KVM or VMware: How to Choose?

Author: Carol Platz, MBA

Some organizations don’t. It’s possible to use both VMware and KVM as part of a hybrid virtualization environment.

If you’re looking to deploy a cloud infrastructure, KVM is often preferred due to its integration with OpenStack, OpenShift, and other cloud platforms. VMware cloud solutions, like VMware Cloud Foundation, are proprietary and locked into VMware’s ecosystem. KVM offers greater flexibility and control, especially in environments where you want full transparency and customization of your virtualization setup. It integrates seamlessly with other open-source tools and can be customized to meet specific needs. If your budget is a concern, KVM is an attractive option since it is open-source and free to use, whereas VMware requires purchasing licenses for its products, which can be expensive, especially for large environments.

A KVM-based virtualization platform like Red Hat? OpenShift? Virtualization assures comprehensive security features and reliability, as its source code is continuously refined and enhanced by a global community of experienced open-source contributors. As you virtualize traditional applications and establish a foundation for cloud-native and container-based workloads with KVM, you gain from a constantly evolving platform enriched by the collective expertise and advancements of the open-source community.

Lightbits for KVM Virtualization

Lightbits is a simpler block storage solution for KVM-based virtualization that integrates seamlessly with KVM environments, allowing storage resources to be pooled and accessed by multiple VMs without being tied to specific physical devices. The flexible provisioning capabilities of Lightbits storage means that KVM can quickly allocate and deallocate storage based on the needs of VMs, improving efficiency and reducing downtime during storage adjustments. Additionally, Lightbits block storage is dynamically scalable; as workloads grow, storage can be easily expanded by adding more nodes without disrupting existing services. This flexibility is particularly important in KVM environments, which often need to handle varying loads and resource demands.

At Lightbits, we believe in the power of open source. That’s why we’ve developed an open-source Container Storage Interface (CSI) plugin that integrates seamlessly with OpenShift Virtualization.

Visit our website to learn more about KVM and VMware virtualization.