides support rather than Red Hat.

I find Red Hat Enterprise Linux more flexible, with a larger community and numerous security advisors.

How was the initial setup?

We found it less complex to build a new system on the newer version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and migrate data rather than upgrading the existing system from, for example, version seven to eight. A simple upgrade risks data loss.

One person can do the upgrades and migrations.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.

The system requires immediate maintenance due to necessary security patches, unresolved vulnerabilities, and a constant influx of operational tasks from other teams. These daily demands include critical adjustments such as modifying service ports and implementing local firewall rules.

I recommend new users visit the official Red Hat Enterprise Linux website to review the guides, explore the community, and research information related to their Red Hat Enterprise Linux tasks. 

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.
Flag as inappropriate
PeerSpot user
reviewer2304549 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineering Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Can be leveraged without resource constraints but should have more open-source options
Pros and Cons
  • "The tool's most valuable feature is simplicity. There is value in having a fully CLI-based operating system instead of a GUI-based one. It is lightweight and can be leveraged without resource constraints."
  • "I want RHEL to stick to the open-source routes. As a company, we experience challenges in managing the budget."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux in different application servers. 

What is most valuable?

The tool's most valuable feature is simplicity. There is value in having a fully CLI-based operating system instead of a GUI-based one. It is lightweight and can be leveraged without resource constraints. 

What needs improvement?

I want Red Hat Enterprise Linux to stick to the open-source routes. As a company, we experience challenges in managing the budget. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for three years. 

What other advice do I have?

From a licensing perspective, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is flexible. We leverage our licenses based on the VMware cluster. 

Accessing the knowledge base from the public perspective is challenging. You can get much more from the documentation if you are a supported organization. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux continues to keep the documentation open-source, it will benefit us. 

We leverage Ansible to help with the upgrades. It makes upgrades easier. We rely on a reseller for Ansible AWS upgrades. 

We are shifting our Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers from version 7 to version 8. 

I rate the product a seven 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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2304573 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Enables users to increase the file systems dynamically and provides excellent support and subscription models
Pros and Cons
  • "LVM is a valuable feature."
  • "The product should be made available on Oracle Cloud."

What is our primary use case?

I work in infrastructure. We have various use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We use it for the compute feature, which runs on some applications on the front end and databases on the back end.

What is most valuable?

LVM is a valuable feature. It enables us to dynamically increase the file systems or logical volumes. My journey with this feature started 10 to 12 years ago. 

LVM is the reason why I started using the solution initially. Nowadays, there are a lot of applications. We can use clustering, security, and optimize security.

What needs improvement?

The product's availability is on the main cloud hyperscalers, like GCP, IBM Cloud, Azure, and AWS. The product should be made available on Oracle Cloud. 

I would like to see Ansible as a default in future releases.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for 13 to 14 years.

How are customer service and support?

Although some questions are not business-critical and high priority, they are still urgent. The support identifies such questions as P3 or P4 incidents. Although there's no business impact, we depend on the support team for answers.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used SUSE Linux. We have also used open-source tools like Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS. We switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to its vast exposure to security vulnerabilities. Its support model, subscription model, and its support for HANA are valuable.

What other advice do I have?

We use the product on-premise, on IBM Cloud, and on Azure. The subscription model of the solution enables us to use hybrid environments. We can enjoy the benefits of the hybrid environment with the bring-your-own-subscription model.

We have plans for upgrades. We have a legacy Red Hat Enterprise Linux. One of the customers has version 5. We are trying to build an upgrade plan for it. We would like to know whether we can directly land on version 9 or if we should go step by step to each version.

The solution's built-in security features are exciting. I like that the solution covers the recent vulnerabilities in the CVEs. The solution should continue to do that.

Overall, I rate the product 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?

IBM
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2298840 - PeerSpot reviewer
Application Developer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Offers adaptability to modern technologies, training and good support
Pros and Cons
  • "Red Hat Enterprise Linux is certainly more secure than AIX, which is what we had. It's also better than Solaris. It has improved from that perspective. We can handle the vulnerabilities better. It's more secure."
  • "The adoption was slightly slow because the knowledge in the market is slightly less available. It's hard to find resources to actually support the product."

What is our primary use case?

All of our application services, application databases, and web services run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Everything is on there.  

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is certainly more secure than AIX, which is what we had. It's also better than Solaris. It has improved from that perspective. We can handle the vulnerabilities better. It's more secure.

