We are doing image building. Our team focuses on the image of the platform and presenting it in a secure way for everybody to consume.
Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
They make solutions for challenges that we do not even think about but we may consume later
Pros and Cons
- "It is open source. Most of the features are already there for you."
- "I cannot remember the name, but monitoring was needed for a specific function. It was a pretty important function, but there was no monitoring set up. It took some extra effort. That was the only feature I asked for. I asked them if they could set up a monitor to make sure that the system was healthy or working correctly."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
My organization had already been using it before I started, so I am not sure what benefits they got from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. They were already a Red Hat shop when I started.
We do not utilize Red Hat Insights as much as we would like, but we know that it is there. It provides the data, and we can act on that data, but we do not use Red Hat Insights the way we should. However, it does tell us when things are critical and need to be patched. If something is on there and it is critical, we can at least see that it is patched. The alerts and targeted guidance from Red Hat Insights have not affected our uptime so far.
What is most valuable?
It is open source. Most of the features are already there for you. They make solutions for challenges that we do not even think about sometimes, but we may consume them later.
What needs improvement?
I have not put in many feature requests. They have mainly been around small things such as monitoring with Ceph. I cannot remember the name, but monitoring was needed for a specific function. It was a pretty important function, but there was no monitoring set up. It took some extra effort. That was the only feature I asked for. I asked them if they could set up a monitor to make sure that the system was healthy or working correctly.
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is fine. I have not seen too many issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is great. We can scale up or down.
How are customer service and support?
I do not have any issues with the customer service or tech support. It is good. I would rate them a ten out of ten because they can usually resolve anything.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is pretty simple. There are not so many issues.
We are using it on the cloud and on-prem. We are trying to get to Azure. We are not using it in a hybrid cloud environment. I know we are setting up OpenShift in Azure and on-prem.
We have been using TerraForm to create images and Ansible to make sure everything is fine. We have some things on Azure, but we are trying to make it easier for people to consume Azure. We are trying to get that automation together so that it is a lot easier if anybody wants to spin anything up in Azure. They have a container to use that is secure. All of our business tools are on it.
What about the implementation team?
We just use Red Hat. We do not use any integrator or consultant.
What was our ROI?
Our team does not use a lot of containerization, but we probably will be doing that soon with VMware changes. We are trying to get more of the monolithic stuff down to containerized workloads. We will hopefully see some return on investment after we get our VMware stuff out and get more things containerized. We are working with the OpenShift team, and we will be able to see some ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
That has been mostly handled by Red Hat. As we are a Red Hat shop, we have a lot of people around that already.
What other advice do I have?
We do not use the security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There are so many scanners out there. We do not use what is on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but we do set it up. They are at least available to consume. We do not use them because we have so many security compliance tools. As a bank, we have to use those for auditing and other things like that.
To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say to get something that is close to Red Hat. Red Hat is killing a lot of the downstream stuff. All my Linux is Rocky Linux because it is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I would suggest getting something that is close to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so that if they or their company does not want to go for Red Hat, they would still have the same tooling and the same infrastructure.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. I have not seen a lot of issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I am overall satisfied with it.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Providers coordination at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The built-in features for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance are very important
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of stability and scalability."
- "Though the product has many features, the tool's virtualization area has certain shortcomings that require improvement."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company mainly for the operation system of the core business applications.
How has it helped my organization?
My company has experienced benefits from the use of the product, especially considering the agility that the tool offers in terms of the time to market in different areas of business and because of its compatibility with most of the applications in the market.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are the stability and scalability.
I run Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on a hybrid cloud deployment, and it has impacted our company's operations, but I would say that it has been quite simple to implement, especially considering the security, which has been a considerable piece of the infrastructure.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped centralize development in our company. The applications run with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and it became the standard for the operating system for the applications.
My company uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for containerization projects with OpenShift. This use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has had an important impact on containerization, as it is a simple process. Owing to the simplicity, we always involve the solution's experts and get faster solutions.
