I'm using the Red Hat Platform with Open Stack and an RHEL product for storage. The use case is performance IOPS for Ceph Storage, which depends on a bare-metal RHEL server.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (redhat 9) | Support by SupportedImages
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The solution improves database and application performance for my end users
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
For my security customer, we get greater than 90 percent uptime. RHEL helped us achieve security certification. It helped my end-user pass their security assessment. RHEL's built-in security features scan the third-party layer in the OpenStack and RHEL platform to assess the SSH and firewall security or patch updates from the RHEL platform and reset OpenStack. Security is the number one priority for my end user. They want to prevent hacker access from the outside.
RHEL supports the hybrid cloud strategy. The goal of using a bare metal server has been to improve availability and database performance. The OpenStack platform uses network capability to improve database performance.
What is most valuable?
RHEL improves database and application performance for my end users. The application can collect regional and national data for my end user, a strategic customer in Indonesia.
I am confident in the managed services RHEL provides in terms of the OpenStack, Ceph Storage, and OpenShift container-based products. If there are any problems with the RHEL platform, Open Stack, Ceph Storage, etc., I can raise the issue to RHEL global support.
What needs improvement?
For the past twenty or thirty years, Red Hat has reengineered its product from bare-metal on-prem to the cloud environment. Migrating an RHEL system from bare metal to cloud is somewhat difficult. They could add a fast boot.
For how long have I used the solution?
We deployed one side of RHEL in 2023, and we'll deploy the other side in 2025.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When I deploy RHEL for the first time, I try to learn about the performance and tune the performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability isn't an issue. Our customers haven't reported any performance problems from scaling up.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Red Hat support eight out of 10. I have used Red Hat support since 2023. They escalate the ticket based on severity, and if they can't resolve the issue within the maintenance window, they will pass me to another engineer.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously worked with Oracle Linux. My customer has two divisions. The network decision is focused on accounting database performance, while the IT division uses Oracle Linux. On the network side, the customer uses RHEL products like OpenStack, Ceph Storage, and OpenShift.
How was the initial setup?
My end user wanted to upgrade from RHEL OpenStack 16.1 to the latest 17.1.3 in April 2024. We also upgraded Ceph Storage and OpenShift. Now, my customer wants a testbed before upgrading to the RHEL version in live production. If there are problems, we open a ticket with global support and or two people will join our remote call. We have it deployed in Jakarta and plan to deploy it to Bandung.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of 10. I recommend all the Red Hat products, including OpenShift and Ceph Storage. OpenShift Container is a mature product for RHEL portal customers.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Offers built-in security features, helps with compliance and is highly stable
What is our primary use case?
I used Red Hat Enterprise Linux to construct systems according to the application team's requirements. I build and support these systems through the development, testing, pre-production, and production phases, fulfilling both developer and operational roles. To ensure the systems can handle the application's demands and meet our cybersecurity standards, I implement all security measures outlined by our cybersecurity team.
How has it helped my organization?
The extensive knowledge base offers a full path from beginner to advanced levels. We can access everything needed to study, pass exams, and apply knowledge immediately. The information is presented clearly, without any abstract concepts.
Red Hat offers built-in security features that simplify risk management. Unlike Oracle Linux, which overlooks critical security features like C Linux, Red Hat actively develops and maintains robust security measures. As a result, Red Hat prioritizes system security, consistently providing updates to fortify its machines against potential threats.
Red Hat helps us maintain compliance by enabling us to create and modify firewall rules as needed, allowing for strong security measures that can be adjusted.
The security reports generated every three months are valuable for provisioning and patching as they identify vulnerabilities requiring remediation. I find all the necessary information to address these vulnerabilities and implement patches through the Red Hat Enterprise portal and community resources.
When I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux five years ago, I noticed the benefits incrementally over time.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat's greatest asset is its extensive community, which provides valuable support and advice when issues arise. Due to the robust nature of this community, I have never required direct assistance from Red Hat Enterprise.
Red Hat offers customizable tools, such as Assemble, that enhance flexibility within enterprise products. Assemble is a platform capable of managing multiple systems from a single console.