Other than that, some of the products that we are using, we are migrating out of very costly license items. For example, we're using Fusion because we wanted to migrate, and then we started using Vision Manager. We did a POC a few years ago. We started using PAM because we wanted an engine in our workflow management system from that perspective. 

We are still exploring a lot of items, but it's been a decent journey. It has helped to set up modern technologies.

What is most valuable?

We use a lot of Red Hat products. We use Red Hat PAM, Red Hat Session Manager, and the operating system. 

We use the operating system the most because all our servers are on it.

The support is good. Red Hat provides use with a degree of training.

What needs improvement?

The adoption was slightly slow because the knowledge in the market is slightly less available. It's hard to find resources to actually support the product.

Some kind of training that can upskill the resource into this technology could certainly help.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6 in 2019. We have our own data center.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used different solutions. We moved from AIX 7.1 to RHEL 6. Then we moved to 7. Now we're going to 8.

We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux because we wanted to adopt newer technologies and we wanted to secure our systems. Red Hat Enterprise Linux was a good available option. 

How was the initial setup?

It's on-prem right now. The deployment was straightforward. 

I manage the infrastructure team so all of these things are under my purview. 

We did hit some hiccups, but then RHEL's emergency support was available, and we were able to resolve it. 

What about the implementation team?

We have an engineering team that analyzes different products. During the analysis phase, we look for all vulnerabilities.

Once it passes all of those things, it becomes available in our internal protocol. We have different names where it becomes available in our source space to get deployed.

Migrations and upgrades have been straightforward. For example, OpenSSL has different versions that are not supported on RHEL 7, which we have right now. There is a version that comes built-in. 

We faced some issues, but we worked it out with Red Hat. They gave us a patch. 

We're moving to RHEL 8 now. We moved to RHEL 7 last year; we're going to RHEL 8 now. Next year, in 2024, we plan to move to RHEL 8.

What was our ROI?

We saw a return on investment. It is helping the business. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is competitive. It's not low, but it is in the market. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2268762 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Architect at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Enhances security through overall hardening measures but needs better integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "It eases the burden by restricting the use of open-source Linux and preventing the development community from obtaining their own images. This is crucial for maintaining a secure supply chain and ensuring the lockdown of live Linux packages."
  • "From a cloud perspective, I'm looking for more integrations with native cloud services. For example, the ability to use native Azure Key Vault instead of Ansible Key Vault or Red Hat Key Vault."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our on-prem VM infrastructure. Recently, we got the OpenShift platform to help with containerization on-prem.

Moreover, containerization is one way we're trying to get rid of any legacy. We don't patch. We try to have a fresh build with the newer version of the patch. We try to use those Red Glue deployment strategies and remove whatever we find in misconfiguration or vulnerability instances rather than fixing them. We redeploy it.

How has it helped my organization?

In terms of improvement within the Linux environment, especially for a non-IT company like ours, where we have a limited number of Linux administrators and specialists in Linux hardening and security, Red Hat Enterprise Linux plays a significant role. 

It eases the burden by restricting the use of open-source Linux and preventing the development community from obtaining their own images. This is crucial for maintaining a secure supply chain and ensuring the lockdown of live Linux packages.

However, when it comes to security compliance, I have not been exposed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security; we got the advanced cluster security from OpenShift, which has some vulnerability tracking within the cluster. Within Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I have not experienced the security console yet.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has affected our systems and our security. It helps us achieve security standards. It's one of the hardening requirements so, it helps with that compliance requirement.

With standardization across the environment, we don't have to generate multiple artifacts for compliance, and having a single Linux platform management like Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps to satisfy auditors a little faster.

What is most valuable?

From a security perspective, the overall hardening of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is good. It has been effective in enhancing security.

Image management and hardening are essential, so we don't have to procure open-source Linux images that developers can get themselves. It adds a layer of security with signed images.

The knowledge base is pretty good.

What needs improvement?

From a cloud perspective, I'm looking for more integrations with native cloud services. For example, the ability to use native Azure Key Vault instead of Ansible Key Vault or Red Hat Key Vault. 

Additionally, integrating image services from Red Hat into native image repositories such as Azure, Google, or third-party image repositories like JFrog is crucial. The key focus is on integration. 

Red Hat should not become Microsoft and lock down functionalities within Red Hat. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for two years.

How are customer service and support?

We have premium support, so it is pretty good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are a mix of some other cloud virtualization technologies. The overall cloud information will define how we look down the road.

With Linux management, the pros are that it makes management a little easier. Overall, it is just a single view of the images we deploy in the organization. 

