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Principal Infrastructure Engineer at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Has good security, management, stability, and hardening features
Pros and Cons
  • "For us, its security, management, stability, and hardening are most valuable."

    What is our primary use case?

    My organization has different departments. In my department, we mostly work with containerization. I am using Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a part of OpenShift. I use the basic package and base image of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    For scale-up in our platform, we use CoreOS as the master, and for the workers, we use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux service. From OpenShift version 4.10 onwards, we cannot use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 worker nodes. We were using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 worker nodes, so we upgraded to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. 

    For OpenShift, there are some recommendations from Red Hat in terms of what needs to be used for the control plane and what needs to be used for the worker nodes. When you are using CoreOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux worker nodes, there are some difficulties in managing them. For example, when you upgrade OpenShift, you need to upgrade two times. The control plane is upgraded separately because it uses CoreOS. The control plane has a lot of certificate updates that will in turn be updated on the worker nodes, so you have one restart of all worker nodes, and then when you need to upgrade your worker nodes, there will be one more restart. 

    Overall, you have two reboots in your production environment, which is an issue, but it is related to your choice of product in your environment. We have this issue because we opted to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 worker machines, whereas Red Hat recommends using CoreOS because it is pretty fast in terms of rebooting and functionality. When you upgrade the control plane, that itself will update the worker nodes, so you are done in one shot. When you need to upgrade your Red Hat Enterprise Linux machines, you need to use the Ansible Playbook. You can then upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, or any other version. Regardless of the versions, you can upgrade the operating system and the OpenShift version. For this purpose and for some ad-hoc activities, we are using Ansible Playbooks.

    What is most valuable?

    For us, its security, management, stability, and hardening are most valuable. All of these features are better in Red Hat Enterprise Linux as compared to Microsoft Windows.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very good in terms of risk assessment. It is also good for maintaining compliance. It is better than Microsoft Windows.

    What needs improvement?

    From the administration perspective, I do not have any issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For me, it is more convenient than Microsoft Windows.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    My organization has been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a long time. They have been using it before I joined the organization.

    Buyer's Guide
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    May 2025
    Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
    857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is pretty good in terms of stability. It is a stable product. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability because sometimes the packages can have bugs.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Its scalability is good. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of scalability.

    How are customer service and support?

    We never encountered any issues while using OpenShift.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have mostly been working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 

    How was the initial setup?

    I have been involved in the deployment of OpenShift. It is pretty straightforward. We just need to get the licensing, and we just need to create a pool for our containers session in Red Hat Satellite. We can do the configuration from there. It does not take long because we are adding the nodes to OpenShift. During the scale-up process, we only need to subscribe to the nodes with the Red Hat subscription. It does not take much time. If we have a good spec, the scale-up would not take much time. It would take less than twenty minutes. It is pretty fast.

    In terms of maintenance, when we have the bug report, we need to do the security assessments. Over time, there might be some bugs related to some packages. At that time, if it is critical, we will be scheduling a maintenance activity on our platform. 

    Red Hat provides high availability from the application perspective. You get high availability when you are using OpenShift, so when you are doing a maintenance activity on the OpenShift side, there would not be any downtime. The high availability is very good. For the end-users, there would not be any application outages if you configure your application with proper replicas. They would not even realize that there is a maintenance activity happening to the underlying workers.

    What about the implementation team?

    It was implemented in-house.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did not evaluate other solutions. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the choice of most of the companies.

    What other advice do I have?

    If you want to integrate with OpenShift or build an OpenShift cluster with the master Red Hat Enterprise Linux and worker Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can do that, but you need to plan your upgrade or maintenance activities. It would be better if you choose CoreOS for both. CoreOS would be a better choice in terms of maintenance activities or upgrade activities in the future. If you cannot afford that, you can go with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system, but you need to do two upgrades. You first need to upgrade the control plane and then you need to separately update your worker nodes. That is the only thing you need to keep in mind.

    I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

    PeerSpot user
    reviewer2197374 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Solution Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Provides a cohesive ecosystem and has an excellent support team
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution's operating systems are phenomenally resilient and stable. The good part is that Red Hat has backing and support. Also, combined with IBM, it gives more confidence to my customers."
    • "The solution's ecosystem is good but it would be better to create cohesive components in all of the development tools."

    What is our primary use case?

