The main use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is to manage the database and the server.
The solution helps solve pain points for monitoring servers, for example, databases and servers.
CIS Hardened Image Level 2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
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Has improved server monitoring and helped manage hundreds of databases with strong security and performance
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is the security and also the performance for scheduling and tasking for the memory.
These features benefit the organization because we have hundreds of servers, databases, and many files, and we have the ability to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What needs improvement?
I am interested in migrating to the cloud platform, so we are trying to implement that in the organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for five to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales well to meet the growing organizational needs.
We are looking for containerization for scalability, and it is easy to scale out and scale in.
We have expanded usage and tried manually to increase the number of servers, and we see the disk increasing exponentially, which is why we are looking for scaling.
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as quite good, since I technically get 24/7 support if I encounter issues from updates or new features.
I would assess the level of support from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) team as very informative; we learn a lot from the documentation from the Red Hat support team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I considered the availability of resources and security, as we have files and a lot of data with not enough time to handle that from the internet, and distribution is mostly for security.
How was the initial setup?
The experience deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was easy, as we use different methods, such as installing or using some source files by using some servers to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
The most common challenges faced with the deployment are mostly enterprise related, such as resource compatibility and making automation instead of active compatibility.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The opinion on pricing and its cost-effectiveness for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that it is quite good for production on-premises.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I would give to other organizations is that they should mostly rely on the Linux operating system; it is quite reliable and easy to use, install, deploy, and manage, so I would advise them to use it.
I would rate this product a 10.
Has helped reduce downtime for telco workloads and simplified patch management through automation tools
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are telco applications.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve my pain points with support.
I manage my Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems using Red Hat Satellite, which helps me a lot to manage the new patches we integrate, making our job very easy.
The upgrade or migration process for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is acceptable. Migrating from Red Hat 7 to 8 was somewhat complex; however, 7 to 9 and 8 to 9 migrations are acceptable. While we have not yet migrated from 9 to 10, we have a plan and I registered for a session on Red Hat 10 today, so we are planning to migrate all our Red Hat 6 servers in production to 9 and 10.
I assess Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security features, including SELinux and Pacemaker, by saying these two features help considerably to manage and keep the system secure. On top of that, we are using firewalls, so we feel very confident without worrying about the future.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps to mitigate downtime and data losses since we use the Pacemaker cluster, which helps considerably. As a Telco, we cannot tolerate downtime issues.
What needs improvement?
From a business perspective, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is high in price, which has made our management less interested recently, not because of instability. However, sometimes we try to adapt some open-source alternatives such as Rocky Linux.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as nine out of ten. I have not seen any limitations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) yet.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales very well with my organization.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate customer service and technical support as a six out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I did not face challenges in deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on-premises or on the cloud since I was very enthusiastic about it. I started learning Red Hat Linux back at university about 6, 7, 8, or 9 years ago, and a number of people were also interested at that time, so I did not see any challenges for using or adopting it.
What about the implementation team?
I have been involved in upgrading Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on-premises and tested something in the cloud, but it is not in production. On-premises, we are performing upgrades almost every day.
We are already using Red Hat Satellite and Ansible, which we have in place. Probably in the future, we will consider VMware, but I do not have a specific plan for that right now.
What was our ROI?
As an engineer, I cannot calculate the ROI in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but management has all the visibility, and they are getting the ROI while we are satisfied with that.
What other advice do I have?
What stands out to me in the evaluation process for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that it is positive.
My advice to other organizations looking to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that they should use it. Everything is acceptable with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because patching is available and management is available, so I do not think anything additional is needed from a basic standpoint. I gave this review a rating of 9 out of 10.
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?
Has improved deployment speed and weekly patching has strengthened system security
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases include running our application in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since all our applications are based on a Red Hat server. Everything we use is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What is most valuable?
As SecDevOps Lead, I drove the adoption of Red Hat’s Ansible Automation Platform, which transformed our deployment process. Previously, manual scripts led to inconsistencies and delays; now, we achieve consistent, error-free deployments in under 10 minutes. Weekly RHEL patching, integrated into our CI/CD pipeline, has strengthened our security posture—critical for meeting regulatory requirements. These improvements have directly supported our business goals of agility and reliability.
