KVM Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services Reviews & Insights

KVM is the underlying technology for all of the virtualization that we run. We wanted to ensure that we weren't tied into a specific vendor and could easily migrate if one started to misbehave. By using KVM based solutions, we can easily shift to new solutions as things improve, set up low cost lab/testing environments, and provide solid virtualization environments for our clients.

If you are running software from a vendor that doesn't require something specific (like VMWare) KVM is likely a great fit. It performs well (outside of graphics work), supports pretty much all features one would need in a small to mid size enterprise, and doesn't lock you into bad licensing schemes. It also lets you easily move from one vendor to another easily, so it gives you a lot of agility in how you manage your infrastructure.

Virtualization was a turning point in technology because of its flexibility and reliability. Before virtualization, we had to deal with all the issues related to bare metal servers. Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine became the industry de-facto for virtualization, especially for *nix related guess operating systems. It is very stable and reliable for production systems. We use virtualized servers for more than a decade on Kernel-based Virtual Machine technology with amazing results.

It is a very stable and reliable technology. Highly recommended for *nix production systems. It is capable of dealing with large amounts of CPU, memory, and disk, as well as, network traffic. I never used it to virtualize Microsoft Windows systems.

I am a consultant who provides KVM-based solutions to customers from all sizes and industries.

At the customers, KVM is usually used by the IT departments, providing virtulization services to all kinds of users, departments and maybe even their customers.

Regarding the business problems KVM adresses:
KVM manages to provide a Linux-integrated virtualization foundation which enables IT departments to provide virtualized systems very fast and efficient. With enough knowledge, IT departments simply install Linux servers and start KVM VMs. The time frame from starting until VMs are up and running is very short, so IT departments don't necessarely have to buy virtualization products if they use KVM.

Kernel-based Virtual Machine is very well suited when one needs a single-node virtualization host or needs to build a complex demo setting on their own notebook (e.g. when demonstrating solutions to a customer).