What is our primary use case?
We mostly use the solution for Oracle products, middleware, and databases.
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
Oracle VM is user-friendly and facilitates compliance with Oracle Licensing, a feature not provided by competitors like VMware or Hyper-V. Oracle prefers customers to use their technology. It is also easy to implement, clone, and deploy machines with Oracle VM, making it a convenient solution.
It offers numerous features in its commercial versions. Since it's open source and free, there are no licensing fees. Unlike VMware, a licensed product, you don't have to pay for additional features like Live Migration or high availability in Oracle VM. You can choose to pay for support, but no license is required.
What needs improvement?
Oracle VM offers a basic user interface for local VM management. However, enhancing usability and functionality requires additional features such as improved user-friendliness, expanded options, comprehensive reporting, and robust monitoring capabilities. Integration with backup and monitoring solutions is essential due to compatibility challenges with other applications and multiple solutions available in the market.
Oracle VM could provide integration with backup solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle VM for more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. Once implemented properly, it will function reliably. If there are any issues with the implementation, you may experience some instability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
We have 10-50 VMs with 1000-5000 users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
Support is good. Sometimes, the level one support staff who handle the tickets may lack sufficient knowledge. It seems they might be employing freshly graduated engineers. When dealing with complex security updates, it's occasionally necessary to escalate the issue to a higher-level manager or someone with deeper expertise in Oracle systems.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use Oracle Virtualization for Oracle products. It is compatible with Oracle, and we are compliant with Oracle. We have Hyper V from Microsoft and VMware. We chose Oracle mainly because it runs well with Oracle products. It's compatible with Oracle technology.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Oracle VM is straightforward. It's very well documented, and you can do it if you follow up on documentation. You don't need more than two weeks to deploy the solution.
You need to check hardware compatibility and thoroughly plan the deployment process. Additionally, network configuration and migration steps must be carefully planned and executed. It's essential to acknowledge and address potential complexities. What is your network configuration, how is it set up, and how do we design your network? Network impact is significant, as are VLANs and these things. Once you have everything on paper, you can start to implement it. If it's VM migration, you will get a new VM. You start deploying a new application if it's the exact migration. Then, you must follow the migration steps to visit the application from where you come. One of the applications will give you steps to move from one system to a different one.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Oracle VM is a virtualization solution that facilitates moving operating systems between different platforms. However, it's not an automatic process and requires some preparation and configuration, including data migration. When transitioning from platforms such as Unix to Linux, it involves more than just a simple copy-paste operation. Complexity varies depending on the specific circumstances.
What other advice do I have?
Going from different platforms is not an automatic process. Migration depends on the complexity. It's not simply copy-paste; we must prepare, configure, and migrate data.
If you're using Windows or Oracle IBM, you may face challenges because Oracle VM is primarily designed for Linux machines. Even though Oracle supports hosting Windows VMs on it, I think it doesn't work well. Unlike VMware and Hyper-V, which are more versatile, Oracle VM performs best when used with Linux and Oracle products.
The solution's maintenance is easy.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud