Directory Cloud InfrastructureContainers & KubernetesKubeVirt

KubeVirt

Open Source

About KubeVirt

KubeVirt is a technology that addresses the needs of development teams that have adopted or want to adopt Kubernetes but possess existing Virtual Machine-based workloads that cannot be easily containerized. It provides a unified development platform where developers can build, modify, and deploy applications residing in both Application Containers and Virtual Machines in a common, shared environment. Teams with a reliance on existing virtual machine-based workloads are empowered to rapidly containerize applications. Virtualized workloads can be placed directly in development workflows, allowing teams to decompose them over time while still leveraging remaining virtualized components as desired.

Used for

Managing virtual machines for impractical-to-containerize apps using KubeVirt and Kubernetes.
Combining existing virtualized workloads with new container workloads on the one platform.
Supporting development of new microservice applications in containers that interact with existing virtualized applications.

Who it is for

Development teams that have adopted or want to adopt Kubernetes.
Teams possessing existing Virtual Machine-based workloads that cannot be easily containerized.

From KubeVirt's own website, read 2026-10-23. How we build listings.

How to evaluate Containers & Kubernetes

This is how the CIOPages Research Team evaluates this category. It is not an assessment of KubeVirt. It comes from our Kubernetes Platforms buyer guide.

25%

Control Plane & Day-2 Lifecycle

Managed vs. self-managed control plane and its SLA; how Kubernetes version upgrades roll (in-place, surge, blue-green) and how disruptive they are to running pods; long-term-support version options; CVE patch cadence and how quickly fixes reach the fleet; automated node remediation and certificate rotation

20%

Fleet & Multi-Cluster Management

Single console and API to govern many clusters across clouds, on-prem, and edge; declarative cluster lifecycle and config (Cluster API or equivalent); fleet-wide policy and drift detection; zero-touch provisioning for edge; whether it manages clusters it did not create (imported/attached) or only its own

20%

Security & Compliance

Default-deny posture and admission control (Pod Security, OPA/Kyverno); image scanning and signing in the supply chain; RBAC plus OIDC/enterprise-identity integration; network policy and microsegmentation; CIS-benchmark conformance, audit logging, and FedRAMP/FIPS coverage where regulated

15%

Networking, Storage & Service Mesh

CNI options and how locked-in the default is; ingress and gateway controllers with TLS, rate-limiting, and WAF; CSI drivers for block/file/object and stateful-workload maturity; service mesh integration (Istio, Linkerd, Cilium); cross-cluster connectivity and load balancing

10%

Developer Experience & Self-Service

Namespace and cluster self-service vs. ticket-based provisioning; GitOps support (Argo CD, Flux) as a first-class workflow; developer portal and golden-path integration (Backstage or built-in console); IDE plugins and local-dev parity; how opinionated the platform is about how teams ship

10%

Cost, Portability & Commercial Model

Licensing unit (per-core, per-node, per-cluster, consumption) and how it scales with you; control-plane and extended-support fees; realistic exit cost and how provider-shaped the abstractions are; GPU/AI scheduling support; ecosystem breadth (operators, Helm, marketplace) and how much you must self-integrate

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AKS Engine for Azure Stack

Accordion

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Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)

Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS)

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