What needs improvement?
A key area for improvement is the ability to apply patches without requiring a full server reboot. This would minimize downtime for mission-critical applications. I’m actively evaluating Red Hat’s live kernel patching solutions and advocating for their adoption to further enhance our uptime and operational efficiency.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for almost seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as good since I didn't see much downtime with the servers or any random problems coming up with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I would say it's good in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales well with the growing needs of my organization because whatever solutions we are trying, we are able to do in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It's coming along well.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate customer service and technical support as something I'm not sure about because I didn't directly work with them.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I didn't consider any other solutions before Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and I haven't used any other solution to address similar needs.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is nice, but I didn't deploy anything from a Linux perspective. Overall, I think it's a nice experience that I have with Red Hat.
What about the implementation team?
When it comes to managing my Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for provisioning and patching, it has come up well over the years. Before, I think it took a lot of time to provision a server and patch it, including securing and hardening the server. Nowadays, it's very easy. I didn't work directly, but I have provisioned.
What was our ROI?
I feel that we've seen ROI since I'm not involved in purchasing, but I can feel that it's a good ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, including cost and licensing, is that I'm not sure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I haven't expanded any usage of it, apart from using Ansible and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What other advice do I have?
My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security features when it comes to simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance is that it's pretty good from what I've heard when I talk with the team, even though I'm not directly working on that.As for my upgrade and migration plans to stay current, we recently upgraded to Red Hat 8. If we want to do another Red Hat 10, it's good.Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk as it allows provisioning servers very easily. In case the servers go down, it comes up very fast as well.I assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as very good. Recently, I had a walkthrough of a trial, and it's pretty much simplified and whatever we need is there.My advice to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is to just use it. It's easy. I gave this review a rating of 10.
A robust operating system offering helpful insights and automation for building images
What is our primary use case?
My use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is for dockerization; I use it for Docker or Postman. We use it for microservices, for example, to install JBoss and deploy some applications and pipelines for processes such as CI/CD. A summary of what I do includes microservices for applications such as Tomcat or JBoss, or for microservices in Postman, and installing Jenkins and launching pipelines.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped reduce downtime and lower risks for me. There are rarely crashes or errors.
Image Builder or system roles feature is beneficial because it is a feature that allows you to create small images for what you need. With these images, you can go to a registry or whatever with VMware or KVM, and you can deploy them very quickly and efficiently. I tested it because it's better than having to install another machine all over again and losing much time. With Image Builder, you can create a small image tailored to your necessities. It is a good solution; you have to embrace automation, and the Image Builder helps you automate the creation of servers and images.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate all the Red Hat products available and the support provided when encountering any issues or needing help. You can open a case, and they answer very quickly.
The other reason is it is a very strong OS for your needs. For example, I work in a banking system and in a financial system, and all kinds of products that you have—the problems may come from development, not from the server or machine.
In the knowledge base of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I can find everything I need. I don't have to go elsewhere. There are some videos with practical advice, all in one place, and all for free. I'm very happy with this kind of resource and knowledge base.
I find Red Hat Insights very helpful and beneficial. In all IT departments worldwide, I find it important because when I call my colleagues or other companies, this is a very significant feature. Insights gives many opportunities, particularly regarding security, and provides more facilities to improve security in your servers. In my opinion, the most important security feature in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is Red Hat Insights. When you use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), you can install an agent in your Linux, and this agent runs on your Linux and gives you all the CVEs or security issues you have. For me, as an administrator, this is very helpful because with minimal clicks, I have the solutions and instructions on how to solve them. You only need to connect to Red Hat, and they provide a deployment, scan your machine, or all machines with Ansible, and give you a summary of your vulnerabilities, and you apply the solutions they provide.
What needs improvement?
The areas that have room for improvement in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include having more case bases and possibly more forums or places. A community that is not just informal but rather official could be beneficial. Everything else is good.
