KubeVirt: VM Platform Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the VM Platform Ledger (edition 2026-09-30). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: open-source engine (rated separately from products)
Owner: CNCF incubating project; 6 of 8 maintainers from Red Hat
Engine: QEMU/KVM via libvirt, run as Kubernetes pods
Licence: Apache-2.0
Latest release: v1.9.0, 2026-07-30
Next milestone: v1.10 GA scheduled 2026-11-18 (beta.0 already a week late); CNCF graduation in due diligence
Archetype: Open engine, Red Hat-led
Evidence grade: A. Release dates, schedules, VEP boards and governance records all read from GitHub and CNCF.

Scope of the scores: Scored as the engine alone. Migration tooling (Forklift), SDN, storage, DR orchestration and multi-cluster management come from downstream products, so those domains score low here by design. Commercial risk is not scored: nobody sells KubeVirt itself.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	57.3 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+10.9 points (2019 to 2022: +9.7)	higher is better
Credibility	20.5 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	not scored (engine: nothing to buy)
Technical lock-in	6.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	13.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	5 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	63.4 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Compute core (15)	n/a	2.5	3	3.5
Storage (12)	n/a	2	2.5	3
Networking / SDN (10)	n/a	2	2	2.5
Data protection / DR (12)	n/a	0.5	2	2.5
Migration-in (8)	n/a	1	1.5	1.5
GPU / AI (10)	n/a	2	2.5	3
Kubernetes (8)	n/a	4	4	4.5
Security / confidential (8)	n/a	1.5	2.5	3.5
Fleet / multi-site (9)	n/a	0	0	1
Automation / ecosystem (8)	n/a	3	3	3.5
Total / 100	not released	36.7	46.4	57.3

Year by year: 2019: 36.7 · 2020: 39.7 · 2021: 43.3 · 2022: 46.4 · 2023: 48.8 · 2024: 52.3 · 2025: 55.3 · 2026: 57.3

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2020	GPU / AI	2 → 2.5	+1.0	Generic host-device and mediated-device assignment
2020	Security / confidential	1.5 → 2	+0.8	Secure Boot
2020	Storage	2 → 2.5	+1.2	Snapshots and volume hotplug
2021	Data protection / DR	0.5 → 2	+3.6	Online snapshots with guest freeze; Velero plugin
2022	Compute core	2.5 → 3	+1.5	VM pools, NUMA passthrough, dedicated CPUs
2022	Migration-in	1 → 1.5	+0.8	CDI imports from VMware (VDDK) and oVirt; migration tooling is a separate project
2022	Security / confidential	2 → 2.5	+0.8	vTPM, AMD SEV (experimental)
2023	Automation / ecosystem	3 → 3.5	+0.8	Ansible kubevirt.core collection
2023	Kubernetes	4 → 4.5	+0.8	v1.0: VMs and containers under one Kubernetes control plane
2023	Security / confidential	2.5 → 3	+0.8	v1.0/1.1: persistent vTPM; SEV attestation API
2024	Compute core	3 → 3.5	+1.5	v1.1-1.4: CPU, memory and NIC hotplug; NUMA GA; Arm tier one
2024	GPU / AI	2.5 → 3	+1.0	v1.4: GPU assignment GA; DRA and vGPU live migration follow as alpha
2024	Networking / SDN	2 → 2.5	+1.0	v1.4: NIC hotplug GA; network binding plugins
2025	Fleet / multi-site	0 → 1	+1.8	v1.7: live migration across clusters (alpha)
2025	Storage	2.5 → 3	+1.2	v1.5: storage live migration GA
2026	Data protection / DR	2 → 2.5	+1.2	v1.8/1.9: backup API with changed-block tracking (alpha)
2026	Security / confidential	3 → 3.5	+0.8	v1.9: IBM Secure Execution GA; SEV beta; TDX attestation alpha

