When we are looking for Linux servers or developers need Linux, we have standardized around Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We do not use Ubuntu or any random flavors of the day. If it is a Linux deployment, it is Red Hat.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP with HA and Update Services 9.2
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An enterprise solution for standardization, compliance, and great support
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It helps with standardization. If someone comes to us and requests a Linux server, we have one product offering. We have a couple of different flavors of it, but people know what they are getting from us. The consistency, reproducibility, and standardization of it have been fantastic.
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-prem and on the cloud. We have it in Azure, VMware, and on-prem. We have it on bare metal. It is all over the place. Our operations are simpler, more efficient, and easier to handle. Our Linux team now supports one OS rather than a whole bunch of flavors that everyone has brought in. It has just made things more efficient and simplified.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has enabled us to centralize development. Those developers are now developing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Previously, we had people who were developing on Ubuntu and trying to push Ubuntu to production, but we did not necessarily support it. Red Hat Enterprise Linux gave us a clear path to production. Our developers also get an easier experience. They know which OS to use and what they are using from day to day. There is less confusion for developers.
We are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for containerization projects. It has helped with simplification. We do not have to create too many of our own custom container definitions and do our own thing. We use minimal images and whatever is provided is supported under our subscription. It simplifies things and puts guidelines around things.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux's built-in security features are good when it comes to risk reduction, business continuity, and maintaining compliance. We use Red Hat Satellite to manage our Linux. That makes it all very simple. There is a feature called OpenSCAP. We use it for security scanning. All the features that they provide on top of the base OS make it very easy to manage.
The portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux is great for keeping our organization agile. We know we can rely on that middle layer. We can start with the container and then build on top of that. Having a solid and standard foundation makes it all easy to do.
What is most valuable?
The enterprise aspect of it is valuable. There is security patching, security scanning, and compliance. There are all kinds of features around managing and keeping it up-to-date and secure. Everything is in a box for us from Red Hat which makes it very easy to manage them.
What needs improvement?
It is constantly improving. It is important to continue to improve. That is another reason I like it. They are using newer kernels, which gives us access to newer hardware. They are already doing that. I cannot pretend to tell them what to do better. They can just keep on doing what they are doing.
For how long have I used the solution?
Personally, I have been using it for about 12 years. I have only been with my company for about four months, but I know they also have been using it for years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. They define scalability. I am a basic user. I just deploy more VMs if I need to. It is easy to do. Its scalability is great.
How are customer service and support?
They are great. I would rate them a ten out of ten. A big selling point is that when you submit a support ticket, you know you are reaching out to experts. That is great, and that is one of the primary reasons we went with Red Hat.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In my company, they were using AWX for automation, and we moved them to AAP. For Linux, I was a part of a project to migrate some of the other operating systems over to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I am on the tail end of the move or standardization to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
There were a lot of Ubuntu operating systems in the environment, but they had challenges standardizing around it. There were different versions. There was also CentOS, but it was old CentOS. They are naturally moving that to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The support and the standardization around it were the main reasons for going for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. CentOS is more of a community thing now, whereas we can call Red Hat and they help us with everything. The support and the enterprise features we needed pointed at Red Hat Enterprise Linux rather than CentOS. It is a better choice for production.
How was the initial setup?
We deploy them from AAP and then we deploy them into VMware. We deploy them into Azure, which is our main provider. We do that all orchestrated through Ansible and Satellite.
What about the implementation team?
We have outsourced support. TCS is a general contractor, but for Red Hat deployments, we generally go with Red Hat Consulting. We just finished a consulting engagement with them for that. I know they have used them in the past prior to me being here. We generally just use Red Hat Consulting.
What was our ROI?
We have standardization. I know what I am walking into every day. I know there is support behind it. There is the support of Red Hat and the community behind it. I feel confident using Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I might use other Linux operating systems at home, but a lot of the time, there is no documentation for them. There might be three guys in a forum from ten years ago who may have talked about my problem. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, when I am going to work, I know what I am walking into. I can feel safe and assured using something industry standard that works, and I can get help with it very easily. It makes life a lot easier.
Our total cost of ownership across our enterprise landscape has gone up because we were using a lot of mixed and free open-source solutions. However, there was an extra cost of operations and extra cost of hiring for specialized skills and things like that. With the Red Hat portfolio, I feel that we spend more on subscriptions, and we save in terms of efficiency and operations. I feel that we spent some money to save money on the backend, and I hope that is how it ended up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do node counts for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. I am gathering data for our decision-makers about how many nodes we need and how many things we need. Once or twice a year, they ask us to true up and find out how many nodes we are using and what the actual consumption is. I then report that, and then the account team usually works on the money part of it. I just work on the count.
