My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are primarily our websites and applications that run on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system platform.
External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Has strengthened security through granular access control and supported smooth workload upgrades
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What I appreciate most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is the SELinux policy that has been introduced; I believe that is truly good security, although it was difficult initially to become accustomed to it. In the modern world, you don't want every user to have accessible permissions. It gives you a granular level of control over each and every file and directory, just as ACLs used to provide in the past. By using SELinux policy, you can actually secure these accesses and establish a strong security posture.
The main business problem that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helped us solve is automation of tasks and scalability of the business. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped reduce downtime because in modern infrastructure, you do not face out of memory issues. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has affected the downtime by reducing it to a minimal level; the reboots are very speedy.
What needs improvement?
I think the support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be much better; when it comes to something such as SUSE Linux, I feel those providers are doing a much better job in terms of support than what Red Hat provides. One area where Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) stability could be improved is with Ksplice; Ksplice is used for online patching. The problem I have seen with it is that it applies patches at the user level, but not at the kernel level. That was a problem in terms of our security architecture because it doesn't recognize that the patch has been installed. I evaluate the customer service or tech support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as needing improvement; addressing the tickets takes a little longer and there has been a lack of consistency. Not every engineer who handles a case handles it correctly. Everybody has a different way of handling the tickets. So, the support needs to be a little bit more streamlined.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for the past three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s stability and reliability once it is deployed in production and maintained is that it's straightforward, but there's a huge functionality and learning curve. We started using it and actually understood the reason why Red Hat has implemented it and the level of granularity in terms of security posture that it provides. We understood that it's doing a really good job.
I assess the stability, availability, and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as pretty stable and very reliable.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has crashed or failed here and there, but there were some settings that needed to be changed. We make sure that we match those parameters.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales to my needs pretty much up-to-date.
How are customer service and support?
The support from a competitor I've used is Oracle. My experience with Oracle support is that Oracle on-premises support, what it provides with Oracle Enterprise Linux, performs very well, and many of our customers believe that something from Oracle is more secure. When they compare Oracle with Red Hat, it has a much better support system and a much more secure posture than what we get.
I evaluate the customer service or tech support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as needing improvement; addressing the tickets takes a little longer and there has been a lack of consistency. Not every engineer who handles a case handles it correctly. Everybody has a different way of handling the tickets. So, the support needs to be a little bit more streamlined.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
My experience with the deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been smooth because back then we were on-premises and all our information used to be on-premises, rather than run them completely as we do now.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated a couple of operating systems including Ubuntu, Oracle Linux, SUSE, and then came to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because Red Hat is considered the pioneer.
I have considered replacing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with another solution; specifically Oracle Linux.
If I were to switch, I would consider factors such as security and support.
What other advice do I have?
We are currently considering using the Ansible Automation Platform for configuration and patching; we are using a manual approach and a little bit of Ansible here and there, but not fully deployed an Ansible Automation Platform or command line approach. But today I had the experience in the lab with the Ansible Automation Platform. That looks truly promising. I hope to get a chance to do a proof of concept and show my company that this is the product we can use in the future.
I have used the in-place upgrades to migrate machines to a newer release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); I used LEAP which has been designed to upgrade Linux 7 to Linux 8, and it was smooth. I think that was truly good work, especially because it supports you in situations where you do patching.
The upgrade process for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is straightforward and we didn't have any problems.
We are planning on upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 and 7 to 8, though we do have some legacy applications that would not support it. However, other systems which are web servers or Apache, we are trying to upgrade them.
I haven't found any limitations in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s security.
My assessment of the documentation offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that Red Hat's documentation is top notch. You cannot compare that with SUSE.
My specific goals that led me to choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include the security posture.
Current, I am using the standard lifecycle support add-on for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); I think we are still sticking with the standard and haven't upgraded yet.
The advice I would give to a team considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that one of the new features that it has is promising, and everybody promises great things with new features. My overall rating for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is nine out of ten.
