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Shane Archibald - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity Instructor at Gwinnett Technical College
Real User
Top 20
Offers efficiency, performance, and reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "Reliability is the most valuable feature."
  • "Any form of technology always has areas for improvement, and Red Hat is no exception."

What is our primary use case?

As a teacher, I have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux for server-side applications and containerization. My experience encompasses various system administration tasks, including managing servers, directories, data storage, files, and other related elements.

While teaching my students about Red Hat, I share my knowledge of system administration tools. This prepares them for Linux work environments that use Red Hat, exposing them to these tools and their applications. This also strengthens my organization's position as a Red Hat Academy, enhancing our sector's expertise. Red Hat is a valuable tool for learning system administration due to its widespread use and versatility.

How has it helped my organization?

In any Linux operating system, the patches come through, whether it's through long-term support solutions or community support. It's rapid overall. So when it's there, it's immediate and there's option to install and pass those updates.

The web console is beneficial as it provides an alternative method of accessing the operating system through a web-based platform, making it a valuable tool.

The hybrid environment, a relatively new infrastructure for us, offers flexibility and options. While there's always room for improvement, I find it exciting to have the choice between on-premises and cloud solutions. Although I'm still learning the nuances of this technology, it's been a positive experience so far.

What is most valuable?

Reliability is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

Any form of technology always has areas for improvement, and Red Hat is no exception. They continually strive to enhance their products, evident in the frequent releases of new versions and updates to their operating system. Given that there is no perfect operating system, further development will always be needed. To facilitate this process, Red Hat provides support and encourages community involvement to identify and implement solutions that enhance its operating system's overall functionality, effectiveness, and user experience.

Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
August 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost five years.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment is complicated and requires up to two hours to complete.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

While expensive, Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers efficiency and performance. Its commitment to ongoing improvements makes it a valuable resource for businesses seeking a reliable and cutting-edge operating system.

What other advice do I have?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is eight out of ten.

Regarding challenges, I've attempted to replicate the Linux environment using Red Hat, combining virtual Red Hat clients with third-party platforms to emulate a real-time atmosphere. One major hurdle has been motivating students to understand and utilize the system for these purposes. However, I've consistently found ways to overcome this challenge by using virtual machines and engaging in group discussions to explore the system's capabilities. I strive to emulate the real-time environment using my own systems, demonstrating the potential benefits and encouraging students to visualize how the system works in practice.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2587206 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Streamlined system integration and robust security through effective automation
Pros and Cons
  • "Integrating Ansible Automation offers benefits, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides robust security features, including benchmarks and CIS security hardening."
  • "I would like a more straightforward process for extending file systems without the need to write all the names of volume groups and logical volumes, to simplify automation."

What is our primary use case?

I am utilizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux for automated workloads.

Having prior experience with Ansible and its automation capabilities, I sought a centralized platform with a graphical interface. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform seemed like the ideal solution, especially since I was already familiar with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This familiarity made it a natural progression to explore containerization within the RHEL environment.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps to centralize development.

Choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our container environment provides a more secure and reliable platform for our applications.

I appreciate the robust security features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, such as including security benchmarks like CIS security hardenings. These benchmarks offer a significant improvement over previous Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions and provide numerous valuable security enhancements.

The most crucial factor is arguably the availability of fast, reliable, and effective support, as this prevents isolation when managing Linux systems and significantly mitigates risk.

Open integration is beneficial because it enables the use of various benchmarks to strengthen Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

What is most valuable?

Integrating Ansible Automation offers benefits, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides robust security features, including benchmarks for security hardening.

What needs improvement?

I would like a more straightforward process for extending file systems without the need to write all the names of logical volumes, to simplify administration and automation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Early versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux had several issues, but up from RHEL 7 I have found it very stable.

How are customer service and support?

The support is accessible and responsive. I have engaged with them almost every day for two weeks and opened many cases, receiving assistance with my challenges and issues.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions are quite expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is considered an industry standard.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.

I recommend considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux if the budget allows, as it is widely used in the industry and offers superior software support.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
August 2025
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2585460 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Enhanced deployment control through effective API integration and management
Pros and Cons
  • "API integration streamlines connections with other tools, simplifying data sharing and enhancing workflow efficiency."
  • "Red Hat Enterprise Linux packaging could be improved to simplify infrastructure maintenance and provisioning."