The built-in features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance are very important because our company is always aware of all these security issues that constantly happen.
What needs improvement?
Though the product has many features, the tool's virtualization area has certain shortcomings that require improvement. The product should also offer more containers and probably some financial services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a quite easily scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for the solution is very good. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), my company used to use Windows. My company started to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) after we found that it offers more stability, sophistication, and security and serves as a standard for many products.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial deployment phase was easy and quick.
My company did follow some strategy to deploy the product, and we also had the support from the vendor.
The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises models.
What about the implementation team?
My company sought the help of a system integrator during the implementation phase of the solution.
What was our ROI?
In terms of ROI, I see that the tool offers stability, performance, agility, and resilience.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If I describe my experience with the product's price, I would say that we have to live with it for now.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company evaluated other Linux products, such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), against Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to a colleague who is looking at open-source cloud-based operating systems for Linux since it is a tool with more market experience and offers more documentation and support from the vendor, which is not easy to acquire when it comes to open-source software.
Red Hat's portfolio has affected the total cost of ownership across our enterprise landscape by around 10 to 20 percent.
My company has the product in two data centers, but the production happens only in one. Mostly, my company uses the cloud services offered by Azure.
I rate the tool a nine or ten out of ten.
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?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.
System Administrator at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
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.
Stf Full Stack Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Helps with centralized development, infrastructure management, and compliance
Pros and Cons
- "In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I am a big fan of the command line."
What is our primary use case?
I utilize Ansible to harden Red Hat devices across a multitude of disconnected environments.
How has it helped my organization?
One benefit of using Red Hat Enterprise Linux is that a lot of backend applications run natively on Red Hat Enterprise Linux as opposed to a Windows-based option. We are a partner with Red Hat. It essentially allows us to do a lot of our infrastructure stand-up and development.
It has enabled our team to centralize development. We have been able to centralize our automation, playbooks, and different collections we use within Ansible to create a centralized code base. We can use that to configure different types of systems with different requirements from different customers. Having a common platform across the entire enterprise has been very helpful.
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux very limitedly for containerization projects. It makes things very seamless. If we get a new developer, we can set up a brand new instance of a container for a dev environment or a test environment. It allows different developers to always have the same starting points with containers.
In terms of security features for risk reduction, there are SELinux and FIPS. Also, when you build a Red Hat Enterprise Linux machine, you can stick it right out of the box. It is very helpful. It is very good, especially for programmers and users who do not know anything about cybersecurity. It takes you 85% to 90% of the way. It has been very helpful and good.
The right commonality across the business or enterprise is always very hard to do, especially when different networks and different customers have different requirements. Being able to at least have continuity between those different environments has been helpful. If you have a system admin at a location and you put him or her at a different location, they at least can expect the same type of infrastructure.
When it comes to compliance, it takes you 85% to 90% of the way there. Different networks require different things. Some cannot implement specific standards for whatever reasons, but being able to utilize and leverage Red Hat Ansible to configure that and make sure those changes are made across the entire network has been very helpful.
Portability depends on the circumstances. Some things are more portable than others, such as containers. We utilize Ansible Core very extensively, but other things, such as AAP, are not necessarily as portable because some of our smaller environments do not have the bandwidth or the actual resources to support a big product like that.
What is most valuable?
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I am a big fan of the command line. I like the data manipulation and different commands that we can use. I use Ansible extensively to configure systems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is easily scalable with the solutions and the options they have.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is very good. They are very helpful. Some of them are more experienced in handling the niche problems that we have.
I would rate their customer support a nine out of ten because there is always room for improvement, but it has always been very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used Ubuntu and other Linux operating systems in the past. However, since I have been with the company, we have used Red Hat Enterprise Linux almost exclusively.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment model depends on the environment. Some are using VMs. Some use containers, and some use bare-metal installations. It depends on what a particular program needs. I support small environments that are on-prem.