What needs improvement?
While Red Hat offers essential starting and security documentation, I would like to see it officially recognize the more detailed and customized documents available in the community and make them accessible on its website.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most stable system I have ever worked with.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I changed jobs five months ago, and my new company uses Oracle Linux instead of Red Hat, so Oracle provides support rather than Red Hat.
I find Red Hat Enterprise Linux more flexible, with a larger community and numerous security advisors.
How was the initial setup?
We found it less complex to build a new system on the newer version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and migrate data rather than upgrading the existing system from, for example, version seven to eight. A simple upgrade risks data loss.
One person can do the upgrades and migrations.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
The system requires immediate maintenance due to necessary security patches, unresolved vulnerabilities, and a constant influx of operational tasks from other teams. These daily demands include critical adjustments such as modifying service ports and implementing local firewall rules.
I recommend new users visit the official Red Hat Enterprise Linux website to review the guides, explore the community, and research information related to their Red Hat Enterprise Linux tasks.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Enabled us to centralize development, all of our developers get their own developer environment
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for just about everything in my company. Our use cases stem from three-tier applications up through cloud deployments, Kubernetes, containers, etc. Prior to this, I worked in an enterprise as a Linux engineer.
How has it helped my organization?
Being able to onboard faster is definitely an advantage to other Linux systems. In the enterprise, we had an onshore and offshore model. Our offshore model was hard to get onboarded into Linux, even if they said they had Linux experience. There is a big difference between managing one or two systems in your basement to managing a fleet of Linux systems, and that does not always translate over. Having a Linux system that has a cockpit with it where you can give someone a GUI, even though the engineers do not really use it, helps onboard new people into the enterprise, into their jobs, and into their roles a lot faster.
We have a lot of really smart people. They are constantly figuring out ways to do things better and faster with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The openness of it and the ability to create whatever we want to create or have to create to make our actual job easier has given our operations people more time to focus on the things they need to focus on, and not the nitty-gritty of the operating system. Tuning becomes super easy. It is scriptable. It is easy to automate. That gives them all the time back in their day to be able to go solve cool problems and not infrastructure problems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. All of our developers get their own developer environment, and that is all based on containers and some version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It depends on what they are at and what they are doing. So, we build and give it to them. They are up and running, and they just go. We have some legacy guys who are still helping our customers with older versions. Those people exist. I talked to someone earlier who still has a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 deployment out there.
When it comes to security and compliance, I like firewalld to do things at the host level and to complement what we are doing out in the enterprise with next-gen firewalls and things like that. I have had SELinux enabled on my systems and in my enterprises since it was available. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but it has helped to keep our systems as secure as possible. It complements well with what security groups are doing for the rest of the enterprise.
The portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great for keeping our organization agile. It is fantastic. We can run them on-prem. We can run them in the cloud. We can move them wherever we need them at the time. If something has to go to the edge for any reason, such as a bandwidth issue or an on-prem issue in the data center, we can push those workloads out. We could push all those containers to where they need to run and when we need to run them. It is super easy to do.
I have not used Red Hat Insights for long, but when I was a Red Hat Insights user, it was the first place I stopped to see what was going on and be able to quickly address and fix issues that Red Hat Insights found.
Red Hat Insights provided us with vulnerability alerts and targeted guidance. In terms of their effect on our uptime, we were able to plan our maintenance windows around what we were seeing in Red Hat Insights. We had the visibility and the ability to go in and plan things out. We could plan what needs to be done and then make that change and say, "This is what we are doing. Here is the playbook for it. We are going to run this in tonight's maintenance window." That prevented us from having to take machines down during the day because we found something critical at that time.
What is most valuable?
The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that are most valuable to me, both in the enterprise and now as a partner, are the enterprise features. We are able to have a Linux system that is open-source and that allows us to do domain trust IBM and all that fun stuff. We have a good solid enterprise Linux.
What needs improvement?