    RHEL is a phenomenal operating system for three primary reasons: 

    • Support compared to the rest of the Linux ecosystem
    • Cohesive ecosystem 
    • Application platform

    The combination of these three aspects has proven to me from an advising perspective that it is key in decision-making.  

    How has it helped my organization?

    Our clients purchase the use cases via cloud provider and hyper-scale. It's a combination of both. Mostly, new clients prefer going for hyper scalers. Whereas the clients with Red Hat licenses, predominantly those from the banking sector, transfer the licenses to the cloud depending on their hyper scaler plan.

    The main benefits my clients have seen are the supportability, maintenance of the operating system, security, and the ecosystem that ties it all together.

    What is most valuable?

    The solution has a phenomenal operating system. Its support features are best compared to the rest of the Linux ecosystem. Generally, applications don't rely on operating systems per se. When combined with the container ecosystem, security is the paramount feature that is most asked for.

    The problems our clients try to solve by implementing Red Hat Enterprise Linux vary. The main ones include containerization, cloud transformation, and visual transformation in terms of how you get to the cloud in a hybrid mode. The key aspect that I give advice about is how for the operating system in terms of the scalability to bridge the cloud to the on-prem world, so where they could have the OpenShift ecosystem that it runs into and helps them manage both systems together. 

    The solution's operating systems are phenomenally resilient and stable. The good part is that Red Hat has backing and support. Also, combined with IBM, it gives more confidence to my customers.

    What needs improvement?

    The solution's ecosystem is good but it would be better to create cohesive components in all of the development tools. 

    A developers' hub feature would help. 

    OpenShift already provides excellent visibility, but bridging the gap with Kubernetes would be key because Red Hat Enterprise Linux drives OpenShift.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I'm a big open-source user. I've been using different forms of Linux for quite some time. For my enterprise purpose, I use the RHEL for other purposes and a few other different Linux operating systems. We have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for more than ten years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have experience working with Ubuntu, Fedora, Canonical, etc. From that perspective, the solution's stability is good. The security feature plays a key role in terms of the pace at which it receives updates for operating systems to maintain it.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    In terms of the architectural perspective, the nature of the solution is scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    The solution's technical support is very good. My clients generally manage it, and I have received positive feedback. They have a responsive support organization to communicate with.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have used Canonical and Ubuntu. In comparison with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu's ecosystem consists of multiple operating systems and container platforms like MicroK8s. The partnership with hyper scalers in terms of deployment is one of its benefits as well. On the flip side, it has some drawbacks regarding licensing and export control, where Red Hat shines well.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The solution's pricing and licensing are good. Although the open-source space is becoming more competitive, Red Hat brings value in terms of support. At the same time, different operators like Canonical Kubernetes are catching up. Thus, the price would become the differentiation factor regarding packages for support, and container ecosystem combined with Ansible. All these key elements would add more value to the pricing.

    What other advice do I have?

    The solution's key element is its cohesive ecosystem between hybrid and cloud environments. It helps clients such as giant banks create a single space for managing workloads in different hyper scalers. This way, it helps in cost management and visibility. It creates a single platform to manage work. It helps in saving costs, especially with subscription plans. It provides them with a consistent cost structure. Also, being an open-source solution has benefits that fit within the ecosystem.

    I rate it an eight out of ten, primarily for the support and licensing terms. It helps some of our enterprise clients navigate open-source licensing and export control complexities.

    There are areas of improvement, such as the cycle of updates and the ecosystem as a whole. Also, the elements like Ansible are priced separately. For automation, there is an opportunity to combine everything. Even though they are different products, they shouldn't be charged separately from the ecosystem perspective.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    May 2025
    Learn what your peers think about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
    857,585 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Russell Burgos - PeerSpot reviewer
    Compute And Storage Associate Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    We can dynamically expand volumes and easily scale, and the solution offers excellent support
    Pros and Cons
    • "Logical volumes allow us to dynamically expand volumes, which is valuable from an operational perspective."
    • "The price has room for improvement."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are currently using Red Hat Enterprise Linux's versions 6, 7, and 8. We run the OS both on-prem and in the cloud.

    We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux for web applications, containers, Kubernetes, and simple scripting servers. The scripting servers are used to run scripts on run drops and so on. However, the biggest use cases are containers and web app workloads.

    The cloud providers are AWS and Alibaba.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Red Hat helps our organization avoid cloud vendor lock-in because we can run Kubernetes and a few different workloads directly on Red Hat across different cloud providers. Since Red Hat is an operating system, we can migrate our workloads to any cloud provider that supports Red Hat.