What other advice do I have?
We use Red Hat Insights a little bit. I am more of an Ansible guy, and we use Red Hat Insights for our licensing and a few other things. We have not been using Red Hat Insights as much as we wanted to. I know that on the Linux side, they are using it a lot for license count, monitoring, and other things.
I feel we are underutilizing Red Hat Insights. Our account executive has shown how it works and where it is, but we have not committed to it yet. That is coming soon. As we gain more Red Hat products and standardize more, we will have to rely on a single pane like that, so we will be using it more. I know that Red Hat Insights provides vulnerability alerts and targeted guidance, but we are not utilizing it right now.
To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say to go for whatever they find to be the best. My standard for an enterprise solution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It works very well, but they have to make sure that it fits their use case. Fortunately, Red Hat Enterprise Linux fits most use cases. They might end up there, but if there are licensing or cost restrictions, there are other free options, such as CentOS. The ecosystem of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is healthy, so I would recommend it, but if they want to use something else, they need to come up with all the standards around that.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. It is my preferred enterprise operating system. Everywhere I go, they are using it. It has been great. There are no complaints.
stable enterprise Linux for production work loads
RHEL 4 Life <3
I am also concerned about the new state actor supply chain attacks that must almost be impossible to defend. How can RHEL help to sure up packages used by things like SSH to ensure secure communications.
Used it for years, best distro in my opinion
Fast, Reliable, Stable, Secure, Doesn't need reboots :)
Cost reduction in licensing
Paves a path for other RedHat solutions
Linux engineer review
They make solutions for challenges that we do not even think about but we may consume later
What is our primary use case?
We are doing image building. Our team focuses on the image of the platform and presenting it in a secure way for everybody to consume.
How has it helped my organization?
My organization had already been using it before I started, so I am not sure what benefits they got from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. They were already a Red Hat shop when I started.
We do not utilize Red Hat Insights as much as we would like, but we know that it is there. It provides the data, and we can act on that data, but we do not use Red Hat Insights the way we should. However, it does tell us when things are critical and need to be patched. If something is on there and it is critical, we can at least see that it is patched. The alerts and targeted guidance from Red Hat Insights have not affected our uptime so far.
What is most valuable?
It is open source. Most of the features are already there for you. They make solutions for challenges that we do not even think about sometimes, but we may consume them later.
What needs improvement?
I have not put in many feature requests. They have mainly been around small things such as monitoring with Ceph. I cannot remember the name, but monitoring was needed for a specific function. It was a pretty important function, but there was no monitoring set up. It took some extra effort. That was the only feature I asked for. I asked them if they could set up a monitor to make sure that the system was healthy or working correctly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is fine. I have not seen too many issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is great. We can scale up or down.
How are customer service and support?
I do not have any issues with the customer service or tech support. It is good. I would rate them a ten out of ten because they can usually resolve anything.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is pretty simple. There are not so many issues.
We are using it on the cloud and on-prem. We are trying to get to Azure. We are not using it in a hybrid cloud environment. I know we are setting up OpenShift in Azure and on-prem.
We have been using TerraForm to create images and Ansible to make sure everything is fine. We have some things on Azure, but we are trying to make it easier for people to consume Azure. We are trying to get that automation together so that it is a lot easier if anybody wants to spin anything up in Azure. They have a container to use that is secure. All of our business tools are on it.
What about the implementation team?
We just use Red Hat. We do not use any integrator or consultant.
What was our ROI?
Our team does not use a lot of containerization, but we probably will be doing that soon with VMware changes. We are trying to get more of the monolithic stuff down to containerized workloads. We will hopefully see some return on investment after we get our VMware stuff out and get more things containerized. We are working with the OpenShift team, and we will be able to see some ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
That has been mostly handled by Red Hat. As we are a Red Hat shop, we have a lot of people around that already.
What other advice do I have?
We do not use the security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There are so many scanners out there. We do not use what is on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but we do set it up. They are at least available to consume. We do not use them because we have so many security compliance tools. As a bank, we have to use those for auditing and other things like that.
To a colleague who is looking at open-source, cloud-based operating systems for Linux instead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I would say to get something that is close to Red Hat. Red Hat is killing a lot of the downstream stuff. All my Linux is Rocky Linux because it is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I would suggest getting something that is close to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so that if they or their company does not want to go for Red Hat, they would still have the same tooling and the same infrastructure.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux a ten out of ten. I have not seen a lot of issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I am overall satisfied with it.
The go to operating system for enterprise operations
Offers security and is useful in the area of automation
What is our primary use case?