It is not broken. Linux is Linux. It has been since Torvalds created the kernel back in version one of the kernel. We have added more features. More things have come to Linux and kernel. All the AI stuff is a bunch of buzzwords. In the keynote today at the Red Hat summit, Chris Wright talked about lightspeed coming to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. What do we need that for? What are we doing with AI? Just the stability of it is fine. If anything cool comes out, I will be the first to check it out. It is a stable platform. It is a workhorse, and that is how we use it.
However, there should be training materials for new enterprises that do not cost an arm and a leg. Red Hat training is phenomenal, but it is expensive. There has to be a better way to onboard new engineers into Linux to really and truly compete with Microsoft. Microsoft is just easy. Everyone uses it. You have to use it in school, and you have to use it everywhere. From an onboarding perspective, we can improve and have an affordable training solution for someone who might not want to be an RHCE or an RHCA but still needs to do their job. It is not Linux's fault. It is what it is. It is a workhorse. It does its thing, but we can do better to enable customers to utilize Linux better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. It has been about 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is super stable. When Red Hat comes out with lightspeed or integrates SELinux, there are no huge rollbacks. Once it makes it downstream in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you know that is going to work. Everything has bugs, and we get that, but we know it is going to work. We know that nothing terrible is going to happen to our production environment, so stability is fantastic.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can roll out more machines if we need more machines. We pull machines back if we do not need them anymore. One of the things that is lacking is that currently, there is no way to have ephemeral Linux instances for compliance month or your audit month. If you have to bring up a hundred machines, you have to pay for that upfront. That might be changing now, but in terms of scalability, that is a detriment to how smaller organizations can operate. Not everyone can absorb that cost. It is very scalable, but the pricing is a little prohibitive for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is awesome. Their TAMs are awesome. The technical support that you get is awesome. There is the ability to attach yourself to bigger customers. When you are a small enterprise and you have an issue, you sometimes filter to the bottom of that list because there are other way-bigger customers who are way louder than some of the smaller ones. Being able to talk to your team and ask how to get a problem fixed is phenomenal. They are able to look at the backend and go, "Oh, there is a large telco that is having the same problem. I am going to add you to that one." From a customer service standpoint and tech support specifically, engineering has been fantastic.
The ability to talk to the people out in the community who work for Red Hat and maintain all of that, from the open-source side and the closed-source side, is amazing. A lot of people do not realize that they can jump on Slack or other platforms, and they can talk to the guys who are responsible for it and figure out what is going on. Sometimes, they ask to open a case, and other times, they say that they know and they are fixing it. Having that accessibility is amazing. You cannot call Microsoft and ask them to let you talk to the engineer who made X, Y, or Z.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have been using Red Hat for 25 years.
How was the initial setup?
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux everywhere. We are using it on-prem. We call it the fourth cloud, so we have our own cloud like every enterprise does. They might realize that or not. We are using it everywhere. We have it at the edge, in the cloud, on-prem, and hybrid. It is the whole nine yards.
Our deployment strategy is to make it work and get it out there fast. We use all three cloud providers: GCP, Azure, and AWS.
Its deployment is super easy. Once you know what you need, rolling out Red Hat Enterprise Linux is super simple. You just go and repeat until you need to change something and then you change it.
We are using OpenShift to deploy Linux containers for a virtualization competitor migration. We are using it to migrate workloads from that vendor to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so we have Linux running in containers to do their virtualization. We are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux containers as well for some workloads, but for the bootable container aspects of it, we essentially have a VM. This is how we use it there, and then everything else is pure containerization. It is not Red Hat Enterprise Linux-specific.
What about the implementation team?
We take care of the deployment for customers.
When I was in the enterprise, we did not take external help. We did all of that in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI but not specifically with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the workhorse. Everything else that supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux is where you get your ROI. When you take Ansible, you start automating all of your configurations. You take Insights, and you are getting those playbooks to remediate security issues and all that fun stuff. That is where you get a return on your investment. That is where you see your engineering dollars go down and they can focus on other aspects of the business. That is not specific to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is the whole ecosystem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have had sales folks who have been transparent with the pricing, and then I have had other ones who were not as great. Most of those ones that were not as great are not working for Red Hat anymore.