What is our primary use case?

We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for configuration management of on-premise servers within the bank, making it a bank-wide solution.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is hosted in the cloud, but the use cases are for on-premises.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux enabled centralized development by controlling deployments through features like sign-in, role-based access control, and Ansible Tower. The API integration enhanced control by standardizing deployments, providing oversight, and enabling management from a central location.

It facilitates easier environment management and performs well in that aspect, as we haven't encountered any issues.

Regarding the portability of applications for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the only tool we utilize is Ansible Tower. Its ease of use on servers and local machines, consistent interface and debugging process ensure a streamlined workflow regardless of the platform.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux significantly enhances the bank's capacity to manage numerous deployments. Its integration with Ansible Tower provides exceptional scalability, which has proven invaluable. Furthermore, the seamless integration change simplifies deployment management, making it substantially more efficient.

What is most valuable?

API integration streamlines connections with other tools, simplifying data sharing and enhancing workflow efficiency. Features like sign-in, role-based access control, and API integration provide crucial control over deployments.

What needs improvement?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux packaging could be improved to simplify infrastructure maintenance and provisioning. While Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a robust operating system, managing it alongside external tools can present maintenance, provisioning, and compliance challenges. Streamlining the packaging process would enhance efficiency and ease of use for administrators.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a stable platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is highly scalable. By adding more hosts and doubling the number of VMs, it has successfully worked for our needs.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support responds quickly to urgent issues, but minor bugs may take a considerable amount of time to resolve.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our projects utilized various solutions, including XLD and UCD, as well as some legacy technologies. Red Hat Enterprise Linux proved easier to configure than previous platforms, offering greater flexibility and alignment with current best practices.

How was the initial setup?

While I lack direct deployment experience, I understand that Red Hat Enterprise Linux facilitates straightforward modifications, minimizing concerns about system disruptions.

What was our ROI?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers the greatest return on investment through its invaluable support, which is crucial for our critical applications. The comprehensive documentation and extensive resources, including Q&A and solutions to previous issues, are also essential.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers robust built-in security features that help with risk reduction, business continuity, and compliance. However, hosting external tools within a bank environment can create challenges in synchronizing policies and meeting security expectations. Ensuring the tool's security configurations align with the bank's server requirements can be complex, but this challenge is not unique to Ansible and is a common issue when integrating external tools into secure environments.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers greater control and a higher level of security compared to some open-source alternatives, which can be crucial for enterprise applications where stability and reliability are paramount. This focus on security is a key factor in choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Abdul Wahid Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
System admin at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
Stable package manager, good security, and cost-efficient
Pros and Cons
  • "The package manager of Red Hat is very convenient and efficient to use. With other Linux versions, such as Arch Linux and Ubuntu, package managers might not always be stable. When installing any software, the dependencies can vary, and there can be conflicts, whereas Red Hat has efficiently managed all of that so that users can install packages without any conflicts."
  • "After installation, the initial setup can be simplified or improved a little bit for new users coming from a distribution like Ubuntu or Windows."

What is our primary use case?

As an organization, we use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its stability and security.

I have worked with it on the cloud as well as on-premises. We use it with AWS.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great when it comes to provisioning and patching. I am satisfied with it.

The user base and the knowledge base of Red Hat are way better than those of others. They make the user install and solve the issues easily.

We have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux Image Builder. It is a great tool for managing multiple systems. It can copy an exact image of my existing server to multiple servers. It is a great way to save time.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has helped us a lot. After switching from Ubuntu to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, there has been a drastic difference. The stability and the efficiency have enhanced greatly.

At the moment, we only have AWS cloud, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is working well. We have plans to switch to GCP.

What is most valuable?

The package manager of Red Hat is very convenient and efficient to use. With other Linux versions, such as Arch Linux and Ubuntu, package managers might not always be stable. When installing any software, the dependencies can vary, and there can be conflicts, whereas Red Hat has efficiently managed all of that so that users can install packages without any conflicts. We do not use the graphical interface, so the package manager and security features are mainly valuable to us.

What needs improvement?

After installation, the initial setup can be simplified or improved a little bit for new users coming from a distribution like Ubuntu or Windows. For example, for Arch, the user guide is very good. If a user does not have any experience, he or she can refer to the guide and install it successfully, whereas, for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the user needs to have some understanding of Linux.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable for us. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is quite scalable. I would rate it an eight out of ten for scalability.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Before using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we were using Ubuntu as our main server. Ubuntu is more consumer-oriented, whereas Red Hat Enterprise Linux is more professional and work-oriented.