    Avoiding vendor lock-in and being able to move workflows between cloud providers has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is easy to recover, especially from a backup. I believe this is because of its resilience. If I use an instance, I can go to my backups and restore it without much trouble. I was going to compare it to Windows for a moment, where there might be some additional steps required to clean things up after recovery. However, I haven't had many issues where I needed to do any cleanup afterward.

    It is easy to move workloads between the cloud and our data center using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The ease of migration depends on the cloud provider and what they allow us to do. However, for the most part, replication-based migration between cloud providers or on-premises works well. 

    What is most valuable?

    Linux is good for hardening the operating system. Logical volumes allow us to dynamically expand volumes, which is valuable from an operational perspective. This is especially true in cloud environments, where we pay for every kilobyte of storage. By using logical volumes, we can expand the disk on demand without downtime, which can help us keep costs down.

    What needs improvement?

    The price has room for improvement.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for three years, but I have known about the OS since version four.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is definitely resilient and easy to recover, especially when compared to Windows. I enjoyed working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux more than Microsoft Windows, especially because of its resilience.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux's scalability is easy to manage. We can simply spin up more instances as needed, and then turn them off when we no longer need them. This means that Red Hat Enterprise Linux's scalability is not as much of an issue with the cloud provider.

    We have around 2,500 instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux in our environment.

    How are customer service and support?

    Red Hat support is generally good, but it can sometimes take a little longer than we would like to get a response, especially when the issue is through a web-based chat.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The on-premises deployments are subscription based, and the cloud instances are from the providers which are AWS and Alibaba.

    We can always ask for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be less expensive but when we compare it to other options, there are savings in the long run.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux was our first choice because of its enterprise support. That was the key factor. We do also run other Linux distributions, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux is our primary choice because of the enterprise support. 

    The big difference between Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Linux-based operating systems is the support. There isn't much difference other than the syntax, where the command is "at, get" versus Red Hat using YUM or DNF for installation. So outside of that, the support is the main difference.

    What other advice do I have?

    I give Red Hat Enterprise Linux a nine out of ten. No solution is perfect, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very close.

    Our engineering team probably used the image-building tool. I am on the operations side, so I do not see that part of the process. I take the images that are already built and deploy them.

    I think it's just a workflow issue. We need to improve our own workflows to be able to manage them better. Red Hat support is already good when we encounter something we're unfamiliar with. So, we need to get Enterprise CoreOS from Red Hat for those cases. I think as we encounter more of our own workloads, we'll need to improve our workflows even further.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

    PeerSpot user
    reviewer2585547 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Systems Reliability Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Real User
    Helps reduce our total cost of ownership due to its security, stability, and enterprise support
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable aspects of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are the security and stability it provides."
    • "I encountered an issue updating the time zone for one of my assigned countries due to a daylight-saving time change."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to provide a Platform as a Service for our customers in the cloud, upon which we have built additional software. This encompasses Red Hat and Synthos, including all Red Hat derivatives.

    We also use it for our security-related applications primarily due to the robust enterprise support and comprehensive security features it offers.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerized workloads has increased security, stability, and trust, ultimately simplifying our work.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux enhances the reliability and security of our hybrid cloud environment.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux performs well for our business critical applications.

    We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for our environment due to its robust built-in security features, including proactive security fixes and an enterprise-class operating system with reliable support services that enhance security and reduce risk. Furthermore, the secure base OS Docker image strengthens our environment's overall security posture.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps reduce our total cost of ownership due to its security, stability, and enterprise support. The tightly integrated Red Hat portfolio simplifies working with their products and achieving the desired return on investment.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable aspects of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are the security and stability it provides.

    What needs improvement?

    I encountered an issue updating the time zone for one of my assigned countries due to a daylight-saving time change. Although we collaborated with Red Hat to build a package that addressed the issue, it wasn't delivered promptly, necessitating manual workarounds to resolve the problem.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost 15 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is exceptionally stable, minimizing the risk of outages or issues stemming from the operating system itself. This reliability allows it to run seamlessly in the background, freeing administrators from constantly addressing kernel bugs or faults in core system applications, ultimately saving significant time and manpower.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers flexibility to scale as required.

    How are customer service and support?

    My experiences with Red Hat technical support have been mostly positive, though I've encountered some issues occasionally.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is suitably priced with various support tiers to match organizational needs and environments.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.