From a pricing perspective, there is supportability. What you get with that support is the ability to open a case before you do something. You can tell them that you are going to be upgrading your Satellite system or all Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems and that you need a case open. They open a case, and then when the day comes, they are there. They are ready, and they know what is going on. The price point for that is phenomenal because you are paying for support. From a pricing perspective, it is on point. It is definitely a value-add, and it is extremely transparent from a customer standpoint.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated other solutions. Manageability is the main difference. I have successfully ripped out other solutions in enterprises that I went to and replaced them with Red Hat. They had large fleets and no centralized management. When you come to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you have the Red Hat Satellite server. You have Red Hat Insights. You have all of those things that help you manage large fleets and a large number of Linux machines. When you evaluate other solutions, they have some centralized management now, but that was not common previously. It is kind of a hodgepodge. They are stitched together with all these other solutions, but it does not make sense. In one case, they jammed Linux into their management platform used to manage databases, and it did not work. How do you manage a thousand machines on some busted piece of management software?
What other advice do I have?
If a colleague is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, they should go for something based on the use case. They have to look at what they are trying to do and what they want to do. They can get away with Fedora, for instance, but the question for me always comes down to supportability. Do they want to be able to call someone and say, "This is broken. Help. Hurry," or do they have the skills in-house to do that? Most companies do not have those skills. They have one or two very good engineers, but they cannot fix everything at the same time. If they want portability, then they should not look somewhere else. They should go to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because they have the Red Hat name behind it.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux an eight out of ten. There is always room for improvement in a product. Tens are unicorns. No one gets a ten. Maybe if Jesus made an operating system, he would get a ten.
Affordable, feature-rich, and has enabled us to centralize development
What is our primary use case?
We have a database that we maintain for root passwords, and sometimes I need to break the root password to reset it. We work a lot on logical volumes where I need to grow and shrink volumes on the fly. I did not have to shrink the logical volumes much, but I worked a lot on growing logical volumes on the fly to make them available for the database team. I have done network-related things. I configured network multipathing or IP multipathing where we can parallelly route the traffic to multiple ethernets.
I work a lot on user-related issues as well. We are also using Ansible a lot for automation. I am writing some playbooks, so there are a lot of use cases.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us a lot. We host a lot of our applications on the Red Hat platform. We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for both on-prem and VM platforms. Most of them are VMs, but we do have some old legacy systems where we have Linux running on some Dell architecture. Our goal is to get rid of them this year and implement everything on virtualization because virtualization is growing a lot.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. We are using it in the production and lower environments. We are using a common platform for our deployments. We have a centralized environment.
In terms of portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for keeping our organization agile, it is flexible. Agile methodologies are very popular nowadays, and they help with coordination between dev and production teams. It is fulfilling the gaps between these teams. It is helpful.
What is most valuable?
I see so many features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux that I do not see in other Linux operating systems, such as Ubuntu. That is why Red Hat is very popular. All my experience is mostly on the Red Hat side. In terms of features, I like breaking root passwords, and I like the XFS file system over ext4.
What needs improvement?
I have not used it on the cloud side. I have not heard much about how Red Hat is doing on the cloud side. In the market, AWS and Azure are very popular, and they have captured most of the market. If Red Hat can improve on the cloud side, they can retain their customer base. Their customers do not need to go out for other cloud resources, and they can use the Red Hat cloud.
We are using it on-prem and in the virtual environment on VMware. We are using a cloud, but it is not a Red Hat cloud. We are using AWS in our organization. We have some EC2 instances deployed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux images, but I cannot say it is a Red Hat cloud. It is an AWS cloud, and we have instances. We are depending on a third-party cloud. If Red Hat provides that kind of service to our company, we can retain Red Hat. We do not need to go for a public cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost 12 years. I started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable platform, but our company still wants to stick to the older version. They do not want to change the application base. They do not want to take risks. Unfortunately, Red Hat is not able to help to provide the patches for older versions. They suggest upgrading, but management is not doing that, so the Red Hat Enterprise Linux side is good, but our management side is bad.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is good. We plan to use it more. We are growing. As our infrastructure grows, we are buying more licenses.