How was the initial setup?

The main concern for us was how to get it installed perfectly. Before me, there was a fairly new person installing Red Hat, and he was not able to get it installed perfectly. The partitions were very differently implemented in Red Hat than in Ubuntu. That was one of the major issues for him.

My colleague was handling the main setup, but he was not able to figure out how to get everything to work. He was able to install it with the ISO, but he could not set up partitioning and Wi-Fi drivers. It was complicated for him because he knew Ubuntu, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux was complicated for him. We had to refer to the documentation for our network drivers and then we could get our Red Hat Enterprise Linux working. It took us around three to four hours.

In terms of maintenance, timely patching is required.

What about the implementation team?

Overall, we have about 1,000 users of these servers, but we are the only ones who work with these servers. No one else in the company operates these servers because one mistake can bring down the entire server.

What was our ROI?

It saves us time. There are about 40% savings.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is cost-efficient for the tasks it does and the improvements that it brings. For a professional environment, it is very cost-efficient. It was easy to purchase the subscription.

What other advice do I have?

If a user is using it for commercial purposes, I would not recommend it. If a user is using it as a server or a workstation, I would recommend it.

We do not use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Web Console much. We only use it for the initial steps to configure the users. Other than that, we do not use it much.

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Afrin O M - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Developer | Red Hat Certified Engineering | Red Hat Certified System Administrator at Francis Xavier Engineering College
Real User
Top 20
The cloud platform provides a real-time experience, enabling us to practice for exams easily and enhance our Linux knowledge
Pros and Cons
  • "The cloud platform provides a real-time experience, enabling us to practice for exams easily and enhance our Linux knowledge."
  • "Sometimes, the platform would be very slow, making it difficult to open labs."

What is our primary use case?

I use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to create directories and files and configure security settings for the Red Hat Certified System Administrator exam.

How has it helped my organization?

The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux comprehensively covers the fundamental knowledge required for the Red Hat Certified System Administrator and Red Hat Certified Engineer certifications. My experience taking the Red Hat examination was positive, and I am satisfied with their product.

I can easily work with Red Hat OS because it is user-friendly, even for manual tasks. While it may be as expensive as Windows, they offer a four-month trial and provide cloud access. This is valuable for understanding Linux concepts and working within the Linux environment. Overall, it's a great learning experience.

What is most valuable?

We prefer not to install the Linux OS manually, so we opt to work in the cloud instead. The cloud platform provides a real-time experience, enabling us to practice for exams easily and enhance our Linux knowledge. This proves highly beneficial for students pursuing Red Hat certification.

What needs improvement?

While preparing for the Red Hat administrator examination, I worked with the cloud platform, which was generally good but occasionally experienced some lag. Sometimes, the platform would be very slow, making it difficult to open labs. It could take around 30 minutes to start a lab, and there were limitations on data persistence. Any work or files created would only be available for one week before disappearing, requiring recreation. This lack of long-term storage is a disadvantage of the Red Hat Cloud platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

I am currently using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux seven out of ten because of the lagging.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The support team was helpful in addressing the lag in the cloud.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used UNIX before switching to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. UNIX did not provide adequate support for developers, making it challenging to work with. Though it's open source, UNIX lacked the features that we needed. So, I transitioned to Red Hat. Red Hat offers developers extensive support and access to technologies like OpenShift and Kubernetes. This makes it easier for developers and large companies to manage workloads and adopt new technologies.

I installed UNIX on my laptop and experienced no lag, unlike the lag I've encountered in the cloud with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

How was the initial setup?

Installing Red Hat is easy. We download the file and run it in our labs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

One Red Hat license costs USD 131, which I find reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.

We have 15 members in our group that use Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

I recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's much faster than UNIX and offers extensive management support, making it valuable for startups and engineering developers.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2399223 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
Real User
Has made it easier to automate a lot of our tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to use, and you can get support whenever you want."
  • "Some problems may occur with the product if you don't patch it after a year or two."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution in my company for regular servers with databases, load balancers, Apache, and so on.

How has it helped my organization?