    When considering a Linux operating system, the choice depends on the intended use. For enterprise environments requiring dedicated support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is recommended. Smaller projects or testing environments may start with a similar option and transition to Red Hat as the business grows.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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    PeerSpot user
    Infrastructure Technology System Engineer
    Real User
    Top 10
    Easy to use with good command line capabilities and offers easy access for admins
    Pros and Cons
    • "There are millions of commands you can use, although we use only five or ten."
    • "Maybe they need to make it easier to apply patches from different resources. That said, at my level of usage, I never have to apply patches."

    What is our primary use case?

    We have almost thirteen servers. There are SaaS applications installed on this server. We leverage Java and the functionality during installation. We install it on the platform and configure it there. Some are custom applications. Our database is also in the Red Hat Linux environment. 

    How has it helped my organization?

    The solution offers users easy access. It's very simple to have and use, from an admin perspective. 

    What is most valuable?

    The offering provides me with all I need to serve the operation in terms of usage and capabilities. 

    The general user commands are good. They are helpful for starting and stopping applications and restarting and editing files. The maintenance of user-level processes is easy. 

    We're not using it in a graphical environment, we're only using command line mode. There may be a lot of features, however, I don't use everything since I don't need to. 

    There are millions of commands you can use, although we use only five or ten.

    Likely the solution has helped our organization save on costs. I'm not sure by how much, as I don't have visibility into that aspect.

    It's very easy to use across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructure. Specifically, on the cloud side, I have noted it's quite easy. Also, on a virtual machine, you can create a cloud version of your infrastructure in a minute. 

    What needs improvement?

    For my work, the solution is not missing any features. We;re only using the command line and that is enough for us. 

    Maybe they need to make it easier to apply patches from different resources. That said, at my level of usage, I never have to apply patches. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used the solution for almost ten years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It's a stable product.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    While I'm maintaining 30 servers, there are hundreds of servers in use. 

    The scalability is good. We are able to increase capacity and functionality based on our demands. 

    I'm not sure if the company has plans to increase usage in the future.

    How are customer service and support?

    I don't directly deal with technical support. I might send a ticket to my side, and if they have to, they would be the ones to reach out to Red Hat. 

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We used Oracle Linux before we moved over to Red Hat Linux. We likely switched due to costs and licensing. We also use Windows extensively. Since we used the same architecture, we didn't need to use any third-party applications.

    How was the initial setup?

    As an admin, I was not involved in the setup process. 

    If there is any maintenance needed, we get support from the Red Hat team.  If anything comes up on the operating side, our team will take care of it. 

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I'm only using this solution as an admin and, therefore, have no visibility on costs. 

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did not evaluate other options before choosing this solution.

    What other advice do I have?

    I'm an end-user of the solution. I had admin-level access to the product.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not enable us to achieve security standard certification.

    I'd rate the solution ten out of ten. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

    PeerSpot user
    reviewer2304561 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Lead Cloud Platform Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Gives us the confidence that our packages are legitimate and genuine
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable feature is the package management. It helps a lot. I also like the support."
    • "It's getting easier for the community to use it free of charge. If you have an account, you get to use it. It would be better if the community could use it on their own for lab projects."

    What is our primary use case?

    My primary use case is for web applications and database applications. I've come across quite a few use cases at different companies.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature is the package management. It helps a lot. I also like the support. 

    Red Hat is a Linux-supportive and well-managed offering. It helps a lot in terms of when we're working in production, it gives us the confidence that our packages are legitimate and genuine and we always have support available. It helps a lot. Red Hat Enterprise Linux gives peace of mind compared to other unsupported Linux distributions. 

    I also like Red Hat Satellite. 

    I haven't used Insights yet but it seems interesting. 

    The ability to patch Red Hat Enterprise Linux through Satellite is a huge contributor to mitigating all of the compliance requirements.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux has absolutely affected our security's uptime. None of the other distributions are nearly close to what you can get with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is something that helps a lot in ensuring that your secure application is up all the time and that you're not getting hit by vulnerabilities. It is an easier way for you to mitigate vulnerabilities when they're around.

    The knowledge base is very useful. The only thing is that you need to have an account to get access. In terms of the content, the relevance, and being able to use the knowledge base to address things I've needed to deal with, it's awesome. For example, I was trying to add proxy configuration to the package manager once and if it wasn't for the knowledge base, I wouldn't have been able to do it.