The cons are that the integrations are a little tricky sometimes, and then we have to make exceptions to our policies. Better integration, more native service using more credentialless authentication, and authorization like using service principles or managing these over-store credentials would make it better.

How was the initial setup?

Currently, the emphasis is on on-premises solutions.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten because it needs more integrations.

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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2197425 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech company with 11-50 employees
Real User
An enterprise solution with good performance, security, and support
Pros and Cons
  • "Support is most valuable. If a customer has a problem with a feature or a bug, we can open a support case for that, and the issue is resolved or taken care of. That's the main benefit of the product."
  • "There are a lot of file systems that are supported by other Linux distributions. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a little behind those. For example, Btrfs is a file system that is not supported by Red Hat."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a consultant, and our customers use this product. I work for a company that works with this product. I mostly work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We do designs of infrastructure projects from the bottom to the top. We install Red Hat Enterprise Linux at the system level. Based on the application requirements, we design, configure, and update the systems.

Our customers use it as a basic operating system on which they deploy applications. They have enterprise application servers such as Tomcat or custom applications that need an operating system.

I've worked with it both on-prem and on the cloud. It depends on the client. On the cloud, the cloud providers are both AWS and Azure. This also depends on the clients, but it's mostly AWS and Azure.

How has it helped my organization?

Mostly, our customers use Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of its performance and security. They want to have an operating system that is supported and secure because they don't want to spend too much time supporting a Linux version that is not enterprise. They want an enterprise product that is secure so that they don't have to think about it all the time.

It isn't difficult for our customers to move workloads between the cloud and the data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The integration from on-prem to the cloud is quite easy because the operating system is the same. The operating system works the same in both places, so it's easy.

It has helped our customers avoid cloud vendor lock-in because they didn't need to buy a specific subscription from a cloud vendor or use a specific operating system from a cloud vendor and change the code of their application in relation to that. It's important to have a solution that avoids cloud vendor lock-in because they can move freely from one system to another system without any issues.

It has saved costs for our customers because it's a stable operating system, and they have no problem with security, patching, and so on. The operating system and the environment are stable. It works everywhere without any issues, so the development of the applications is not impacted by the system. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is easy to use and well-supported.

What is most valuable?

Support is most valuable. If a customer has a problem with a feature or a bug, we can open a support case for that, and the issue is resolved or taken care of. That's the main benefit of the product.

The resiliency of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is quite good. 

What needs improvement?

Some low-level aspects, such as the file system support, can be improved. There are a lot of file systems that are supported by other Linux distributions. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a little behind those. For example, BTRFS is a file system that is not supported by Red Hat.

Some of our customers use the image builder tool to build the golden image to deploy to the cloud or to build a custom image to deploy on the cloud or on-prem. The golden image created by the image builder tool is good. It's the golden image. It works without any issues. However, the build process of image builder could be improved because it's not up to the standard or at par with other tools that build the golden image. However, it's quite useful and quite easy to use. It's not a big problem, but it could be improved. There is not a lot of information about how to use it. The process is not as well documented as the other parts of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The knowledge base offered by Red Hat is very good, but it could be improved and made much easier to search. Currently, the best way to find an article in the knowledge base is by using Google Search. By searching on Google, we can find the right knowledge base article, but it isn't easy to find information by using the search option within the knowledge base.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the last four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. I didn't have any issues with the stability of the product most of the time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is very good. It scales very well in the right infrastructure.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is good. It's one of the best support in the IT world for a product because you always get a response for every bug or issue. Overall, I'd 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?

They were using Ubuntu.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward. It's pretty easy to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It can be difficult based on the workflow of the client, but overall, it's pretty straightforward to deploy on the cloud environment because all cloud providers support the deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The golden image of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is compatible with every cloud provider. There is a feature in the cloud console for joining the Red Hat Enterprise Linux account with the cloud account, so you can create cloud images from the console. It's pretty easy from that.

What was our ROI?

Our customers have seen an ROI because after they choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux, they stay with the product and renew the subscription. It's a good investment for the IT department.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its licensing is pretty confusing. There are a lot of subscriptions, and it isn't always clear which subscription is the best, but with their support, it's easy to find the right one.

Our customers sometimes buy it directly from the cloud provider, but most of the time, they have a hybrid infrastructure, so they already have some kind of subscription, and they use that subscription on the cloud.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options, but other options don't provide the support and stability that come with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

What other advice do I have?

To someone who is looking at open source cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say that if they are looking for an enterprise OS on a cloud environment and they want to have some stability and security, Red Hat is the perfect match for that.

Overall, I'd rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.