IBM PowerVM and Oracle VM VirtualBox are competitors in the virtualization software market. IBM PowerVM holds an edge with its performance and compliance efficiency for database systems.
Features: IBM PowerVM offers advanced features such as Active Memory Sharing, Live Partition Mobility, and high availability with robust technical support suitable for critical workloads. Oracle VM VirtualBox provides versatility with ease of setup, supports various OS environments, and is free, making it a practical choice for budget-conscious users.
Room for Improvement: IBM PowerVM could improve by reducing costs, enhancing GUI features, and expanding support for more operating systems. Oracle VM VirtualBox could improve its drag-and-drop functionality, networking options, and enhance stability for enterprise features like hot migrations and scalability.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM PowerVM, though complex to deploy due to hardware dependencies, is backed by strong technical support and proactive service, minimizing downtime during migrations. Oracle VM VirtualBox is simple to deploy, with versatility across OS environments, but may require more user intervention due to limited customer support.
Pricing and ROI: IBM PowerVM, despite higher upfront costs, provides high ROI through superior performance and compliance efficiency especially for large databases, offsetting Oracle licensing fees. Oracle VM VirtualBox excels in cost-effectiveness being open-source and free, appealing to users with tight budgets or minimal performance needs.
If calculated over a five-year period, IBM PowerVM is 30 to 40% more cost-effective than physical servers despite initial costs seeming high.
The return on investment is substantial, though other platforms may offer a better ROI, primarily due to lower costs involved in setup and maintenance.
I did not perform any long-term stress tests, just for a couple of hours or days on every application.
IBM provides strong support.
IBM's technical support is outstanding, with seamless global coordination and prompt resolutions.
IBM offers excellent customer support.
Their forum and documentation is more than enough for technical support.
An IBM server can handle up to sixty-four terabytes of RAM.
The product is scalable due to PowerVM's virtualization features, such as shared processor functionality and partition mobility.
It's very scalable; if you want to add some memory or processors, it's very useful to change some resources on the system.
The stability of IBM PowerVM is exceptional, as industry reports have named IBM Power and Z as the most stable platforms globally for 15 consecutive years.
Our clients in India using Power Servers have been running their servers for the last four to five years without any reboot.
The product operates reliably, and following IBM’s best practices ensures robust stability.
The snapshot functionality in Oracle VM VirtualBox is effective for management purposes.
We have a strong relationship with IBM, which aids decision-making in transitioning clients from mainframe to other platforms.
PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features.
Maybe an automatic installation of patches would be great to see as an additional functionality in IBM PowerVM.
Having some kind of API to maintain Oracle VM VirtualBox would be beneficial.
While initially costly, the ROI over five years proves IBM PowerVM is cost-effective, resulting in a 30 to 40% reduction in costs compared to a physical setup.
PowerVM itself is free with the purchase of an IBM server.
Pricing is a concern in Argentina due to the higher cost of mainframe solutions.
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
IBM PowerVM is performing very well in supporting complex workloads.
Features like partition mobility enhance the machine's capabilities, making it an ideal tool for virtual environments with reliability, availability, and serviceability.
IBM PowerVM supports multiple operating systems such as IBM i, AIX, and Linux, allowing users to run various applications seamlessly in a cloud environment.
The guest OS compatibility was tremendous because I used Oracle VM VirtualBox on Linux and ran Windows applications on top of that, working seamlessly.
Its snapshot functionality helps with backup management.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Oracle VM VirtualBox | 5.7% |
| IBM PowerVM | 1.4% |
| Other | 92.9% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 21 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 32 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 20 |
| Large Enterprise | 17 |
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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