Has improved deployment processes and streamlined workload management without disruption
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case for our company is for deploying applications.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect is for deploying applications.
The ease of use works well and is what I appreciate the most about the solution's most valuable features.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped me to automate my process to mitigate downtime and workloads.
The solution has improved my organization, especially with the ease of deployment, as it's mostly just a better user experience for our users.
What needs improvement?
The challenges that we've had with different servers that don't have access to the internet require an installation, and keeping track of all the different versions on the different deployments is a challenge. I would love a feature that could manage the agent versions.
On the Ansible side, from what I've seen, there are certain templates and playbooks that can be used for specific use cases that I'd like to see in the next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability and reliability of this solution is very good.
In the environments that I work in, I've had no downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales well with our growing needs and organization, and it's been pretty easy to spin up new servers as we require them.
What other advice do I have?
The other users of the solution in my company are probably more on the operation side.
I think it would be suitable for a couple more roles.
I've been made aware of some of the latest announcements that were made today; for a large organization, it takes a while to get there, so we might not be able to realize those for another couple of years, but it seems there are new features that are coming out.
I'm not sure if there was one specific feature that stood out to me today; I'd have to look back at my notes, but it seems there's more functionality that's being offered.
I would rate this review a 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has required no major changes while improving asset visibility and server onboarding
What is our primary use case?
I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for four or five years now because I had a business with my cousin. We are Red Hat Partners. Easier integration is important because most customers we work with already have Red Hat. We use Ansible for discovery, primarily for ServiceNow. We also wanted to expand into the field of Maximo asset management. One customer, a big Red Hat partner, uses IBM Maximo, but that didn't work out because I have a business with my cousin and one of his partners parted ways, so I stayed with ServiceNow.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps solve pain points related to user account servers and onboarding certain servers. It's easier to use in my opinion and less complicated, especially for Ansible discovery.
Organizations need to know what assets they have because sometimes they have assets on the network and don't know what they are. With the solution, it's easier to discover the assets, what OS is running on them, sometimes location, warranty information, and serial numbers.
Regarding security requirements and considerations in using it in the cloud, I've seen a lot of virtual machines on the network, and no one knows anything about them. As soon as you deploy Ansible, you can know exactly what servers the virtual machine is running on, whether there's a warranty, serial numbers, naming convention, and all that, which makes it easier.
What needs improvement?
For now, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) works fine for me. When I used it in the past, I don't see what I can improve now because it works the way I want it. There aren't any additional features that I think should be included in the future since you have AI now, and I think you are up to date.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for four or five years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped me mitigate downtime and lower risk. When it comes to downtime, there are no worries, for example, when there's an issue or something is down, the response time is solid.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service is great, and there are several certifications and lots of certification options you can get for you and your team. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is also worldwide, and everyone knows it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is easy. Compared to other companies, everything is there and it's easy. When it comes to price, I can say it's cheaper than certain solutions out there in Asia or overseas.
What other advice do I have?
This product is not purchased on the AWS Marketplace; we're helping sell our customers with our ServiceNow migrations, so we don't push or purchase anything from AWS Marketplace. Everything about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is online and it's easy to become a Red Hat partner. It's not hard. My cousin had the business with us and was already a Red Hat partner. It's easy to get the certifications, and they make everything easier. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is what most companies use before selecting it, and it's mostly worldwide use for that. That's what my cousin and I thought when he had the business. I would say the solution is an easier option overall. My overall rating for this product is 5 out of 5.
Has enabled resilient operations with faster and high-volume transactions while minimizing downtime
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is for the central monitoring of the operations.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve pain points by enabling faster transactions and more transactions.The feature I like the most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is its resilience.A huge amount of transactions benefits my organization because we use this cluster to include the performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) could be improved with frequent updates.I think frequent upgrades should be included in the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by stating that it is very secure, reliable, and fast.I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales effectively with the growing needs of my organization.I have not experienced any issues with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate customer service and technical support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as good, and we have vendor coordination with them.On a scale of one to ten, I would rate customer service and technical support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as an eight because it needs the streamlining of things.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was using a platform from IBM initially, which was pushed into containerization.
