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IBM PowerVM vs RHEV comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM PowerVM
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
RHEV
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of IBM PowerVM is 1.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
RHEV2.4%
IBM PowerVM1.5%
Other96.1%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2014950 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Delivery Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Virtualization has simplified partitioning and currently supports secure multi-tenant workloads
The ease of use of IBM PowerVM provides key benefits such as the installation being very easy, and the VIOS is really, really stable. IBM PowerVM is performing very well in supporting complex workloads. It's simple regarding the initial setup for IBM PowerVM. We always create two VIOS servers in IBM PowerVM to be compliant for security and to be compliant also for redundancy.
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance
In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We always recommend PowerVM to our customers; it is better than most solutions."
"The feature that I like most is the versatility."
"The ease of use of IBM PowerVM provides key benefits such as the installation being very easy, and the VIOS is really, really stable."
"The most valuable feature of IBM PowerVM is the performance of the database workload."
"I rate IBM PowerVM a ten out of ten for its capabilities in the cloud environment."
"Active Memory Sharing dynamically reallocates memory of running partitions based on changing workload demands. The memory for the pool is carved out from Physical memory and is made logical memory. The said memory is not available to be assigned to partitions as dedicated memory. A min, max and desired as well as weight is assigned to the memory of each lpar to help hypervisor make a decision in case a condition where priority is to be given to a certain lapr to use the memory form shared pool."
"A valuable feature of PowerVM is a feature that is used for higher availability plus stream for posting, which is very useful. There's a flash copy feature which we are using. PowerVM itself, I know, helps us to control and manage our Oracle licensing compliance, since it is our hardware partitioning. This is very important. If you use VMware, there will be a licensing issue. This PowerVM is a hardware partitioner, which is very important for license compliance. We are happy with this solution."
"IBM technical support is always good and quick."
"When you purchase RHEV, you are essentially buying a subscription license. This license can be integrated with various client types, including these integrations with the subscription."
"If you have a heterogenous data centre that is specially focused on Linux platforms, this is safe money, and good if you are looking for automation."
"The solution is stable."
"In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The biggest aspect for me is the disk usage, the virtual manager, and the deployment of machines."
"I advise keeping an open mind. It's an excellent solution."
"The solution is overall very good with all the facilities. It is user friendly, easy to configure, has documentation, and support is available."
 

Cons

"PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features."
"PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features."
"Stability could always be better."
"Any improvements that can be made in the interface will go a long way to helping us work better."
"The program has very limited solutions for the virtualization of containers"
"The cost of this solution is high."
"As understand it, IBM sells all its hardware to Lenovo, and only PCs servers are managed by IBM. It's uncertain how much longer IBM will continue in this way, especially with the current trend of transitioning from on-premises to cloud and hybrid models. The market is evolving. Given this market shift, it's essential to identify areas for improvement. IBM has introduced the PowerVM Series, including Linux, which is a positive step. However, customers are already moving towards x86 servers due to cost considerations. The cost of PowerVM compared to x86 servers appears to be a significant factor."
"If it could actually virtualize the entire platform it might be better. If you're having more than one virtualization technology, maybe there's a way to actually have less - one technology to run the data center and maybe one special virtualization for power. If it integrated with other platforms more effectively it might be better."
"I would love to see better documentation and ease of use."
"Red Hat by itself is not scalable. But you can have third party add-ons like Ceph to make it massively scalable."
"My teammates and I often complain that VMware is well-documented and has a large community since it is the de facto standard. I would love to see better documentation and ease of use."
"While everything needs improvement in some way, I have no specifics."
"We should improve how we manage storage domains and make more comprehensive control available through the command line."
"When we do a direct comparison, then obviously VMware does better in terms of having Fault Tolerance and doing active disaster recovery and these kind of things. This is something that can be improved within Red Hat."
"Customers are not aware of this solution, they can improve by providing more awareness and solution availability."
"It would be better to have more patches, especially kernel-level updates, live and online so that we can keep the business up and running during this period."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price varies from case to case and you have to negotiate it for every project."
"The price of the solution could improve, it is expensive."
"The tool is competitively priced, especially right now."
"The pricing for PowerVM is on the higher. Regarding the license, it can be on a monthly or annual basis, depending on the deal. Customers may choose to pay annually, one-time, or monthly based on their agreement with the sales team. As for additional costs, customers need to pay for support if they opt for it. If not, they only pay for the hardware cost as per the agreement."
"IBM PowerVM costs more than other products but the customer does not need to pay additional money for the licenses. In VMware, you need to license everything. With IBM PowerVM it is unlimited and all-inclusive in the price you pay."
"The license cost is bundled with IBM Power Systems as it is limited to RISC-based IBM systems only."
"The cost is on the higher side. Typically, we invest in the machine and support for two, three, or five years."
"The solution is expensive."
"This is an open-source solution."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."
"This product has a variety of licensing options available. However, the level of licensing, and therefore the cost of licensing, is dependent on the number of servers being utilized."
"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."
"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."
"Its price depends on the use cases."
"We buy a license for commercial use, and we also use the free editions."
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Comparison Review

VL
CIO at Robusta Technology & Training
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM PowerVM?
IBM’s licensing model offers flexibility in subscription terms, now allowing one- to five-year options. They have introduced a subscription-based model for some systems, creating a more cost-effect...
What needs improvement with IBM PowerVM?
Maybe an automatic installation of patches would be great to see as an additional functionality in IBM PowerVM. I don't see any point to improve IBM PowerVM. For me, it's okay, and I don't have any...
What is your primary use case for IBM PowerVM?
For storage, we mainly work with FlashSystem FS5200 and with IBM Power Systems with IBM i. We are using PowerVM for the creation of partitions on the Power Systems. I'm using the VIOS in PowerVM, a...
What do you like most about RHEV?
The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?
It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.
What needs improvement with RHEV?
RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

PowerVM
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sto, Soitec, SNO, Bundesrechenzentrum GmbH, Al Mansour Holding, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Huhtamaki, ELK Group, IT-Informatik, Arkansas Tech University, Pneuhage
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.