How are customer service and support?
Their customer service is excellent. I like it. I am in touch with Ed who is one of the support engineers with Red Hat. He is helping me.
I am also in touch with a few other people at Red Hat. If I run into any issues, I can simply email them, and I get a quick response from them. Based on the support I am receiving, I would rate them 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 did not use any similar solution previously.
How was the initial setup?
We are using it on-prem and in the virtual environment on VMware. Our cloud provider is AWS.
We are using the CI/CD model for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are using blue/green deployments as well for our containerized applications, and we have some canary deployments.
My initial deployment experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux was not great. It was not as easy as the current version. It was difficult during those days. We had to load the GUI and then change to CLI. It is better now. Red Hat has made some improvements in the newer versions. The current version 9 looks better than any other previous version.
What about the implementation team?
I did not use any integrator or consultant. I downloaded an ISO image from Red Hat. I downloaded and installed it myself, and it worked very well. I did not run into any issues with the installation process.
What was our ROI?
Over the last few years, we have been within budget. We do not have any constraints about Red Hat. We are a big organization. We use a lot of products from different vendors. We are working on cost optimization for some of the vendors but not Red Hat, so Red Hat is still good. We are still happy with it.
The biggest return on investment is the customer base. We are in the telecom industry. We try to get as many customers as we can. Red Hat is not the only product that we are using, but it is a major product that we are using in our company.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are good as of now. We do not have any concerns about licensing. Its price is still good for us.
What other advice do I have?
We are not using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. We are using Kubernetes and Dockers for that.
When it comes to patching, our goal for 2024 is to make all the systems compliant. Especially at the infrastructure and application levels, I am actively working on the compliance tasks, and our goal is to fix all vulnerabilities. I am working with someone at Red Hat on some issues because I am not able to find the exact patch for certain vulnerabilities.
For now, we are happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are happy with what we are getting.
Overall, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux an eight out of ten. The reason for reducing two points is that I have not explored other operating systems very well.
Moving workloads is easy, helps save cost, and avoids cloud vendor lock-in
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-premises and in the cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
We are able to easily move workloads between the cloud and our data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us avoid cloud vendor lock-in.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has helped save us costs.
What is most valuable?
The frequent updates are valuable.
What needs improvement?
The training documentation requires revision. The numerous links to different pages disrupt the flow of information and make it difficult to maintain focus.
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good, but they need to work on their response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Windows and switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux for flexibility and support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
We have around 20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux users in our organization.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Offers portability, security, and stability
What is our primary use case?
We are a Red Hat Enterprise Linux partner and provide host servers for various applications, including web applications and databases.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features simplify risk reduction and compliance maintenance, making them easy to use. We utilize SA Linux, a highly secure operating system. Its risk mitigation and compliance measures are effectively implemented due to the regular delivery of patches, updates, and bug fixes. This continuous maintenance enhances the stability of the system.
We are able to maintain compliance when it comes to the security regulations.
The level of portability succeeds in keeping our organization agile.
We used several platforms, but Red Hat provides us with a more uniform installation process, a more consistent platform, and easier system maintenance. Additionally, the Ansible playbooks are now simpler to manage due to the standardization of our platform. We quickly realized the benefits of adopting a single platform instead of using multiple platforms. This decision has streamlined our operations and simplified license management for our sales department. Additionally, the purchase process has become more straightforward.
We operate a hybrid IT infrastructure consisting of both on-premises and cloud servers. We have had positive experiences with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which has enabled us to build and deploy applications with confidence and ensure their availability across physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
Red Hat Insights is a valuable tool for preventing emergencies caused by security vulnerabilities, non-compliant configurations, and unpatched systems. Although we haven't faced an emergency yet, we've noticed that the tool provides valuable advice and sometimes even playbooks to resolve security and stability issues. It's a powerful tool indeed.
Red Hat Insights provides us with vulnerability alerts and targeted guidance. All systems are stable and we have no crashes and no failouts.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable attribute is its stability.
What needs improvement?
