Dec 06, 2021
KVM can take full advantage of the operating system where it is hosted.
KVM and VMware vSphere compete in virtualization. KVM seems to have the upper hand due to its cost-effectiveness and flexibility, while VMware vSphere is preferred for its advanced features and support.
Features: KVM is known for its cost-effectiveness, scalability, and security, being open-source and integrated into Linux environments. It offers high density through kernel same page merging and live migrations. VMware vSphere offers centralized management, high availability, and fault tolerance, with advanced memory management justifying its higher pricing for many organizations.
Room for Improvement: KVM could enhance its user interface, ease of setup, and integration with other virtualization tools. Users often critique its reliance on community support and complexity in network configuration. VMware vSphere faces high costs, complex licensing, and fault tolerance limitations. Its transition to a full-featured HTML5 web client is ongoing, with demands for cloud integration improvements.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: KVM is favored in cost-sensitive environments, leveraging open-source flexibility for private and hybrid clouds but relies on community support, which can be a disadvantage for those needing strong technical support. VMware vSphere is deployed in enterprise environments for its stability and advanced features, offering structured customer service and comprehensive support options, although at a higher price.
Pricing and ROI: KVM is cost-effective due to its open-source nature, ideal for in-house management, offering significant savings on licensing. VMware vSphere, considered a premium product, provides extensive features justifying its higher costs, with its reliability offering a compelling ROI for large enterprises with demanding virtualization needs.
KVM definitely saves costs since it is open-source and does not obligate us to pay for licenses as necessary with other virtualization solutions.
We can say 10% is the approximate amount of savings because most of the things are automated and streamlined, so the manual work is eliminated in most cases.
Paid support is also obtainable from companies like Red Hat for more critical issues.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
Recently, support has been less friendly and slower, especially after the company was acquired by Broadcom.
If we have issues, the support tends to be unreliable
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
VMware vSphere is highly scalable in terms of the number of users and the number of servers it can handle.
It is a highly scalable solution.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
While they are generally stable, if outages occur, they tend to be due to brands like HP or Dell, not VMware vSphere itself.
Mostly we don't have issues, but sometimes we have faced some stability issues because of some bugs and some CPU compatibility issues with Intel CPUs.
In comparison to VMware, which offers a more balanced set of management features, KVM could improve in terms of user-friendly tooling.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
Compared to VMware and Microsoft, KVM offers better pricing and licensing options.
Many customers are trying to avoid it due to its high cost.
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
The solution is too expensive.
The most valuable feature of KVM is its superior real-time performance, which results in lower latency compared to alternatives like VMware and Microsoft.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
The tool is highly available, which is crucial for implementing critical applications requiring 24/7 availability.
I always use VMware vSphere vMotion; we work with this feature all the time. vMotion is very useful; that's why we use the virtualization.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VMware vSphere | 18.1% |
| KVM | 8.8% |
| Other | 73.1% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 14 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 175 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 137 |
| Large Enterprise | 258 |
KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, which is an open-source virtualization technology that is embedded in Linux. KVM allows users to seamlessly transform their Linux system into a hypervisor that, in turn, will enable a host machine to run numerous, isolated virtual environments or virtual machines (VMs).
KVM is part of Linux. Users with Linux 2.6.20 or newer already have KVM. As KVM is already a component of the current Linux code, it automatically improves with every new Linux fix, feature, or upgrade. So KVM users are always current and up to date.
KVM automatically transforms Linux to a type -1 (bare-metal) hypervisor. All hypervisors need operating system components, such as a process scheduler, I/O stack, device drivers, memory manager, and more, to run a VM. KVM already has these components embedded, as it is part of the Linux kernel. Each VM is generated as a basic Linux proces,s which is maintained by the standard Linux scheduler, with dedicated hardware such as a graphics adapter, memory, disks, network card, and CPUs.
KVM Key Features:
KVM has many valuable key features. Some of its most useful features include:
Reviews from Real Users
“The most helpful aspect of KVM is the fact that the interface is so minimal. It includes just what you need to set up the VMs and manage them, and it's very simple to do so. KVM, as a native virtualization solution, is a complete and fully adequate system for small businesses that need to reduce costs, and also to make maintenance easier. “ - Georges E., Business Engineer and Consultant at All-Tech
“The most valuable feature of KVM is the hypervisor environment and how we can configure it with ease. Additionally, the interface is intuitive.” Sonu S., Senior Solution Architect at Micro Focus
VMware vSphere offers robust virtualization capabilities with features that enhance data center performance and optimize workloads. Centralized management and ease of deployment make it a cost-effective choice for many industries.
VMware vSphere is recognized for its high availability, vMotion, and Distributed Resource Scheduler, essential for efficient server infrastructure management. Users value its virtual machine management, seamless live migration, and strong resource allocation across data centers. Though the web client can be slow, and individual management of multiple ESXi hosts is challenging without central management, vSphere remains popular due to its flexibility and integration capabilities. While fault tolerance and free version features have their limitations, the product supports private clouds and hybrid cloud deployments effectively.
What are the key features of VMware vSphere?VMware vSphere is widely used in industries to manage server infrastructure effectively, hosting mission-critical applications like ERP and SQL servers. It supports development, testing, and backup environments, contributing to data center consolidation and cost reduction while enabling private and hybrid cloud setups.
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