It is fairly straightforward to deploy different Red Hat boxes. I was just helping out a sysadmin the other day who had not done it before. It was super straightforward and super easy to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
We deploy it on our own.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment for us and our team is specifically automation. We are able to invest time on the frontend to create different automation playbooks, and we are able to push that out to not only a singular network but also to multiple networks and multiple different configurations. It takes a little bit in the beginning, but there are huge time savings in the end.
What other advice do I have?
If a security colleague is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would be interested to understand what that colleague's objectives are and why they would consider something other than Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If it is something that fits their particular use case more, they can obviously go with that. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a standard solution for Linux. If any colleague wants to go for another solution, I have to understand why. I would have to understand what Red Hat Enterprise Linux is not able to provide. However, this has not happened to me.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a full ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Provides a reliable base to deploy applications and has a lot of features
Pros and Cons
- "The repository ecosystem is valuable."
- "I would probably focus more on a rolling release schedule. Instead of a long-term operating support of ten years, I would just have one release and keep rolling it."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use it for enterprise software, databases, and some custom applications.
How has it helped my organization?
We have a stable base to deploy applications. We need a minimal amount of effort to troubleshoot problems with the applications that are related to the OS.
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud, in the on-prem data center, and at the edge. We are also using Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a hybrid cloud environment. It has had a positive impact. It is straightforward to deploy. There was no bottleneck.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. The stable base that each developer can rely on is great. The consistent ecosystem of the repository makes it easy to rely on.
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is quick to containerize, so when it started becoming mainstream, it was easier for us to sell to upper management to start doing more containerization.
There has been a positive impact in terms of the portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for keeping our organization agile. It is very portable. I do not have any issues with different ecosystems in relation to how Red Hat Enterprise Linux runs containers.
Our cost of ownership is not high. They are not very expensive. We are never surprised.
What is most valuable?
The repository ecosystem is valuable.
What needs improvement?
I would probably focus more on a rolling release schedule. Instead of a long-term operating support of ten years, I would just have one release and keep rolling it.
In terms of security features, overall, it is lacking cohesion. There are a lot of different options, and it is hard to choose the ones that best fit our business needs without a lot of investigative work.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for 11 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
It takes a little bit to get to the true answer. I know there is a lot of triaging. I am sure we can improve on our end. When we open tickets, we can provide more information. There could be a way to get faster answers from Red Hat support, and we might not be providing the most upfront information needed for the ticket. I would rate their support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using any other solution previously.
I know of only one other player, and that is Ubuntu. There is also OpenSUSE, but I have not yet seen that personally in my career.
How was the initial setup?
We have cloud and on-prem deployments. We have the AWS cloud.
On AWS, we had an EC2 instance. I clicked, and it was online. For the initial deployment, we just used the Amazon Web UI, and now, we use Ansible for deployment.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI. It is fairly easy to deploy. We do not have too many issues with setting up a new environment in relation to the operating system. The bottlenecks are more related to the hardware or even setting up the cloud.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When I came in, Red Hat Enterprise Linux was already being used. It has always been there.
What other advice do I have?
We have not yet fully leveraged Red Hat Insights. We are working on that. It might help with cohesion and security.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. It is reliable for deploying applications. It has a lot of different features. I can find solutions to all my problems, and the industry support is there.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network and Linux System Administrator at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Customizable, stable, and easy to upgrade
Pros and Cons
- "It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements."
- "Their support needs improvement. It should be faster for priority tickets."
What is our primary use case?
We are a brokerage firm. We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for trading purposes. We develop our applications on it.
By implementing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we wanted a stable server and OS.
How has it helped my organization?
There is an in-built feature for shell scripting, so we can automate things that have to run on time in production. We created a script for the setup and configuration of certain things, such as disabling the firewall, network manager, and other things.
I am able to handle some of the daily issues automatically by using batch scripting and cron scheduler. I have also been able to debug some of the issues with the help of logs.
What is most valuable?
It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements. We can change or optimize it as per our requirements.
What needs improvement?
Their support needs improvement. It should be faster for priority tickets.