A targeted package tailored for small and medium-sized businesses can help increase business.
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. We have been running the solution for years with no crashes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable. We have not encountered any issues. Since we are virtualized, it is merely a matter of allocating virtual CPUs, virtual memory, and so on. The limits are very high, so we are not currently experiencing any constraints.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched from our previous solution to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the uniformity of the platform. It is also a larger organization that is well known.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment is straightforward and well-documented. The deployment time is between 15 to 30 minutes.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
From what I've seen of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, it's well-documented. There are comprehensive notes and documentation available. I've been using it recently, and I've found that all the information I need is readily available. If we can't find what we're looking for, our support organization is there to help.
We have a virtual environment and deploy the solution from a satellite.
Currently, we require two people for the maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Convenient to use with good features and helpful support
What is most valuable?
One of the valuable features is that it's convenient.
The rest of its features are really nice.
Red Hat enables us to achieve security standards certification. We have been certified for the PPI certification last year.
Red Hat has been good when it comes to building with confidence and ensuring availability across our infrastructure. We are really confident about the security process.
It is implemented across multiple physical and virtual infrastructures. We have applied it on most production servers. They are integrated quite well.
We use the Red Hat system roles feature. We have been using this for automation purposes and to find some tests.
What needs improvement?
The response could be better for urgent issues. If there's an issue with live services, they need to be faster.
It would be nice to have antivirus services.
There should be more upgrades to the security features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for a long time. My organization has used it for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good. I'd rate it eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is decent. I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. Different teams and departments, including application and development teams.
We do not have plans to increase usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
I'm very happy with the technical support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have got some other open systems like CentOS. We just have most of our production services to ReadyX from CentOS and Oracle. Red Hat is more secure. The support is very nice as well.
How was the initial setup?
I joined the organization after deployment and wasn't involved in the implementation.
I'm not sure if the solution requires any maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not really involved in the pricing or the licensing. However, it may be expensive. We have different licenses.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated different options.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer and end-user.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Facilitates our compliance with security standard certifications.
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as our core operating system for hundreds of our critical systems including our databases, complete middleware, and over 500 VMs.
How has it helped my organization?
The portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux is exceptionally high due to the utilization of Java as the middleware and Oracle as the database. This enables seamless portability across various platforms, regardless of the specific infrastructure employed. As long as Oracle continues to provide support for a particular platform, the applications and containers can operate effectively on that platform. Therefore, the decision regarding the deployment platform rests solely with the company's preference.
The consolidation into a single operating system has brought about significant improvements. Previously, companies often had to manage three or four different operating systems, which was not only costly but also inefficient. With a unified operating system, we can now streamline operations and reduce the number of teams required for maintenance.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux facilitates our compliance with security standard certifications. We receive daily reports and recommendations specifically for applying security patches and related measures.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most used Unix platform in the cloud. We can build with confidence knowing that it is available across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures.
What is most valuable?
The integration with Oracle is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
The patching process with Red Hat is disruptive and not very cost-effective. This is why I would like to switch to Oracle Linux, which allows for security patching on a running system. This is a significant advantage of Oracle Linux over Red Hat. With Red Hat, we have to shut down all of our machines at least four times a year for large patches. Oracle acquired the technology for applying these online patches from MIT, and this technology is integrated into Oracle Linux. This allows for systems to be patched without disrupting the work of employees and their organization, which is a major improvement over Red Hat's patching process.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for over ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a stable operating system. In most cases, the issues we have encountered have been related to hardware, not the operating system itself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling Red Hat Enterprise Linux is easy. We have clusters and simply need to add machines to those clusters to scale.
We have more applications being added all the time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used HP for our database site before transitioning to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. As we were already utilizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our applications, it proved to be a more optimal choice for our database site as well.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have to pay for the support and features.
The distinguishing feature between open-source competitors and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the comprehensive support that Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides. Red Hat Enterprise Linux no longer faces competition from HP and Digital in terms of support services, as these companies have ceased offering their solutions. IBM remains the sole competitor, but they recently acquired Red Hat, essentially consolidating the support landscape.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux eight out of ten.