I would suggest improving compatibility. Sometimes I find that Red Hat is not aligned with the rest of the world. They create their own solutions, such as Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, and OpenShift, which can be better than what others offer. This can be both good and bad, depending on the situation. On the positive side, their innovations can enhance the overall quality of the company’s offerings. On the downside, when you need certain images or components that deviate from industry standards, it can become confusing. I find it difficult to understand why they choose to differentiate themselves from the rest.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been in IT for 24 years, working with Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for about 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is scalable for my business. It is very important, and I cannot imagine working without it.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with Ubuntu and SUSE, but I prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because the support is better than others. All solutions, how the machine or OS works, and all the other products, for example, OpenShift, I appreciate. I feel very comfortable with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because it is a solution based on CentOS and Fedora, and since my early career, I studied and learned in this distribution.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is very easy.
What was our ROI?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has saved me about 40% to 50% time.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to other users; it depends on the company size. For medium and bigger companies, it is necessary because all the components needed, such as support and stability, are available. I cannot help much with the pricing because I do not work with licenses; this comes from another department. I discuss with my boss about how many machines or servers we need, and they coordinate with the commercials. I do not have information about whether it is cheaper or expensive, but I hear that they are very comfortable depending on how you deal with them.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) an eight out of ten.
Supports long-term industry migrations and improves infrastructure versatility across consulting services
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are that it has been part of our core delivery solutions for many industries, mostly for telecom.
What is most valuable?
The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I find most valuable include all of the features since system V.
In my organization, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) provides an agnostic interface for many storage vendors that we deal with, which helps us to have a wider spectrum of offerings in our consultancy offerings.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be improved by adopting a feature similar to YaST from a big European competitor, which would significantly enhance Red Hat technologies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since 2005 when it was in release four, which makes it 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as favorable, noting that during the last five years, we've experienced fewer crashes and downtimes compared to other commercial Unix and Linux distributions in the market.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales excellently with the growing needs of my organization, and I would rate it ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate customer service and tech support as excellent; with either the partner portal or customer portal, we receive very good RCAs and analyses for any case we submit to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). On a scale of one to ten, I would rate customer service and technical 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?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was using Commercial Unix, Oracle Solaris. The factor that led me to change was that during the last decades, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has absorbed many features straight from Solaris, enabling us to perform effective migrations from Commercial Unix to RHEL.
How was the initial setup?
At the very beginning, at the earliest versions of Red Hat since version six, there was a kernel that was not compatible with many cluster vendors, and that's why we were adopting another vendor of Linux. However, we've seen that during these past years, Red Hat has been experiencing a lot of enhancements overcoming these kinds of barriers. And now Red Hat has become more versatile in accepting more hardware that allows us to standardize our Red Hat offerings in our consultancy services.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). For data points, in one of the key industries I handle, which is telecom, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been one of the key strategic providers offering a good price to implement automation and containerization across all of the network elements we manage with several vendors, and in the latest five years, we have observed a good investment return in terms of ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that I strongly believe Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers a good relationship between value and price, and despite it being quite pricey, it's definitely worth it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I considered SLES, which is a competitor of Red Hat.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is to have a good plan and to establish the relationship as a key strategic reference for any upcoming migration. The partnership and customer support provided is a high-value option. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped mitigate downtime and lower risk through high availability solutions and key features that enable network redundancy, allowing us to achieve this.
I would assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as excellent because it has become one of the key standards in the industry for following guidelines according to any topic in the RHEL environment.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution an eight.
Enables consistent networking performance and increases uptime while supporting collaborative problem-solving
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) for the server, supporting Telco work workflows, manufacturing software for manufacturing, and travel software. I have a huge base for what we're targeting around AWS or Red Hat solutions.
What is most valuable?
I favor the network manager feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); I appreciate the versatility and flexibility of network manager. I appreciate that we can make super-fast modifications to networking solutions, and I value the support for IPv6.
I also value the support for working with the community very specifically. Bringing the solutions we need for customer problems to reality tends to result from our conversations with Red Hat. Normally, if I need help making a customer experience better, I can have a conversation with the business teams at Red Hat, and then we can find a collaborative solution.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk; although it's hard for me to say that I really understand it outside of an analyst report, I can say that I truly believe it has increased uptime based on my experience.