Some of the tools can be improved and made user-friendly. The OpenStack and OpenShift tools can be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I would rate it a 9 out of 10 for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. I would rate it a 9 out of 10 for scalability.
We have about 100 servers, and we have about four people working in the IT department.
How are customer service and support?
Their support needs to improve. If we create a priority ticket for Red Hat, they revert within four hours. They should respond within half an hour so that the issue can be resolved as soon as possible in the real or live environment, and the company has less downtime.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows operating systems.
How was the initial setup?
Upgrades and migrations are easy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are currently working on upgrades from RHEL 7 to RHEL 9.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use open source. We only have a subscription for support.
What other advice do I have?
For security purposes, we use the SSH key algorithm, MD5, and SHA256. We have set up a firewall in our network, and all servers are password-based. We also block some common ports that are open when we install the OS. We also have monitoring tools to ensure uptime.
Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a 9 out of 10.
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.
Infrastructure Technology System Engineer
Easy to use with good command line capabilities and offers easy access for admins
Pros and Cons
- "There are millions of commands you can use, although we use only five or ten."
- "Maybe they need to make it easier to apply patches from different resources. That said, at my level of usage, I never have to apply patches."
What is our primary use case?
We have almost thirteen servers. There are SaaS applications installed on this server. We leverage Java and the functionality during installation. We install it on the platform and configure it there. Some are custom applications. Our database is also in the Red Hat Linux environment.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution offers users easy access. It's very simple to have and use, from an admin perspective.
What is most valuable?
The offering provides me with all I need to serve the operation in terms of usage and capabilities.
The general user commands are good. They are helpful for starting and stopping applications and restarting and editing files. The maintenance of user-level processes is easy.
We're not using it in a graphical environment, we're only using command line mode. There may be a lot of features, however, I don't use everything since I don't need to.
There are millions of commands you can use, although we use only five or ten.
Likely the solution has helped our organization save on costs. I'm not sure by how much, as I don't have visibility into that aspect.
It's very easy to use across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructure. Specifically, on the cloud side, I have noted it's quite easy. Also, on a virtual machine, you can create a cloud version of your infrastructure in a minute.
What needs improvement?
For my work, the solution is not missing any features. We;re only using the command line and that is enough for us.
Maybe they need to make it easier to apply patches from different resources. That said, at my level of usage, I never have to apply patches.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for almost ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While I'm maintaining 30 servers, there are hundreds of servers in use.
The scalability is good. We are able to increase capacity and functionality based on our demands.
I'm not sure if the company has plans to increase usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
I don't directly deal with technical support. I might send a ticket to my side, and if they have to, they would be the ones to reach out to Red Hat.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Oracle Linux before we moved over to Red Hat Linux. We likely switched due to costs and licensing. We also use Windows extensively. Since we used the same architecture, we didn't need to use any third-party applications.
How was the initial setup?
As an admin, I was not involved in the setup process.
If there is any maintenance needed, we get support from the Red Hat team. If anything comes up on the operating side, our team will take care of it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm only using this solution as an admin and, therefore, have no visibility on costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I'm an end-user of the solution. I had admin-level access to the product.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not enable us to achieve security standard certification.
I'd rate the solution 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.
Lead Cloud Platform Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Gives us the confidence that our packages are legitimate and genuine
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the package management. It helps a lot. I also like the support."
- "It's getting easier for the community to use it free of charge. If you have an account, you get to use it. It would be better if the community could use it on their own for lab projects."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is for web applications and database applications. I've come across quite a few use cases at different companies.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the package management. It helps a lot. I also like the support.
Red Hat is a Linux-supportive and well-managed offering. It helps a lot in terms of when we're working in production, it gives us the confidence that our packages are legitimate and genuine and we always have support available. It helps a lot. Red Hat Enterprise Linux gives peace of mind compared to other unsupported Linux distributions.
I also like Red Hat Satellite.
I haven't used Insights yet but it seems interesting.
