Red Hat Summit: Enterprise Linux 9, Cloud Edge, Accenture, More
The open-source vendor is holding its annual event this week, and it has released an avalanche of news.
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Red Hat on Tuesday debuted Enterprise Linux 9. That’s the company’s latest version of its hybrid cloud platform that lets partners build and deploy any application across physical, virtual, private and public cloud, and edge environments. As such, end users choose their underlying architecture, application vendor or cloud provider.
The implications around faster digital transformation are key for Red Hat partners to understand.
“This means that partners are better equipped to support customers with greater flexibility, consistency and reliability as today’s IT landscape grows in complexity and scale,” Stefanie Chiras, senior vice president of partner ecosystem success at Red Hat, told Channel Futures. “The broader technology ecosystem from ISVs to cloud and hardware providers have long embraced Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a platform for innovation.”
Ashish Nadkarni, group vice president, infrastructure systems, platforms and technologies group at research firm IDC, agreed.
“IT is no longer limited to the corporate data center or to public cloud deployments,” Nadkarni said. “Instead, systems and operating environments must extend out to the furthest edges of the digital domain. As with virtualization and cloud computing before it, this new paradigm benefits from a standardized Linux platform such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which gives IT teams a common foundation for innovation no matter where they operate.”
Red Hat developed Enterprise Linux 9 with input from partners, who contributed feedback and code.
“As Red Hat Enterprise Linux has evolved to become the standard enterprise Linux platform for hybrid cloud innovation, our … partner ecosystem has grown and evolved with it in order to unlock broader, deeper business opportunities for customers everywhere,” Chiras said.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 forms the foundational backbone of the company’s open hybrid cloud portfolio. The software soon will be available through major cloud marketplaces as well as the Red Hat customer portal.
As for the timing, Red Hat aims to capitalize on demand for its open-source solutions. That aforementioned IDC study shows that the global Red Hat Enterprise Linux economy will exceed $13 trillion (yes, trillion) in 2022. That number includes supporting the business activities of Red Hat customers, for financial benefits totaling $1.7 trillion this year alone.
Existing customers may migrate Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions to the cloud of their choice with Red Hat Cloud Access. Meanwhile, any organization looking to adopt public cloud will be able to deploy the platform on-demand from major cloud provider marketplaces, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
Red Hat designed Enterprise Linux 9 with edge computing in mind. To that point, key capabilities include:
• Edge management, delivered as a service, for operating remote deployments with more security and control.
• Automatic container roll-back with Podman, Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s integrated container management technology. This feature automatically detects whether a newly updated container fails to start. If that happens, Podman then rolls the container back to the previous working version.
• Support for image creation for customized filesystems and major cloud providers and virtualization technologies, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and VMware.
• Protections against hardware-level security vulnerabilities such as Spectre and Meltdown, plus ability to create memory areas that are inaccessible to potentially malicious code
• Support for PCI-DSS, HIPAA and more.
• Ability to detect rogue infrastructure modifications, so it’s easier to limit the potential for systems compromise.
• More Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Roles for automated workflow for creating specific system configurations.
• More roles for Postfix, high-availability clusters, firewall, Microsoft SQL Server, web console and more.
• Support for kernel live patching from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console.
Red Hat’s Cloud Services portfolio now comes with full managed services for hybrid environments. The portfolio integrates with Red Hat OpenShift. This supports the modernization of existing apps.
“Organizations are facing challenges such as application sprawl and monolithic application support,” Chiras said. “To succeed, [they] need tools to modernize applications while reducing delivery times and operational overhead.”
As such, Cloud Services now contains:
• Red Hat OpenShift Service Registry, so development teams may publish, discover and reuse APIs and schemas.
• Red Hat OpenShift Connectors, for connectivity to various third-party systems and no-code integration with Red Hat Openshift Streams for Apache Kafka.
• Red Hat OpenShift Database Access, for consistent Database as a Service consumption across hybrid cloud environments.
• Red Hat OpenShift Data Science, a managed cloud service for data scientists and developers. It provides a sandbox for developing, training and testing machine-learning models. It is available as an add-on for OpenShift Dedicated and Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS. Data partner Starburst Enterprises will deliver managed ISV services later this year.