How was the initial setup?
I would describe my experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as not complicated and manageable, and that works well.
What about the implementation team?
I manage my Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems with mass provisioning and patching, and I am very satisfied with the management experience.I managed the expansion on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as well.
What was our ROI?
I have not really seen an ROI with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that pricing is heavy on this.The setup cost and licensing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) involves a perpetual license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The other solutions I considered before selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) included open source options.What stood out to me in my evaluation process of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that the main feature is security on top of the open source, and we are considering the open-source platform to be implemented.
What other advice do I have?
The complexity of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) comes from the methodology, which is complex.Security requirements were a consideration in choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security features is that it is effective when it comes to simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance.My upgrade and migration plans for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to stay current include frequent patching and upgrades annually.I assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as good for a few use cases.The factors that led me to consider the change to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) were stability and reliability.I would describe my experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as not complicated and manageable, and that works well.I have no advice to give to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I would rate this product a nine overall.
Has enabled confident upgrades and secure data management for students and financial institutions
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) include working with a university, a bank, and a data center for supporting banks and students.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve issues with its excellent support; without their technical support, it would be very difficult to navigate through all available resources to find the solution for my root causes. The support is especially important for enterprise companies with many crucial customers. Additionally, security is a key factor for us, ensuring that we receive patches and everything on time, particularly for banks. Reliability is also vital; knowing that when I reach out to Red Hat or when I have Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), my systems and data are safe and secure are the most important factors.
The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that I like the most are DNF or YUM and in-place upgrades.
An example how those features benefit my organization is that we have some servers established years ago that we would not be able to migrate the data easily, so the in-place upgrade helps us a lot by allowing us to keep the server and just upgrade the OS.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have a sort of undo button sometimes, especially for updates, upgrades, and patches.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for a long time, actually more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as quite reliable. Recently, I had a little concern with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on AWS, where after a patch, I noticed some strange behavior such as the vanishing of a required package, such as SSM, or the server not coming up quickly. However, on-premises, it is generally reliable, though we faced many challenges during an in-place upgrade with a cluster on the server; the most significant issue has been the support, which I find a little slow, and they are not very flexible in joining calls; they prefer chats and often respond late.
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped me mitigate downtime and lower risk; when it goes through the package manager from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it usually works very well. Without that, it would be very difficult.
How are customer service and support?
I would assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as very great; we have a Red Hat account where I can find most of my problems with solutions. However, sometimes when we raise a ticket with Red Hat, it takes time until they get back to us, or until they set a time for us to attend a meeting, screen share, and fix the issue. Sometimes this process does not happen quickly.
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as something that relates to the slow response and inflexibility in support that I previously mentioned.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I was not using another solution to address similar needs.
How was the initial setup?
I could describe my experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as confident, especially when compared to Windows, as I have done both. It is very easy, and whatever you need usually works very well with Ansible. I love the flexibility of bash scripting; we can do anything that we want.
When I deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), I faced challenges when something is missing during some activity and we get an error, as it is hard to find the related package. For instance, with Fedora and CentOS, I can find packages easily in the logs, but for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it was not easy for me to locate the right package.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The other solutions I considered using before selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) were mainly evaluated by our solution architect, but I believe the most important reason for using Linux is its compatibility with many applications, flexibility to code and share, and high performance.
What other advice do I have?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was our best option.
I manage my Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for provisioning and patching with Ansible.
I am satisfied with that management experience.
I have not been involved in any Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) upgrades or migrations, whether on-premises or to the cloud.
Our upgrade plans involve always upgrading because we need to keep our current systems up to date.
I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) overall as a nine out of ten.