Numerous open-source Linux operating systems are available, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides robust support and a stable platform for large organizations that would benefit from the support.
Organizations should base their decision on which operating system to use for their specific requirements. For Windows or Oracle systems, the corresponding OS should be chosen for support reasons. For Unix systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides the best support.
When I first used Linux 1.0 over ten years ago, I was surprised at how well it worked. I never expected it to become so successful that it would surpass all the major Unix systems, but that is exactly what happened. Today, Linux is used for a wide variety of applications, regardless of the platform. This is due to its exceptional scalability and the low cost of hardware.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Enables users to increase the file systems dynamically and provides excellent support and subscription models
What is our primary use case?
I work in infrastructure. We have various use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We use it for the compute feature, which runs on some applications on the front end and databases on the back end.
What is most valuable?
LVM is a valuable feature. It enables us to dynamically increase the file systems or logical volumes. My journey with this feature started 10 to 12 years ago.
LVM is the reason why I started using the solution initially. Nowadays, there are a lot of applications. We can use clustering, security, and optimize security.
What needs improvement?
The product's availability is on the main cloud hyperscalers, like GCP, IBM Cloud, Azure, and AWS. The product should be made available on Oracle Cloud.
I would like to see Ansible as a default in future releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for 13 to 14 years.
How are customer service and support?
Although some questions are not business-critical and high priority, they are still urgent. The support identifies such questions as P3 or P4 incidents. Although there's no business impact, we depend on the support team for answers.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used SUSE Linux. We have also used open-source tools like Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS. We switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to its vast exposure to security vulnerabilities. Its support model, subscription model, and its support for HANA are valuable.
What other advice do I have?
We use the product on-premise, on IBM Cloud, and on Azure. The subscription model of the solution enables us to use hybrid environments. We can enjoy the benefits of the hybrid environment with the bring-your-own-subscription model.
We have plans for upgrades. We have a legacy Red Hat Enterprise Linux. One of the customers has version 5. We are trying to build an upgrade plan for it. We would like to know whether we can directly land on version 9 or if we should go step by step to each version.
The solution's built-in security features are exciting. I like that the solution covers the recent vulnerabilities in the CVEs. The solution should continue to do that.
Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Can be used for virtualization and multi-cloud environment integrations
What is our primary use case?
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for virtualization and multi-cloud environment integrations.
How has it helped my organization?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has improved our organization by at least 10% in the business unit and multiplies across the other business units as well.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are the mobile applications and getting real-time notifications. With other solutions, each cloud infrastructure is hard to manage with different notifications coming on, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux is able to go on-premises and cloud.
What needs improvement?
A lot of improvement is required to get security compliance, especially with the privacy of the data, managing it, and storing it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for five to seven years.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup involves initial hiccups going back and forth to the requirements and the architecture, but so far, so good.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Enterprise Linux regarding timely customer delivery, leading with innovation, and going into cloud solutions. It has progressed, and the maturity level has improved. So, we are learning as we go along this journey.
What other advice do I have?
A lot of improvement is required to get security compliance, especially with the privacy of the data, managing it, and storing it. I'm sure Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be able to improve in the future.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's effect on our system's uptime or security has been really positive. Especially with the customer's feedback coming out, I would definitely like to continue its usage.
It has enabled us to achieve 50% security standards certification. It doesn't fall into that domain, but the overall security policies do help integrate with it.
We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a hybrid-cloud environment. It has not yet supported our hybrid cloud strategy. It's still a work in progress, but I'm sure they will be able to do it in the future.
The knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux is really helpful, especially in connecting different cross-functional communities.
Our in-house monitoring services team with the network operating center manages our Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems regarding provisioning and patching. It has quite a good integration with Red Hat.
We have tried Red Hat Insights, and it's really helpful for the market competitive intelligence portal we have in-house and how it interacts with external parties.
We have tried Red Hat Enterprise Linux system roles, and it is helpful for on-time delivery.
We have tried the Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console. It has helped us 50%, and it still needs to be reviewed in more detail.
Overall, I rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux an eight out of ten.