    What needs improvement?

    I like it the way it is. 

    It's getting easier for the community to use it free of charge. If you have an account, you get to use it. It would be better if the community could use it on their own for lab projects.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux since 2011. It's been 12 years. 

    How are customer service and support?

    On the few occasions I needed to reach out to support, I was very satisfied.  

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have used Linux distributions but when it comes to the work I'm doing at my company, we always use Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 

    The biggest differences between Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the other OS' are the support, Satellite, Insights, and the fact that Ansible was acquired by Red Hat so you can use all its automation and toolings. The entire ecosystem works very well together.

    What other advice do I have?

    Red Hat has not personally enabled me to achieve security standard certifications in the projects I've worked on but I could see how it would help. 

    I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. I really like it. 

    We do a lot of patching and upgrading with Ansible and we keep the host up to date all the time.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

    PeerSpot user
    IT Infrastructure Manager at Linuxfault
    Real User
    Top 5
    We get great support, and stability, and it helps us save costs
    Pros and Cons
    • "The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas."
    • "Upgrading between versions needs to be easier."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run our GS and PSP applications.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps us avoid cloud vendor lock-in.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux helped us save on costs. 

    What is most valuable?

    The support and the stability are Red Hat Enterprise Linux's most valuable areas.

    What needs improvement?

    Upgrading between versions needs to be easier. For example, if we have Red Hat Seven running now and a Java exploit is found on Red Hat Seven, we need to be able to upgrade to Red Hat Nine online without any downtime in the environment. This is because it is not possible to reinstall the environment from Red Hat Seven to Red Hat Nine in production without causing downtime to the applications. Red Hat needs to have tools that ensure that we can upgrade from Red Hat Seven to Nine online without any issues.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for almost seven years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is extremely stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is scalable. We have around 1,790 end users.

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support is quick to respond.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    We previously used Proxmox and switched to Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the price.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward because it is well-documented. The deployment time depends on the application. A small application can take around 20 minutes.

    What about the implementation team?

    The implementation was completed in-house.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The cost is based on each organization's budget and infrastructure.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux nine out of ten.

    The ease of moving workloads between the cloud and our data center depends on the application architecture. If the application has a monolithic infrastructure, it may be easier to move to the cloud. However, if the application is already running mostly in the data center, it may be more difficult because we would need to recreate all of the infrastructure and topology from scratch. This is because there are so many parts to consider when migrating a microservices-based application to the cloud.

    For someone who wants to use an open source Linux operating system, I would recommend Rocky Linux. However, they should be aware that open source solutions do not come with the same level of support as Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    Four network team members are required to maintain Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

    The Red Hat knowledge base is good and well-documented.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the only Linux solution that is supported for enterprise-level organizations. I recommend this solution for large organizations that want professional support for their Linux systems.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

    PeerSpot user
    reviewer2197278 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Linux Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Simplifies risk reduction and aids in maintaining compliance with industry standards and regulations
    Pros and Cons
    • "The robust networking capabilities offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux were highly valuable. They have numerous partnerships and dedicated efforts in low-latency technologies, which are particularly beneficial for trading firms. They possess extensive expertise in external tuning and similar aspects."
    • "Having an image that includes all the necessary software and provisioning it so that subsequent updates provide the updated image, would significantly enhance the developer experience. It would be great if teams could make modifications and changes to the image, like rebasing. I think it would be an awesome feature."

    How has it helped my organization?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux specifically was a hard requirement for certain software that we wanted to utilize. In fact, purchasing Red Hat’s enterprise version was necessary to run AP. That was the primary objective.

    Apart from that, the robust networking capabilities offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux were highly valuable. They have numerous partnerships and dedicated efforts in low-latency technologies, which are particularly beneficial for trading firms. They possess extensive expertise in external tuning and similar aspects.

    What is most valuable?

    Overall, the reliability stands out the most for me. While the package selection might be somewhat restricted, it is highly integrated and cohesive.

    What needs improvement?

    I'm really excited about some of the developments happening in the workstations and the Fedora Silverblue space. There are advancements like rpm-ostree and the OCI container format, which enable deploying RHEL in new ways.

    As we have numerous developer workstations, being able to deploy them in an image-based format is highly desirable. This would allow us to use the "toolbox" concept, where developers can choose any desired operating system within the toolbox. Some of our developers also work with Ubuntu and Oracle Linux. Having a consistent developer platform with full pseudo permissions and zero permissions within that container or toolbox would be beneficial.