My advice to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that I find it very easy to manage. I especially enjoy working with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because it is straightforward, clear, simple, and not complicated.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has enabled consistent deployments across hybrid environments and supported our shift to web-based infrastructure
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are that previously, I used it on database servers, and right now, we are using them for web servers, JBoss, and JDV servers.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales well with the growing needs of my organization because RBC always needs new servers, whether they can be Linux or Windows servers, but mostly we are using Linux since we don't use JBoss or JDV on Windows.
What is most valuable?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) helps me solve pain points because it is very versatile and stable, and we always use it for our new business.
Specifically, I can say that if we have a subscription, we can make installation easily and access repositories easily.
This benefits my organization significantly because Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is really useful, very stable, and very versatile.
What needs improvement?
In terms of additional features for the next release, I saw it comes with AI integration, but we don't know the architecture yet. We want to see it first, then we can say. AI will be important for us.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as nine out of ten.
I have experienced downtime, crashes, or performance issues, but it happens only maybe once a year or something. There is not very much downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm not sure if we have expanded our usage at all.
How are customer service and support?
I am very satisfied with the technical support experience; it is very nice.
I would evaluate customer service and technical support as nine. I can give a nine because if we have any problem, we can get a response in a short time, but sometimes it is not the relevant solution; that can happen one or two times in a year, which seems normal.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not used another solution to address similar needs prior to adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
How was the initial setup?
Our deployment model is that RBC is using all of them—on-prem, cloud, and hybrid.
What about the implementation team?
I would describe my experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as limited because mostly it is our Linux team working on it. They are the ones deploying it while we mostly are ordering servers and using them.
What was our ROI?
I have not seen an ROI with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), as I'm not on the finance side and I'm not calculating it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that if you compare it with other operating systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is cheaper than them.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are not on the selecting side before choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because if you want to use Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is always our first option. We don't check other options.
What stood out to me about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that I remember Oracle released a Linux for their database installation, but I don't see anybody using that, as we are mostly using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
What other advice do I have?
I prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as an operating system.
I'm not sure if Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has improved since version five, then six, seven, right now eight and nine; it always comes with new features, sometimes new application security enhancements. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is improving, and it has improved.
I would assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as very nice because if we have any problem or error, we can find it easily at the portal.
Nothing is perfect.
My advice to another organization considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that I prefer to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) always. I recommend Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
I gave this review a rating of 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has reduced downtime while supporting our web servers cost-effectively
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for it is that we just support the application.
What is most valuable?
In general, it benefits our organization because it's more cost-effective. We save money, that's it.
The main point it helps me solve is that it's just a web server.
What needs improvement?
I don't have specific feedback on what works well and what Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) needs to improve on.
I cannot think of any additional features that should be included in the next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for about eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
I assess the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
So far, so good with how Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales with the growing needs of my organization. Everything is supported.
I expand usage of it every year.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate the customer service and technical support as very good.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate it a ten.
Every time we have an issue, someone is there to fix it and troubleshoot, which is why I say that.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I joined, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) was already selected, so that's what was there.
In my role, I have not considered other solutions in the past.
How was the initial setup?
I would describe my experience with deploying it as straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We use Azure as our cloud provider.
What was our ROI?
I have not seen ROI with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
I don't know the exact number, so that may be because I just am not in charge of that kind of thing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with the pricing and the cost of licenses is that if you compare it to the different operating systems, it's a little bit cheaper. The support is also good as well.
What other advice do I have?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk.
My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s built-in security features for simplifying risk reduction and maintaining compliance is a score of eight or nine.
Everything is clearly stated and listed in the documents, so it's easy for us to follow, which is what could make it better.
Security requirements and considerations were important in choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the cloud because we are banks, so we have a lot of security regulations to follow.
When it comes to managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for provisioning and patching, that's our wonderful part of the day, as we use it as well. The issue we have is that it's not a fixed time that we need to patch, but when we patch, the system would just stop working. This is not a direct issue from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but from the line.