The benefits of using the product revolve around the fact that it has made it easier to automate everything on it, which includes automating servers and so on.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an upcoming, more stable product, like Oracle OS. The tool has everything that IBM Red Hat Redbooks has.

In terms of how I would assess the portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for keeping our organization agile and flexible, I would say that since my company is a service provider, we get the containers from the customers, which we don't use for our own selves, but we use Red Hat Universal Base Images (UBI) 9 for some things like to to get our own containers and so on.

What needs improvement?

My company has not tried to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 since we are still using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8. In the future, I am expecting to see Podman 5.0 released for RHEL 9.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a nice and stable solution. Some problems may occur with the product if you don't patch it after a year or two.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There are no problems with the scalability of the product, as it works fine.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, my company used to use a simple version of RHEL and other tools depending on the needs of our company's customers.

How was the initial setup?

Regarding my experience related to the deployment process, I would say that everything is automated now. You just fill out the survey, and then you just deploy the tool. The product's deployment phase is easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

What about the implementation team?

The team members can deploy the solution in my company.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

If the customer wants to pay for the support and so on, then we can go for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Otherwise, one can go for any other open-source platform. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), you get the latest on everything. If you are running Oracle Linux, it gets hard to find some patches. It is easy to find new things like Podman or Red Hat Subscription-Manager, especially if you want to run something on Oracle OS, then you need to compile the patches yourself.

What other advice do I have?

The product has helped centralize development in our company. In our company, we are mostly automating all the server installations on Red Hat template by filling in IP addresses with Postman.

We don't use the built-in features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance since they are only available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.

To a colleague who is looking at open-source cloud-based operating systems for Linux other than Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I would say that previously people preferred CentOS until Red Hat stripped it apart. At the moment, it is like, if you want an RHEL-based tool, it is either Rocky Linux or Oracle OS because I think Fedora is too lenient, while CentOS is somewhere in the middle.

I would be spending the same amount of time on some other solution if I was not using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since everything is automated now, and in such a case, it will just be another image you use on some other product.

My company uses Ansible as a part of the deployment model.

The product is easy to use, and you can get support whenever you want. The solution also   the latest packages, which include Red Hat Subscription-Manager, Podman, Linux, and other such functionalities.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Engineer III at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Has significantly helped our company grow by enabling automation, allowing us to provide multiple services simultaneously
Pros and Cons
  • "Ansible is one of my most-used tools, and I especially appreciate its automation capabilities."
  • "While Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers many valuable features, some, particularly the latest ones, are not immediately available until deployed on-premises."

What is our primary use case?

As a system administrator, I specialize in building infrastructure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with a focus on automation from initial design through to implementation.

How has it helped my organization?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has significantly helped our company grow by enabling automation, allowing us to provide multiple services simultaneously and reduce repetitive tasks through the creation and sharing of solutions with other teams.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux enabled us to centralize development.

What is most valuable?

Ansible is one of my most-used tools, and I especially appreciate its automation capabilities.

What needs improvement?

While Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers many valuable features, some, particularly the latest ones, are not immediately available until deployed on-premises. Additionally, although I need to become fully acquainted with its built-in security features, the dashboards could be enhanced to provide more comprehensive security insights.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is stable. I've never had any problems with its stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support and technical support are good. Normally, I can find my own solutions and if not, I can reach out to the vendor for assistance.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.

We face restrictions in accessing the latest features for various tools, including Elastic and Red Hat. For instance, we cannot utilize certain Elastic features because they are not publicly available. Similarly, with Red Hat, we must wait for the newest features to be released on-premises before we can access them. This limitation hinders our ability to leverage the most up-to-date technology.

The key advantage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux over other open-source Linux distributions is its comprehensive support, which includes access to updates, security patches, and technical expertise.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Server Automation Administrator at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Offers simplicity and is easy to maintain
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's most valuable feature revolves around its simplicity, especially when maintaining it, which is an easy process."
  • "I would like to see a better way to organize the jobs within Ansible, specifically with the automation platform."

What is our primary use case?

The use of the solution keeps varying, considering that we have web apps and a lot of homegrown stuff as we build a lot of our own apps. My company also uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for the operating systems for a lot of our other applications that we use for authentication purposes and so on.

How has it helped my organization?

I can't really talk much about how the product has benefited the organization since it is not in my wheelhouse, and I mostly deal with the area of configuration management and the automation of configuring it. In my company, we have a Unix team I work with, and when they want to automate processes, then they come to me and I help direct them.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable feature revolves around its simplicity, especially when maintaining it, which is an easy process.

