Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is primarily used for enterprise-specific applications, such as SAP and Vertex. Many SAP and non-SAP based applications run on this platform, with customers running their databases and applications on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages.
Reliable support for enterprise apps has improved deployment and management consistency
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
A few things stand out as the biggest advantage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages. The first thing is supportability. As a veteran in this area, I have started working on the big endian versions, such as AIX and true Unix. Compatibility is another major advantage, as many organizations have moved to this Linux environment. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages supports many applications with vendor support, which helps tremendously. I do not have premier support for other open-source Linux versions, so the enterprise support received from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages for enterprise applications is a huge advantage.
What needs improvement?
It is quite difficult to identify specific areas for improvement in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages version because the primary concern is that there are too many versions available. The toughest roadblock is the supportability of a particular version. Whenever there is a sub-version, such as moving from 8.5 to 8.6 or 8.7, typically there is not long-term support, which is something customers are always looking forward to.
For example, if there is a base version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages that is customized for the enterprise, such as Oracle or SAP, the base version usually has very minimal days of general support. I believe Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages should look into the support agreement itself, as it is a hassle for customers to upgrade from one version to another within a six-month or nine-month period. The supportability of a particular version should be slightly more flexible than what it currently is, as six months or nine months is something that cannot be consistently achieved.
For how long have I used the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages has been in use for almost fifteen to sixteen years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is definitely stable at 99.9 percent. The big endian days are gone, as there are very few mainframes in the market. Enterprise applications, whether in banking, government offices, or other sectors, are running on Linux. When comparing the state of these solutions, they are either running on SUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages, or Ubuntu with premier support. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is definitely stable.
Fifteen years ago, in 2006, people used to think twice before running databases on little endian solutions or these Linux solutions. However, that thinking has changed. I believe Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages and SUSE are quite stable in the market.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is quite flexible for scalability. It offers flexible scale-up and scale-down solutions. Many of these solutions are getting integrated with orchestration solutions such as Nutanix, Azure, and GCP. There is no challenge in terms of scaling down or scaling up.
How was the initial setup?
The installation and deployment process of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is quite straightforward and intuitive. Many developments have happened that allow anyone to deploy a virtual machine. With the cloud age also present, the deployments are more accessible. The deployment and installation part is quite straightforward for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages.
What was our ROI?
Certain products definitely offer an edge with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages. For example, the automation solution Ansible and Ansible Tower are definitely value for money. This is the automation age, and these products are really helping. If building an Ansible-based solution or automation solution, it would definitely be a good idea to build that solution on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages itself or a Red Hat container because that compatibility is there. I would say there is value in using this product in that case.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The support received is reasonable for the price. There are no concerns about the pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When considering support contract-based products, there are only two solutions in the market: SUSE or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages. In comparison with SUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages has a broader spectrum in many areas. In the paid Linux-based solution market, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is definitely the leader.
If considering a non-paid solution or an open-source solution without concerns about support, people tend to go for Ubuntu. However, if customers are looking for a supported premier support solution, they should go for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages, which offers flexibility and supportability for many applications. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages definitely has that edge.
What other advice do I have?
VMware's Tanzu solution, such as cloud health, is not being used. For container-based solutions, the approach is more inclined toward different solutions. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages is not being used for containerization in that context.
Red Hat Insights does not currently resonate with the current approach. Container-based tools are being used, but for some customers, Ubuntu-based containers are used instead of Red Hat containerization in the environment.
SE Linux is not being used explicitly. For many customers, the SE Linux part has been disabled because there were many hardening-related issues with applications not supporting it. The focus has not been on solving that SE Linux compatibility with the applications being run. Many SE Linux features have been disabled for the Linux-based VMs in the environment.
Red Hat Satellite is a good tool for patching and the package management. It allows for the creation of segregated environments with timelines for patching different applications based on requirements. Package management really helps in terms of patching requirements and schedule. This is particularly useful when considering the patching perspective.
The current situation involves a move into the container world. The container part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages has not yet been used. From the operating system perspective of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages, there are no significant improvement areas identified. However, since the move is into the container world, the important consideration is that the container part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (redhat 8) | Support by SupportedImages has not been utilized. Many migrations are happening for customers to move enterprise-based applications to the container world when supported. A clear migration path to move into the container world with public documentation and more detailed information would definitely make the transition easier.
This review received an overall rating of eight.
