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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
11th
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
13th
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 May 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of IBM PowerVM is 1.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM PowerVM1.8%
RHEV2.4%
Other95.8%
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

"PowerVM excels in efficiently managing all systems and environments, including development, UI, and production."
"The case fileserver on the web server is the most valuable feature."
"Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM."
"IBM PowerVM's most valuable feature is stability."
"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."
"My advice to anybody who is researching this type of solution is to choose PowerVM if they want something that is really stable."
"IBM PowerVM has the highest clock speed."
"PowerVM stands out for me as a hardware-based hypervisor, which is optimized with less overhead."
"The solution is a great all-round product, and the virtualization is especially good."
"Technically, the main reason why I'm using Red Hat is because of its stability."
"It is easy to deal with when comes to application migration and its compatibility with the multiple component applications."
"Red Hat is the most stable system; it's better than other OS solutions."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is a great all-round product, and the virtualization is especially good."
"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 overall very good with all the facilities, it is user friendly, easy to configure, has documentation, and support is available."
 

Cons

"SRM for site recovery is a feature that should be included."
"Automatic LPM is an area that is currently not available in IBM PowerVM, and it is a feature I want to see in the product's future releases."
"The program has very limited solutions for the virtualization of containers."
"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."
"If it could actually virtualize the entire platform it might be better."
"The pricing and the licensing fees are very high with respect to the number of core licenses."
"A GUI version of VIOS would be a great plus for people moving from Intel-based hypervisors."
"IBM should review the price of this solution in my opinion; it is too high."
"We'd like it if it would be possible on Red Hat Virtualization to possibly connect two or three VMs to the same disk."
"With RHEV, the cyberattacks should be fewer. I want RHEV to be better protected."
"I found it a bit more difficult to manage than version seven, which was much easier."
"The solution has a very small lifecycle."
"They don't know how to sell their great products and don’t really seem to be interested in taking care of their partners who trust and really know their products."
"The documentation is not as good as it should be. There is a need for making it descriptive and in sequence."
"We should improve how we manage storage domains and make more comprehensive control available through the command line."
"The solution should be made more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"The cost is on the higher side. Typically, we invest in the machine and support for two, three, or five years."
"The tool is competitively priced, especially right now."
"Even if the product is expensive, it works well in the long term. The tool is more or less expensive, and I would presently describe it as an optimally priced product."
"IBM PowerVM's pricing is cheap."
"The price varies from case to case and you have to negotiate it for every project."
"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 solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."
"This is an open-source solution."
"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."
"I would say the price is acceptable."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."
"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."
"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."
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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
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
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 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...
What is your primary use case for RHEV?
I have done some consulting where I used RHEV, taking on side jobs to run virtual machines in the financial industry for a startup. The last time I used RHEV was in my home lab, but that has been d...
 

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: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.