What needs improvement?

I have not seen anything in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that causes any queries or doubts in my mind, so I am not really sure if I see any need for improvements in the product at this point, especially when I have good communication with the sales teams and support. I have also recommended the changes I want to see in Ansible, an area where my company sees progress. There is nothing my company is disappointed about regarding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

I would like to see a better way to organize the jobs within Ansible, specifically with the automation platform. Right now, in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, everything is just flat as there are no directory structures or folders and no ways to designate specific jobs for specific things as everything is in one big pile.

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), my company has not seen anything requiring improvements. My company is really happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). My company is still in the migration process right now since, from all of our seven boxes, we are moving on to the eight and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9. The aforementioned process has been really smooth and slick. My company likes the speed and simplicity of the OS.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for twelve years. My company has been using the product since before I joined.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

I went to have dinner with my sales team the previous night, and we just had a chat, after which I got to know some professional services offered by some people willing to come and help our company with the solution if required. Based on the aforementioned area, I can rate support as ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

My company has experience with AIX, Solaris, and Windows. My company switched over to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because people wanted it, specifically the app developers. My company uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) based on supply and demand factors. You just build what is needed for the infrastructure side or when you are in the operations.

How was the initial setup?

The product's deployment phase was simple.

There is a different group in my company that has built up a strategy to deploy the product, so I don't have to do anything in its deployment phase. To request a new system is just a matter of filling out the ticket and submitting it easily, after which the box is built, which is great.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment phase for the tool was carried out with the help of our company's in-house team. The product was deployed with the help of vRealize Orchestrator Appliance.

What was our ROI?

In terms of the ROI associated with the product, I would say that with a lot of stuff I do in the company, I also get involved with the patching side, especially the patching of servers. I can patch 1,500 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) boxes in the time it takes me to patch ten boxes from Windows. Patching in Windows is bad. Being able to patch Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is simple since I think the most I have ever seen it takes is around 35 minutes to patch a box. When our company started to move towards a more containerized approach, we saw that being able to have your container or your OS can open a whole new world. Being able to spin up systems and have multiple systems that are already pre-patched, I don't have to have downtime for the enterprise.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There were a couple of operating systems, including CentOS, which my company looked at before choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as it offered a strong support model. The consistency offered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was also one of the other reasons why my company chose it over other tools.

What other advice do I have?

Though my company does not currently have a hybrid cloud environment with the tool, we are working on it since regulatory compliances in the banking sector require us to stay compliant. My company is not in a place where we can just jump into cloud infrastructure, but we do hope to do so in the future. Presently, the product is on an on-premises model.

As I am not required to deal with the developers in our company, I don't know if the product has helped centralize developments.

My company uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for containerization projects. The product has made dealing with containerization projects easy for my company since we get to use a lot of Kubernetes and Docker platforms that snap right into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and works.

Considering the built-in security features offered by the tool for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance, I prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) over a lot of other products. Our company is like an Active Directory shop, so we are doing a lot of tying to it, which is a little bit disappointing, but it is just business. I like the security end of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I also like the way the file handling takes place along with its management part, so I have no issues with the tool.

Speaking about the portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to keep our organization agile, I would say that it is something that will happen in the future as my company is a slow adopter. I am not really sure why it has been slow. My company does have a new organization that is really focusing on opening up new avenues so that we can actually be more agile and have the ability to move to things like OpenShift and having our containers offer more high availability while not having any downtime.

I don't use Red Hat Insights.

If I have to speak to a colleague who is looking at open-source cloud-based operating systems for Linux, I would say that CentOS or Fedora are good options since both products have had an association with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for a long time. I personally like and prefer CentOS.

I would not be able to comment on whether the Red Hat portfolio has affected our total cost of ownership across our enterprise landscape because we just spin them up and keep building them. My company was primarily an AIX house, using Solaris and a lot of Windows boxes from Windows. Right now, my company has gotten rid of the AIX and Solaris systems, and now we are down to about a 50-50 split when it comes to Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). There have been times when we have had more Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) boxes in our company over the ones from Windows. I can see that in the near future, my company is going to be more of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) shop than an organization that has boxes from Windows.

In terms of the deployment model, I would say that my company has three data centers, mostly where VMware is used.

I rate the tool a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: August 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.