Red Hat has been on the leading edge when it comes to open source virtualization solutions. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization provides robust virtualization from the network to storage and all the way to the desktop. The latest update, version 3.1, offers even more features to add to its list of capabilities.

Here are some of the things you need to know about Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1:

• The latest version is more scalable than previous versions, narrowing the gap between the big competitors like VMWare and Microsoft’s Hyper-V.
• The management interface for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 contains a vast number of improvements, giving admins greater functionality in a more intuitive environment than ever before.
• While competitors like Fedora are just now starting to get into the cloud and virtualization game, Red Hat has forged ahead creating a wide lead. Currently, it’s the only open source virtualization infrastructure that can support the enterprise in a mission-critical environment and from end to end.
• The low cost of entry to this latest version puts it in a very competitive spot. Currently, pricing ranges from 50% to 70% less than competitors already in the market, giving Red Had Enterprise Virtualization a definite advantage over the competition.
• Version 3.1 contains a number of improvements to the hypervisor. The number of guest virtual machines that can be hosted by a server is now 160, as compared to 64 in the previous release of the software. It will also support as much as 2TB of memory for each virtual machine. The hypervisor now supports all of the latest advancements in x86 processors, including Intel, AMD and Opteron.
• Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization now supports the ability for administrators to create snapshots or even clones of currently-running virtual machines. You don’t’ need to stop the machine, providing significant uptime. The cloning feature is ideal for development and test environments, too.

If you’re looking into new virtualization solutions, make sure to look into Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1. Not only does this open source solution save you money, it really does have the kind of functionality that most enterprises need.