We performed a comparison between IBM PowerVM and KVM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Server Virtualization Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."It is a stable solution with reliable performance."
"Managing other operating systems is also straightforward with IBM PowerVM."
"The most valuable features in this solution are you do not get degradation in the performance like you could get in other solutions. There is a physical adapter that is better than a virtual one and you can assign adapters to a VM."
"IBM PowerVM has the highest clock speed."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility in terms of managing the hardware resources such as RAM, CPU, and the network."
"You can increase resources with it automatically."
"IBM PowerVM's most valuable feature is stability."
"Technical support is great."
"I have found KVM to be scalable."
"What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines."
"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."
"It offers a high-availability environment."
"I appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"I think nine out of the ten supercomputers in the world use Linux KVM, so I think that attests to the fact that it is a scalable product."
"The product is really good...One can get good performance because of kernel-based virtualization."
"A GUI version of VIOS would be a great plus for people moving from Intel-based hypervisors."
"The solution should be advanced to fit with the container constantly."
"This solution is lacking the ability to have servers act as a cluster, such as in VMware. IBM has come out with a feature similar to VMware's vCenter but it is not as mature. They need to add LPM shared-nothing feature, such as in vMotion."
"The interface is not user-friendly in places, so it could use some improvement."
"SRM for site recovery is a feature that should be included."
"IBM should review the price of this solution in my opinion; it is too high."
"The hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured."
"The solution is quite pricey."
"KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"Technical support could be better. In the next release, I would like to see an improved user interface and dashboard. This type of improvement will make it easy or help our engineers understand the solution from a requirement point of view."
"Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail."
"Lacks high availability across clusters as well as support for Apache CloudStack."
"The virtual manager and the graphical QEMU for KVM need some improvement."
"In KVM, snapshots and cloning are areas where there could be a little more sophistication, like VMware."
"I believe KVM offers a unified answer, while ProxMark addresses orchestration. KVM lacks orchestration. If the aim is to centrally oversee multiple KVMs – let's say to freeze them – a centralized management solution is absent."
IBM PowerVM is ranked 9th in Server Virtualization Software with 25 reviews while KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 39 reviews. IBM PowerVM is rated 8.4, while KVM is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of IBM PowerVM writes "A stable system for high-end data processing with a great support structure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of KVM writes "Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization". IBM PowerVM is most compared with VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), Oracle VM VirtualBox and Proxmox VE, whereas KVM is most compared with Proxmox VE, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Hyper-V, VMware vSphere and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). See our IBM PowerVM vs. KVM report.
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