I have been involved in some Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system upgrades or migrations.
The upgrade migration was straightforward.
I can talk about it a little bit more by saying we just upgrade it, patch it, and reboot it. That's all.
My upgrading or migration plans for the same product are that whenever we have new items that we assess, most likely we will get it.
I assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as good.
I don't need more from it; it's good.
My advice for other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that they should take into account the cost and support, especially when talking to someone in a different segment or an old colleague.
I rate this product a ten overall.
Provides unified provisioning and monitoring across hybrid environments through an efficient interface
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
When I was deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the deployment, particularly the hotfixes, is a real challenge. We have some big instances with the front-end code and back-end code in one service. We have to do this really quickly to deploy hotfixes and implement new features. We need to make sure that the code is consistent across all the services at that time. We can do the Ansible playbook, which is a very good template that we can reuse to replicate the problem.
What about the implementation team?
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
My upgrade and migration plans to stay current with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are that we need to upgrade it every year, or just when you have a vulnerability, you need to come up with it and upgrade it. From my perspective, we are not doing really timely upgrading because we do not want to disturb the current pipelines.
For the knowledge base offered by Red Hat, such as the Confluence page, it is helpful. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the knowledge base is helpful. I try to look up and check many of those pages, and they give me detailed ideas on how to implement the system. Sometimes the problem is really unique, and I can get help or try to get support to formalize some questions and help us understand the solutions. I still need to seek a senior consultant's help on migration. Some documentation is outdated.
My advice to other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that if you use Java, you should use it. If you have many massive servers to maintain, a Red Hat solution with the pipeline and Satellite is beneficial. If you have some old legacy systems, you do not have to set up new labor on monitoring. I give this product an overall rating of 8 out of 10.
Centralized access management and certified integration have supported long-term client infrastructure needs
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are extensive, but mostly we utilize it for our clients as a base operating system.Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) solves pain points related to security patching and support.Security requirements for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the cloud depend heavily on the client's business. For some clients, we don't have any special regulation, but for domains such as oil and gas, there are very strict security requirements that we must meet. In most of the current products, we can find the appropriate and certified product for our clients.
What is most valuable?
The features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) I appreciate most are centralized account management and SSO. The integration of SSO features, particularly with Azure Active Directory, benefits our organization greatly because it is very easy to grant appropriate access to the operating system.Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped to mitigate downtime and lower risk.
What needs improvement?
I don't believe there are any additional features that should be included in the next release.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for more than ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What works well for me is that it is pretty stable over the years, and I don't face many challenges with it.I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales well with the growing needs of my organization.
How are customer service and support?
I evaluate customer service and technical support as brilliant.I regard that support as pretty good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
While I sometimes use other solutions, we are not limited to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and for some cases, we use Canonical products. A long time ago, we used SUSE, but not recently.
How was the initial setup?
I would describe my experience with deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as easy.Managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems from a central management console is a form of centralized management.I am satisfied with that centralized management console.
What was our ROI?
I have seen ROI with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When selecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the other solution I considered was Canonical, which is direct competition at the operating system level. However, Red Hat provides a more complete integration between the operating system and platforms.What stood out to me in my evaluation process was how easy it is to integrate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) into the existing IT processes of our clients, which is the main driver for us as cost concerns are not my focus. Maintaining security patching and support over the long term is also crucial for enterprise clients.
What other advice do I have?
I have expanded usage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for myself and my clients.My advice for other organizations considering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is that if you are talking about long-term solutions, you need to choose a base infrastructure that is supportable for a long time.I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) overall as a nine out of ten.
Manages thousands of servers efficiently with proactive features and strong long-term reliability
What is our primary use case?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) basically runs the bank's apps as my main use case.
What is most valuable?
I like the feature Satellite the most because it has services to manage my multiple Linux servers.