There's a consistency, and my example is that I trust the kernel and the quality engineering, which leads me to more favorable results in places where other distributions might make changes that slow down my networking or storage network in unpredictable ways.
What needs improvement?
For a new release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the main improvement could be in the pricing models, particularly understanding how to better present those pricing models in a more predictable manner. It is very difficult from a partner perspective to figure out how to position software to a customer when the pricing may or may not be competitive, so that's my biggest 'how could I fix this?' question.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for 25 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When assessing the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I can say that on every operating system, there are always exceptions and new issues to fix.
However, if I have software validated for RHEL, I know I can expect a certain level of certainty that issues will be ones that have either never been seen before or are the result of our new approaches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by itself scales incredibly. However, the problem tends to arise where increased consumption raises total costs.
As the total cost increases across the operating system distribution, my requirements for support decrease, making it difficult to gauge a return on investment, which complicates the situation for me as a representative of an entire fleet.
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as generally positive; I've never had a problem with my support. Sometimes, individual support agents might not know what they're discussing or misunderstand the question, possibly due to my clarity or other factors. I would say that it is at least at the same level or better than any support group I've ever engaged with in technology.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was using another solution within the RHEL family. I often test workloads using Fedora or CentOS as a foundation and then move those production workloads to Red Hat.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been confusing; it feels different every time. The complications often arise from being unable to predict exactly what is necessary for a deployment, as the build-out and sales cycles are significantly more complex.
What was our ROI?
I have most definitely seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); I don't think my job would exist if there wasn't a return on investment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
By policy, I am required to use Amazon Linux for everything, however, by necessity, I am replacing that with Red Hat solutions where we have space during my evaluation process.
What other advice do I have?
My business relationship with Red Hat is that I am a Partner.
The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is still hard to search, but I recognize that AI is probably making that easier during this period. I think Lightspeed is an important part of our structure for interacting with the knowledge base information, and I look forward to making that work better.
I typically advise other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by asking how important their workload is to them. I question what happens if it goes down and how much time they have to spend fixing it. If they value that aspect, then it's their choice to determine their path.
My biggest question often relates to how much they would pay to replace the community, and if they are willing to understand the significant number of partners and open-source champions contributing to Red Hat, they will see how that community cannot be replaced in terms of how software fits their business needs.
I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 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?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Configuration time has significantly decreased while maintaining reliable performance
What is our primary use case?
Our main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include having servers all around for storage and processing, specifically for compute processing.
What is most valuable?
The best feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I appreciate is that it provides consistent configuration setups with step-by-step configuration, which is easier. When configuring a server, what previously took at least a 24-hour turnaround time now takes only 30 minutes to one hour.
I am satisfied with the management experience and normally choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) when there is an option between it and other solutions. I have been involved in RHEL upgrades or migrations from many years ago, approximately 14 to 18 years back. Currently, everything is easier as upgrades and patches come as a package.
Regarding built-in security features, maintaining compliance is handled at the architect's level during configuration setups. While the service provider handles access level security, configuration compliances need to be managed by the architect.
The upgrade and migration process in AWS is straightforward - I can easily increase the number of processors through hot migration, which can be done while the system is running without requiring shutdown. RHEL has helped mitigate downtime and lower risk with negligible system interruptions.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) could be improved with more shared storage capabilities. For example, I have multiple RHEL instances, and enhanced storage sharing would be helpful for transferring data between servers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for almost 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as very stable, with negligible downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales efficiently with the growing needs of my organization as it is one of the managed shared services. When we check the scalability option while configuring, it manages everything automatically without requiring separate actions. I have expanded usage, and the process has been smooth with zero downtime.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had the opportunity to evaluate customer service and technical support because we address any issues through AWS since it's a managed service.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was not using another solution to address similar needs.
How was the initial setup?
I manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for provisioning and patching through AWS, which handles the patching at the service provider level. Provisioning is easy because I can modify configurations, such as the number of processors and other parameters.