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-07	v1.0: persistent vTPM, instancetypes beta	D9 Security	C
2023-11	v1.1: memory hotplug; Arm tier one	D1 Core compute	C
2024-03	v1.2: network binding plugins	D3 Networking	V
2024-07	v1.3: storage live migration (alpha)	D2 Storage	M
2024-11	v1.4: NIC hotplug, instance types and GPU assignment GA	D1 Core compute	C
2025-03	v1.5: storage live migration GA	D2 Storage	M
2025-07	v1.6: GPUs through Kubernetes DRA (alpha)	D6 AI/GPU infrastructure	V
2025-08	CNCF graduation application	D12 Packaging	U
2025-11	First third-party security audit published	D9 Security	C
2025-11	v1.7: live migration across clusters (alpha); SEV-SNP and TDX experimental	D10 Fleet/edge	M
2026-03	v1.8: backup API with changed-block tracking (alpha)	D4 Data protection	C
2026-03	v1.8: hypervisor abstraction layer	D1 Core compute	V
2026-07	v1.9: Grace GPU passthrough and vGPU live migration (alpha)	D6 AI/GPU infrastructure	V
2026-07	v1.9: IBM Secure Execution GA; SEV beta	D9 Security	C
2026-07	v1.9: Microsoft hypervisor backend	D1 Core compute	V
2026-09	v1.10 (in progress): OCI import of VMs and templates	D5 Migration-in	C

Centre of gravity: Core compute (4), Security (3), Storage (2)
Blind spots (no items): AI-assisted ops, Kubernetes, Ecosystem openness
Driver mix: Vision 31%, Customer need 44%, Market window 19%, Upstream 6%, Portfolio 0%
Idea-to-need index: 0.33 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 20.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4.5	Three releases a year after Kubernetes; all 10 since v1.0 within 15 days of the first published date
Roadmap transparency	5	Public enhancement proposals, per-release tracking boards and dated schedules
Say-do	4	76 to 83% of committed proposals landed in the target release; instancetype v1 promised for v1.1 still not done; a TDX claim in the v1.8 blog was wrong
Velocity	4.5	About 1,000 to 1,650 changes per release; board size grows each cycle
Lifecycle stability	2.5	End of life not enforced, sparse patch releases, roll-forward only, tied to the Kubernetes pace

Commercial risk: not scored

This is an engine: nobody sells it, so there are no commercial terms to score. See OpenShift Virtualization, SUSE Virtualization and Spectro Cloud VMO for the products built on it.

Technical lock-in: 6.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	0.5	Raw images in standard Kubernetes volumes; open API
Export path	1	VM export API GA in v1.9
Stack coupling	2	Needs a conformant Kubernetes; snapshots and migration need CSI features
Hardware / cloud coupling	0	Any server with KVM
Skills and tooling coupling	2.5	Kubernetes skills required

Integrator fit: 13.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	4	Open governance; 19 vendors and 11 integrations listed as adopters
Multi-tenancy and self-service	3	Kubernetes namespaces, RBAC and quotas
API and infrastructure-as-code	3.5	Kubernetes API and Ansible; Terraform provider dormant
Skills and certification	2.5	No project certification; downstream courses exist

AI leverage: 5 / 20

How the platform uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload infrastructure	2	2	3	2024: v1.4: GPU assignment GA; DRA beta, vGPU live migration and Grace alpha in v1.9
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2019: Out of scope for the engine
AI-assisted operations	0	0	0	2019: None
Agent openness	2	2	2	2019: Kubernetes API; MCP tooling only from Red Hat-led or personal projects

Year by year: 2019: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2025: 5 · 2026: 5

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 7 AI items announced; 1 GA, 5 still preview, 1 pending, 0 dropped. 'Preview' here means alpha or beta feature gates; one alpha landed a release late.

As an engine KubeVirt only covers the GPU strand, and NVIDIA engineers now write much of it (DRA, vGPU live migration, Grace). Assistants and agent interfaces come from the products built on it.

Reading

KubeVirt has the most disciplined public process in the field: dated schedules, tracked proposals and a say-do rate near 80%, delivered three times a year. As an engine it covers compute, Kubernetes integration and security well, and leaves migration, SDN, DR and fleet management to the products built on it. Its main risks are concentration (Red Hat writes 80 to 94% of commits) and a lifecycle that forces the Kubernetes upgrade pace on every downstream product.

Open questions and items to re-score

v1.10 beta.0 was due 2026-09-23 and was not tagged by 2026-09-30; watch the 2026-11-18 GA date.
Several headline features are alpha or beta, not GA: incremental backup, cross-cluster live migration, vGPU live migration, TDX.
CNCF graduation is in due diligence; re-score transparency and governance when decided.
Company share is measured by email domain, a lower bound for Red Hat.