Satellite has no parallel in the Linux distro world, especially for an enterprise, enabling me to manage my servers, patch them, create content, get them binaries, updated security updates, and all that. It makes it easier for admins and reduces the need for a lot of manpower, especially with Ansible that enables me to do configuration management of 20,000 Linux servers.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales with the growing needs of my organization very well as we are expanding ourselves.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has helped mitigate downtime and lower risk because the servers can run for more than 300 days of uptime. I do have to reboot them for patching, but otherwise, they are a very stable operating system that doesn't crash for no reason. If I experience kernel panics, it often involves EDRs or agents such as CrowdStrike, but otherwise, it's very stable with proactive features. We had issues with CrowdStrike; they identified the issue with their kernel drivers that used to crash my OS and provided a patch to address it, so they take care of us.
What needs improvement?
The implementation had challenges like whenever we bring out new products, there's always one issue: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s documentation is not complete. I have to really have an enterprise account because I get access to their support, which sorts me out since every environment is unique. It's not a cookie cutter; I would deploy RHEL 8 in a way different compared to a retail store. So when it gets to those niche deployments, they don't have anything documented. I really have to get hold of the support, saying, "Hey, I'm trying to do this. It's not working," and then they will give me a solution, but I would expect that a document would have solved that issue without raising a ticket. That's my only complaint.
The area for improvement in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is documentation. I don't have any other suggestions. I think it's just the documentation that needs improvement. Otherwise, technically, I don't have anything to suggest.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have experienced downtime or security incidents as a result of the solution when proper practices are not followed, especially if I am using any third-party security. You have to manage kernel options; otherwise, the base OS itself is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) scales with the growing needs of my organization very well as we are expanding ourselves.
How are customer service and support?
I would evaluate customer service and technical support based on my experience. I felt naive about being a small enterprise versus a big enterprise, but the response time of tickets is consistent. I haven't seen a difference; I thought I would have a slower response being on a small account, but the speed of our calls is the same.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I considered other solutions before choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but it was a default choice for us. I see that they have expanded; earlier, it was just a bare-metal OS and not an ecosystem, but now they are in OpenShift, providing Kubernetes and everything.
I wasn't using another solution to address my needs prior to adopting it.
How was the initial setup?
The upgrade or migration is straightforward if I have applications that depend less on what the OS is, but in our case, it was not that simple. We had a business requirement, so we had to shut down the older one, provision a new one, and move everything.
What was our ROI?
I have seen ROI from using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in terms of uptime itself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup, and cost of the solution is that it's a service based on how many cores, not sockets.
What other advice do I have?
My deployment model for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is on-premises, but I am just starting off with cloud.
For security requirements in the cloud, I don't do SELinux; I just depend on my ACLs because my servers are not internet-facing. We trust Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with the binaries, with nothing on the base OS such as firewalls or SELinux.
I use AWS and Azure as my cloud providers.
I manage my Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems for security, updates, and patches with Red Hat Satellite, which makes it very easy.
I have been involved in upgrades from RHEL 6 to 7 and from 7 to 8.
My assessment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s FIPS and security compliance features is that it's the best in the industry. They have FIPS, which I think is more for federal clients, and although I haven't used it, I know they offer it by default on their Linux.
My upgrade and migration plans are to always try to stay on the current version all the time, unless there's a legacy application. Any apps I manage are always on the latest Red Hat release, and we keep migrating them as Red Hat provides the first-ever release out, which is a requirement for our Satellite to support the latest version.
The area for improvement in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is documentation.
I would assess the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as paywalled, so if you don't pay for it, you wouldn't be able to access their system. The KB is pretty good, but you need to have a Red Hat account.
My advice to a company considering this solution is to go for it. It is supported by enterprise support from Red Hat, which I don't think any other enterprise can offer. While I know Canonical does it for Ubuntu, SUSE is another good option; however, the adoption is not there, and you don't have a lot of sysadmins. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a bible due to the abundance of resources in the market. I would rate this solution a 10.