The deployment model for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is cloud. Security requirements were a consideration in choosing RHEL in the cloud, as AWS provides most of the security features.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as the prices have been reduced since we implemented a shared environment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot speak to licensing because we are using managed services from AWS. Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, all costs come from AWS on a pay-as-you-go basis. We get charged when the service is up; otherwise, there is no cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I considered something similar to VMware. These were the two options I chose between.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that it's easy to use and a reliable service. It has been consistently at the top in this industry for ages and has its own strengths. I would recommend it as a first choice.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as eight or nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Supports seamless container hosting and simplified configuration through automation integration
What is our primary use case?
We mainly use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to host containers.
RHEL makes things easier for hosting containers and has really good integration with automation tools such as Ansible, which makes configuration management easier. Those were the two areas where RHEL helped us significantly.
We haven't used Lightspeed yet; however, we are focused on containers. It's pretty seamless, and RHEL made it much easier for us to get things running when we moved. We were initially on PCF, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, and now we are on OpenShift.
How has it helped my organization?
RHEL made development much easier, and we use it as a testbed to run our containers before moving them to OpenShift.
What is most valuable?
RHEL simplifies container hosting and offers excellent integration with automation tools like Ansible, making configuration management more straightforward. They have really good support, helping me adapt more easily because I already had a good understanding from working on open source technologies.
I find Lightspeed to be the most valuable feature about RHEL. It makes troubleshooting much easier. It's an LLM similar to ChatGPT, allowing me to query what my exact command is, and it provides me with that.
RHEL supports many different container runtimes and packages, making our job pretty easy to build images for developers to use on our container platform. Using RHEL as a base image simplifies our work compared to other options, as it comes pre-packaged with many necessary features.
The fact that we also use a Red Hat-based container product platform, OpenShift, means it has everything needed to run on OpenShift.
What needs improvement?
RHEL is a pretty polished product, however, if it becomes more mainstream compared to other Linux distributions and if more people adapt it, it would be used as a much more universal product. This would make it easier for people to adapt to RHEL.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of RHEL as good. I faced some issues due to the underlying platform on which they were hosted, but I didn't encounter problems with RHEL itself. Whenever we have issues, we have good Red Hat support, so it's very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I assess RHEL's scalability as pretty robust. Most of our footprint is on the cloud, and any new VMs we spin up happen quickly because of how easy it is to set up RHEL. Combining that with the capabilities of Ansible makes scaling up pretty easy on demand.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate customer service and technical support as excellent.
They have a tiered structure for outage severity and type of environment, which is great. My experience has been positive, and we also had vendor engagements with Red Hat when implementing new solutions, with an engineer and architect helping us set things up. That was a really good learning experience for me as well, so my overall experience has been positive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting RHEL, I used other distributions of Linux. I worked on Ubuntu and SUSE, and I even worked on some personal projects with Kali Linux. Every distribution has its pros and cons, but for an enterprise-level solution, I feel RHEL is a much better option because of the support it provides.
How was the initial setup?
Security requirements were 100% a consideration in choosing RHEL in the cloud. Our company has its own setup with images we use, with our own vulnerability checks before pushing it. RHEL qualifies as one of the software solutions that has been vetted, and we use it as one of our primary operating systems.
What was our ROI?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has provided a return on investment of 100%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I haven't worked on the RHEL side regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, however, I have worked on the OpenShift side. The pricing is competitive, especially when compared to our last vendor, PCF, which became quite expensive after being acquired by Broadcom. That's another reason why we started moving to RHEL.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In my current company, RHEL had a mature environment before I joined, but in one of my previous jobs, we chose between SUSE and RHEL. We felt RHEL was a much more polished option because of its larger user base and extensive knowledge catalog.
What other advice do I have?
For other organizations considering RHEL, my advice is that if your organization is operating at scale and requires good support, RHEL is a great product.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) an eight out of ten.
Has supported secure on-premise cloud migration and reduced dependency on traditional VM maintenance
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include workflow development. We are running the workflow in that.
What is most valuable?
The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I appreciate the most include OpenShift. These features have benefited my organization through working on on-premise cloud migration.
Some of the high sensitive data cannot go to the public cloud, so we are trying to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for the internal migration. We got rid of the VM maintenance and related tasks.
Security requirements were a key consideration in choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the cloud. We are from the financial industry, so customer data is one of our big responsibilities. When it comes to managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for provisioning and patching, we currently work with our middleware team for upgrades, however, the plan is to work with AWS or the Red Hat team for future upgrades.
