Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it has been recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Server Virtualization Platforms with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. This recognition is based on Red Hat's Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. As enterprise IT organizations re-evaluate traditional virtualization strategies to mitigate rising hypervisor costs and avoid operational lock-in, Red Hat believes a consistent, secure and resilient platform foundation becomes critical to customers' success.
Red Hat recognized as a Leader in 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Server Virtualization Platforms
Recognition based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization integrates VM management into Kubernetes-based platform
Delivers consistent operational model across on-premises, public clouds, and edge
Supports VMs alongside containerized workloads and AI workloads
Gartner evaluated 17 vendor solutions in the report
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization provides an entry point to a modern platform that enables IT operations and platform teams to run, manage and migrate virtual machines alongside containerized workloads, delivering a consistent operational model across on-premises datacenters, public clouds and edge sites. Gartner evaluates vendors in the report based on their server virtualization capabilities, overall strategy and market execution. Red Hat believes Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization delivers a modern alternative to legacy hypervisors by integrating VM management directly into the Kubernetes-based platform, providing consistency across self-managed and cloud-hosted environments.
To support evolving enterprise infrastructure needs, Red Hat continues to introduce platform-native innovations that simplify VM migration, optimize compute performance and enhance operational control. Furthermore, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization empowers organizations to preserve existing VM investments while creating a clear, consistent path to application modernization regardless of whether the infrastructure is on premises, in sovereign colocated facilities, or on public clouds from AWS, Azure, Google, IBM and Oracle.
The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Server Virtualization Platforms evaluated 17 vendor solutions and was based on specific criteria that analyzed the company's overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute.
"Organizations today are actively seeking ways to modernize legacy virtualization environments without disrupting critical business operations. We believe inclusion in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Server Virtualization Platforms validates Red Hat's commitment to providing a clear, open path forward for enterprise IT," said Mike Barrett, vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Platforms, Red Hat. "Through Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, IT teams gain a trusted, modern platform to run VMs alongside containers and AI workloads with consistent security and operational discipline, wherever their applications reside."
Source: Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Server Virtualization Platforms, Tony Harvey, Daniel Bowers, Paul Delory, Tony Iams, Owen Marino, 14 September 2026
About Red Hat
Red Hat is the open hybrid cloud technology leader, delivering a trusted, consistent and comprehensive foundation for transformative IT innovation and AI applications. Its portfolio of cloud, developer, AI, Linux, automation and application platform technologies enables any application, anywhere—from the datacenter to the edge. As the world's leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, Red Hat invests in open ecosystems and communities to solve tomorrow's IT challenges.