My company currently uses Red Hat Virtualization to host all our virtual machines, and then we install Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for almost everything we do. My company only has 30 or 40 Windows Servers, while we have over 2,000 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) machines. In my company, we use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for everything from provisioning systems to Speedtest Servers to whatever we need in the company.
How has it helped my organization?
I would like to say Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is much more efficient than Windows, and my employees love the Linux command line. All in all, Linux is what my company has been using since the beginning, so it is imprinted in everyone working in the technology section of our organization.
What is most valuable?
All Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) features have been valuable.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Linux system, and in our company, we could probably use different Linux systems. My company mainly uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because of the kind of security and the patching delivered, including the backporting of patches, instead of actually having to do version upgrades. The product's valuable features include stability and security.
In my company, the solution has helped centralize development in most parts.
The use of the product for containerization projects is an area that my company has been dealing with lately. In our company, we are installing a lot of OpenShift clusters now and moving that way, but if they run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or bare-bones or bare-metal OpenShift, the shift needs to be made.
In terms of the impact my company has experienced after making Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a part of our containerization projects, I would say that a different team is handling the development parts for our company. Our company would be happy if the products we use were Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or OpenShift. My company is very interested in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), even if it will take many years for us to be completely over containers.
As per my assessment of the tool's built-in security features when it comes to areas like risk reduction, business continuity, and compliance, all of the aforementioned functionalities are the main reasons my company stayed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). My company prefers Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because of its stability, patch management, and other features that make us feel more secure.
In terms of the portability of applications and containers built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to keep our organization agile, I would say that my company has done a lot of automation, which helps us keep everything as flexible as we want. One of my team members told me that the product is super when it comes to everything related to automation. The tool allows you to be kind of flexible.
At the moment, I don't use Red Hat Insights even though we have looked at it in our company. In our company, we have put up Red Hat Insights, and we have it on the machines, but it's not that deep in use yet. I believe that Red Hat Insights will be more and more important since the security team wants to use it to get a better overview.
If I have to speak to a colleague who is looking at open-source cloud-based operating systems for Linux, I would say that everyone needs to make a choice when it is not something concerning our company since we are standardized with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Red Hat products in our company. My colleagues will have to use Red Hat products if they work in my company.
Speaking of whether the Red Hat portfolio has affected our total cost of ownership across our enterprise landscape, I would say that we have been using virtualization in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for many years, and it has been a very good and cost-effective tool for our company. The product may reach the end of the life phase soon, so we have to migrate to some other solution, though we know that the prices may go up whenever we do it. Up until now, the tool has been very good.
My company deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from Red Hat Satellite. Red Hat CloudForm is a self-service portal we use in our company but now it is an IBM product. I don't remember the name as it is long and boring. Red Hat CloudForm is a self-service portal that is connected to Red Hat Satellite to provision the machines.
What needs improvement?
My manager role is the reason why I am not that deep into the technical part anymore. In my company, the IT team is happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since they don't have to use Windows.
For how long have I used the solution?
Personally, I started using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) around ten years ago. In my company, I have been using the tool for twenty years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales up perfectly fine, especially since everything is automated since we have a very small team of 10 people in our company managing everything, including 2,000 servers.
How are customer service and support?
The product's support team was good whenever my company needed support services. Our company also uses some professional services from time to time, especially since Red Hat has a deep knowledge of the tool. If our company faces a problem, we have a very good connection with the tool's team in Norway, and they always help us, even if it's time-critical. The tool's support team manages to get us the consultants our company needs. I rate the technical support 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?
My company has been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from the beginning.
How was the initial setup?
When I started in the company almost ten years ago, deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was done with an ISO image, which you mount it up, and you put in the IP addresses and do a lot of manual things. It is a different story today since you just enter how many courses you want and how much disk you want, and the deployment is done in two minutes.
The solution is deployed on an on-premises model, and we don't have a lot in the cloud at the moment in our company. As an ISP, the services we deliver are kind of time-sensitive or latency-sensitive, so as long as we have a data center, it doesn't make that much sense to put stuff in the cloud just because it is the best.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of the prices and license of the product, I feel the solution has been good so far, especially since it has been quite easy to understand compared to a lot of other tools. I have been working with IBM and other vendors, where I have seen how other tools might have a bit more difficult pricing or licensing models compared to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). In terms of pricing, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been quite okay in general.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was present ten years ago before I joined my current company, so I don't know if any other products were evaluated against it before my joining.
What other advice do I have?
We have a few applications that we have started developing in the cloud now managed by a different team, but I don't think they use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) specifically.
I rate the tool a ten out of ten.