My assessment of the built-in security features is limited as I'm from the development side. Our upgrade and migration plans to stay current involve recommendations from our vendors.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk. Our restart used to take considerable time initially, but through optimization, it now takes significantly less time. I would assess the knowledge base as good. We received dedicated training this summer from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), with trainers coming to our office for two days, which was very beneficial.
What needs improvement?
The pain points that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve include the transition from a Microsoft background, where I had a habit of everything with a GUI. I see very few GUI elements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and many command lines. I'm not proficient in that, which makes me struggle sometimes. Overall, we have the tools, however, there should be drag-and-drop, window-type functionality.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for 11 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as very good. As a developer, I have never seen any downtime, so it is working perfectly fine from the middleware side.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales efficiently with the growing needs of my organization. They consistently release new versions. The scalability has been going well.
We have expanded usage, and the process was smooth. In the beginning, we had very few applications, and now I can see many applications running on that side. It is definitely expanding.
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as very proactive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was using Microsoft Windows Server. Now our focus is more on this area. The factors that made us want to change include transitioning from Microsoft technology, moving to Pega and Java side. This technology is much more supported on this platform.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was very good.
I have been involved in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) upgrades or migrations, and due to our many internal dependencies, it takes time, however, we successfully completed it.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because we have many critical applications running without any issues. There is significant ROI on that.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The other solutions I considered before choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include using three or four vendors as a business continuity plan. We have Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), AWS, Windows and others. We cannot rely on one vendor; we have to work with multiple vendors to maintain business continuity.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I would give to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that it's a really good tool to use if they have applications in Java, Pega, or IBM workflow or Lombardi.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a nine 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?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Provides strong security controls and customization options for internal cloud application hosting
What is our primary use case?
We provide a hosting platform on which internal business applications will want to host their applications. Depending on what our internal app teams want to use to host their applications, some may want to host on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). These are the main use cases that we deal with - app teams hosting their applications in our hosting platform for internal use.
What is most valuable?
From a consumer preference perspective, we have folks who prefer options for teams to host their environments in the cloud. It feels there is more security with the product and more configuration customization that app teams appreciate. Certain vendors require that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) specifically be used, which helps in those cases.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) provides a certain base set of security features and capabilities that we have found other flavors of Linux do not provide or are required by governmental agencies to meet CMMC controls. The security controls that go above and beyond other types of Linux, along with the manageability from an enterprise perspective, make it valuable.
What needs improvement?
One of the pain points we have found is that for Windows systems, it is pretty easy to domain join those in a federated model. It seems we have to either have a third-party product or it is not quite as straightforward to domain join Linux OSs. This would be something that could potentially be smoother in the future.
The knowledge base would be more helpful if it was more easily searchable. There might be opportunities to leverage AI for being able to search the knowledge base and articles more effectively.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for about 12 years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Compared to other OSs, stability has been solid.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has scaled very well. We have not experienced any scaling issues from our perspective.
How are customer service and support?
I have not had to directly engage customer support. Mmy team has not provided any issues or complaints when they have had to reach out to support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We tried using CentOS type Linux or Amazon Linux. However, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) checked the compliance and security features much better than those product offerings.
How was the initial setup?
We have been actively moving systems from on-premises into the cloud since 2017, including moving Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions to newer versions in the cloud.
It is pretty easy to deploy. The main challenge is domain joining it at the end, however, we have not had many issues with getting things STIG hardened, which is welcome when it comes to the OS itself.
What about the implementation team?
We are deploying everything via automation using the Ansible product. Everything is deployed leveraging Ansible, and we have a desired state config post-deployment that provides post-permission hardening.
What was our ROI?
Based on our latest agreement, we are seeing cost savings and optimizations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I wasn't too involved in those discussions. For the most part, our sourcing team carried the heavy burden of negotiating the licensing agreements and similar matters.
What other advice do I have?
Depending on your use case and compliance requirements, take a good look at all the different flavors of Linux and you will probably recognize that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is going to check the boxes much smoother and easier than some of the other versions or implementations. It will save time.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
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