    Additionally, having an image that includes all the necessary software and provisioning it so that subsequent updates provide the updated image, would significantly enhance the developer experience. It would be great if teams could make modifications and changes to the image, like rebasing. I think it would be an awesome feature.

    Let me provide an example of why this would be valuable for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation. We recently switched from one security software application to another similar application on our workstations. We had to manually remove the unwanted software and install the new one. It was manageable for servers or edge devices, but for remote devices that are not always on the network or VPN, it became a cumbersome task to reach out to each device and remove and install the software. If we could update an image with the old software removed and the new software installed, and then allow users to update their image, it would simplify the process for everyone. Currently, it's possible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Edge, but it would be fantastic if this capability could be extended to Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation as well. That's what would be really cool.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    The company has been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a significant period of time. As for myself, it's been around five years or so. I have also contributed to GNOME. About ten years ago, I was one of 12 individuals who wrote documentation for GNOME 3.

    I don't think we are leveraging Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud. Since we are primarily involved in trading, our infrastructure is predominantly on-premises, accounting for about 80%. We have our own data centers. While we do have some cloud workloads and our cloud presence is growing, it isn't a major focus in my role. I serve as the lead engineer for 700 developer workstations that run Linux. For parts that use Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cloud, we are split between different cloud providers, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

    For the most part, we are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, which we support alongside Ceph and a bit of AAP. Apart from that, there is still a significant amount of CentOS 7 in use as people are gradually transitioning away from it.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is good. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is impressive. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

    How are customer service and support?

    The customer service and support were pretty good. We encountered an issue, and we involved some people for assistance. In retrospect, we should have engaged higher-level support sooner for that specific issue. Support can be challenging when you're dealing with Linux problems, especially in our environment where we have a lot of skilled engineers; it feels like we're already operating beyond the normal troubleshooting space. So having access to escalated help when we need it is valuable. The support fixed our problem.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was complex because we were using a newer version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the server team's workloads. Normally, we go with Red Hat Enterprise Linux for hardware, but this time we got a better deal from a different vendor whose IPMI Redfish interface wasn't as advanced as Red Hat Enterprise Linux's. This caused some issues specifically related to deploying the newer version. However, once we managed to overcome most of those challenges, the use of Ansible for OS deployment became more straightforward.

    What about the implementation team?

    For the OS component, we worked directly with Red Hat. However, we utilized a company called Bits, based in Elk Grove, Illinois, to handle the hardware provisioning and setup.

    What was our ROI?

    We've seen an ROI. For instance, we were able to run a storage workload on one cluster that had an immense capacity. I calculated it to be the equivalent of either 16,000 iPads or 64,000 iPads. It was a significant amount. This capability is beneficial for us as we deal with a lot of trading data. We can perform analytics and machine learning workloads on it, which aids in compliance and enables traders to make more informed trades. It's a win-win situation.

    The compliance aspect ensures that we stay out of trouble, and the machine learning capabilities help traders make better trades, which ultimately contributes to our success. I'm glad that they make money. It's wonderful.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Red Hat is making efforts to simplify the SKU system, which is a positive development. It's beneficial to have the flexibility to allocate a certain budget to explore different licenses within the Red Hat ecosystem. We can try out products and decide if they meet our needs. If they don't, we can decommission the corresponding SKU. I have noticed that we have some Red Hat entitlements that we are not currently utilizing, so having granularity in the SKU structure would be an advantage.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    For our specific use cases, certain products like SAP, AAP, and OpenShift require Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That played a significant role in our decision.

    What other advice do I have?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s built-in security features, in terms of simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance, are an area where I've observed some of the developments with Satellite and Red Hat Insights. But since we have different operating systems, such as Windows, Mac, Linux, and a mix of server and desktop environments, I'm not sure if Satellite or Insights can integrate seamlessly with all these platforms. Currently, we use a different product to assess our CVE vulnerabilities across hosts, including phones and other devices. I do find the discussions about software supply chain security intriguing. Focusing on that aspect seems really promising.

    The portability of applications and containers, specifically for those already built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, seems pretty good. Red Hat offers UBI images that are freely available without the need for licensing. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and container platforms provide a solid setup for portability.

    Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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    Buyer's Guide
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    Updated: May 2025
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.