Oracle VM and IBM PowerVM are leading competitors in virtualization technology. Although both have their unique offerings, IBM PowerVM stands out in resource allocation and high-performance stability, making it preferred for high-end enterprise applications.
Features: Oracle VM offers integration with Oracle databases, compatibility with diverse operating systems, and significant licensing flexibility, making it an attractive option for those invested in the Oracle ecosystem. In contrast, IBM PowerVM is recognized for resource allocation efficiency, Live Partition Mobility, and high availability, ensuring performance stability and minimal downtime.
Room for Improvement: Users of Oracle VM note the need for interface stability, enhanced backup functionalities, and better API support. Improved documentation for setup and use is also requested. Meanwhile, IBM PowerVM users highlight its high costs, calling for improved price competitiveness and enhanced automation features. They also suggest expanding GUI development, as reliance on command-line usage remains significant.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle VM is versatile in deployment across multiple environments, including clouds, though technical support feedback varies. Customer service experiences range from exceptional to adequate. IBM PowerVM is typically used in on-premise or private cloud setups, and although earlier support feedback was less favorable, users now find IBM’s support services adequate once issues are properly escalated.
Pricing and ROI: Oracle VM is often viewed as more cost-effective, particularly when used with Oracle hardware, benefiting from its open-source nature. This makes it appealing to budget-conscious enterprises. IBM PowerVM, while more expensive, justifies its higher initial costs through robust performance and stability. Despite this, some users may find its pricing a deterrent, especially when considering its favorable long-term reliability.
If calculated over a five-year period, IBM PowerVM is 30 to 40% more cost-effective than physical servers despite initial costs seeming high.
The return on investment is substantial, though other platforms may offer a better ROI, primarily due to lower costs involved in setup and maintenance.
IBM offers excellent customer support.
IBM provides strong support.
IBM's technical support is outstanding, with seamless global coordination and prompt resolutions.
The response time and quality of support could be improved.
An IBM server can handle up to sixty-four terabytes of RAM.
The product is scalable due to PowerVM's virtualization features, such as shared processor functionality and partition mobility.
I think IBM PowerVM uses a 'pay as you grow' model, allowing customers to scale their resources as needed.
The stability of IBM PowerVM is exceptional, as industry reports have named IBM Power and Z as the most stable platforms globally for 15 consecutive years.
Our clients in India using Power Servers have been running their servers for the last four to five years without any reboot.
The product operates reliably, and following IBM’s best practices ensures robust stability.
Not every upgrade goes smoothly, and after an upgrade, it sometimes stops working.
We have a strong relationship with IBM, which aids decision-making in transitioning clients from mainframe to other platforms.
From a product perspective, I would like to see faster certification of open-source products on IBM Power Systems.
PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features.
Compatibility with Apple laptops needs improvement as it currently doesn't work well on that platform.
Oracle VM provides automation capabilities in the new version.
Not every upgrade goes smoothly, and after an upgrade, it sometimes stops working.
PowerVM itself is free with the purchase of an IBM server.
They have introduced a subscription-based model for some systems, creating a more cost-effective solution for customers.
Pricing is a concern in Argentina due to the higher cost of mainframe solutions.
Oracle VM is not a very expensive solution.
Features like partition mobility enhance the machine's capabilities, making it an ideal tool for virtual environments with reliability, availability, and serviceability.
It supports specific workloads, like Oracle and SAP HANA, much better due to its shared processor pool feature which reduces licensing costs.
PowerVM excels in efficiently managing all systems and environments, including development, UI, and production.
If there is an issue with the operating system running on top of it, there's no primary and secondary domain, rather segregated I/Os, disks, memory, everything assigned to a logical domain.
Oracle VM's features perform better on Windows compared to iOS.
It is easy to copy or clone one Oracle workstation to another.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Oracle VM | 5.9% |
| IBM PowerVM | 1.4% |
| Other | 92.7% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 20 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 35 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 19 |
| Large Enterprise | 38 |
Oracle VM for x86
Oracle VM for x86 is a Xen based server virtualization platform for public and private cloud and traditional on premise deployment. Oracle VM offers full lifecycle and application deployment from disk to cloud.
Designed and optimized for security, efficiency and performance Oracle VM supports major hardware vendors x86 and storage platforms and can run workloads on Linux, Windows and Oracle Solaris. Uniquely for our virtualization platform it offers live patching via Ksplice enhancing security and minimizing service disruption. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.
Oracle VM for SPARC
Oracle VM for SPARC is a firmware based virtualization platform for Oracle and Fujitsu SPARC based servers running Solaris. Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs.
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