The ability to patch Red Hat Enterprise Linux through Satellite is a huge contributor to mitigating all of the compliance requirements.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has absolutely affected our security's uptime. None of the other distributions are nearly close to what you can get with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is something that helps a lot in ensuring that your secure application is up all the time and that you're not getting hit by vulnerabilities. It is an easier way for you to mitigate vulnerabilities when they're around.
The knowledge base is very useful. The only thing is that you need to have an account to get access. In terms of the content, the relevance, and being able to use the knowledge base to address things I've needed to deal with, it's awesome. For example, I was trying to add proxy configuration to the package manager once and if it wasn't for the knowledge base, I wouldn't have been able to do it.
What needs improvement?
I like it the way it is.
It's getting easier for the community to use it free of charge. If you have an account, you get to use it. It would be better if the community could use it on their own for lab projects.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux since 2011. It's been 12 years.
How are customer service and support?
On the few occasions I needed to reach out to support, I was very satisfied.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Linux distributions but when it comes to the work I'm doing at my company, we always use Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The biggest differences between Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the other OS' are the support, Satellite, Insights, and the fact that Ansible was acquired by Red Hat so you can use all its automation and toolings. The entire ecosystem works very well together.
What other advice do I have?
Red Hat has not personally enabled me to achieve security standard certifications in the projects I've worked on but I could see how it would help.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. I really like it.
We do a lot of patching and upgrading with Ansible and we keep the host up to date all the time.
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.
Senior Engineering Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Can be leveraged without resource constraints but should have more open-source options
Pros and Cons
- "The tool's most valuable feature is simplicity. There is value in having a fully CLI-based operating system instead of a GUI-based one. It is lightweight and can be leveraged without resource constraints."
- "I want RHEL to stick to the open-source routes. As a company, we experience challenges in managing the budget."
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux in different application servers.
What is most valuable?
The tool's most valuable feature is simplicity. There is value in having a fully CLI-based operating system instead of a GUI-based one. It is lightweight and can be leveraged without resource constraints.
What needs improvement?
I want Red Hat Enterprise Linux to stick to the open-source routes. As a company, we experience challenges in managing the budget.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for three years.
What other advice do I have?
From a licensing perspective, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is flexible. We leverage our licenses based on the VMware cluster.
Accessing the knowledge base from the public perspective is challenging. You can get much more from the documentation if you are a supported organization. If Red Hat Enterprise Linux continues to keep the documentation open-source, it will benefit us.
We leverage Ansible to help with the upgrades. It makes upgrades easier. We rely on a reseller for Ansible AWS upgrades.
We are shifting our Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers from version 7 to version 8.
I rate the product a seven 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.
Linux Systems Admin at Fujitsu Canada
Enables organizations to achieve security standards certification
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's stability is great, and patching it with Ansible is very easy."
- "The solution's licensing sometimes could be a little bit confusing for someone who's not a full-blown system admin and doesn't have a lot of experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux."
What is our primary use case?
We are an Azure shop that runs middleware applications like Java and JBoss, running on the Azure back end. We have to redeploy everything via ARM templates. Anytime we do an upgrade of the application itself, it's a redeployment. We have custom images that we set up through Azure pipelines. We use Ansible for code changes and server changes.
What is most valuable?
The solution's stability is great, and patching it with Ansible is very easy.
What needs improvement?
The solution's licensing sometimes could be a little bit confusing for someone who's not a full-blown system admin and doesn't have a lot of experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It took a while for me to understand the licensing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for three years.
What other advice do I have?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s built-in security features for simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance are pretty good. My only exposure is just packet management, but packet management gives me everything that I need.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to achieve security standards certification. We have to stay on top of things because we work with the Ontario District School Board. There's a big emphasis on keeping everything secure, and the solution has helped us to do that.
Right now, our company is migrating to 8.8, and I think we will stay on 8 for a few years. We're doing everything through the images, and we keep everything updated with Ansible. I don't think we have any plans to use any of the automation tools other than Ansible.
Overall, I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: June 2026
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