• Red Hat OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka now supports granular identity and access management, and delivers metrics and monitoring dashboards. It also features PCI certifications.
• Red Hat OpenShift API Management, in the Developer Sandbox for Red Hat OpenShift, available for trials. This module supports development and deployment of API-first applications through a hosted and managed OpenShift API Management service. Updates include better support for security and compliance including PCI, ISO, and SOC2 certification, plus an API designer preview.
The topic of security, and protecting against cyberattacks and data breaches, has executives, investors and shareholders scrutinizing IT environments. As such, Red Hat on May 10 released new security safeguards for its cloud technologies.
“IT security isn’t tied to a software edition or an add-on module; it needs to be baked into whatever technology an organization chooses, starting from the operating system foundation to the application level,” said Vincent Danen, vice president, product security, at Red Hat. “The enhanced security capabilities across Red Hat’s hybrid cloud portfolio are intended to help deliver less-complex operations with high levels of security no matter where an organization operates.”
With that in mind, Red Hat is introducing a software supply chain security pattern — available later this quarter but with a preview aspect now. The pattern will deliver complete stacks as code and define, build and validate the necessary software configurations. It uses a Kubernetes-native, continuously integrated pipeline through Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines and Red Hat OpenShift GitOps for version control. And, through Tekton Chains, the pattern will incorporate Sigstore, an open-source project aimed to make cryptographic signing of code more accessible.
“Partners using Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes can take advantage of these added security features to better serve their customers with solutions with built-in security capabilities,” Chiras said.
With edge computing all the rage, Red Hat is throwing more of its hat into the ring. The company on May 10 launched the Red Hat Edge Initiative, comprising cross-portfolio edge features and capabilities.
On the whole, the portfolio will limit complexity, speed up deployments, enhance security and increase confidence in systems management from the datacenter to the edge, according to Red Hat.
“Red Hat sees hardware diversity and customer choice as crucial to open hybrid cloud and edge ecosystems,” Chiras said.
As such, Red Hat Edge encompasses open hybrid cloud technologies, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus as the foundation. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform brings automation to edge deployments, while Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes delivers manageability with edge storage from Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.
“As edge computing continues to become a mainstream staple in more and more enterprises, Red Hat is well positioned to emerge as a leading vendor in the space,” according to IDC’s EdgeView 2022 global survey of buyer trends.
“The rate of edge adoption is accelerating, with 74% of organizations planning to increase their spending on edge solutions over the next two years,” said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, cloud and infrastructure services, at IDC. “Red Hat’s strategy of building edge-specific features into its existing technology portfolio allows its customers to treat edge deployments as an extension of their data centers, reducing complexity and maintaining consistency, regardless of where the infrastructure resides.”
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on Microsoft Azure now is generally available in North America. The offering pairs hybrid cloud automation with managed services, supported by both Microsoft and Red Hat.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on Azure lets IT organizations automate and scale in the cloud, Red Hat said. The package integrates billing with Microsoft, and supports out-of-the-box automation and access to Ansible Automation Platform 2.2 features. For example, there’s content-signing, which helps ensure software supply chain security.
“Partners can validate their Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collections for Microsoft Azure, enabling customers to run the Collections and playbooks they are using today in the cloud, extending standardized automation content wherever operations require it,” Chiras said. “Partners such as Accenture, CyberArk, F5 and Kyndryl have already taken advantage of this opportunity to validate their Content Collections for customers.”
Global availability for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on Azure is just around the corner.
Red Hat and Accenture, the global systems integrator, have partnered for almost 12 years. This week, they said they’ve expanded that relationship, with a focus on open hybrid cloud. Of course, that’s Red Hat’s bailiwick and hybrid cloud has turned into an almost must-have for most enterprises.
“Organizations are increasingly turning to hybrid cloud to help overcome complex challenges around core business functions like customer service and supply chain, and to drive growth and innovation,” said Raj Wickramasinghe, hybrid and emerging platform lead at Accenture.
Because of that demand, Red Hat and Accenture are jointly investing in developing new solutions and platforms, combining Accenture Cloud First and Red Hat OpenShift.
Over the next year, they will focus on open hybrid cloud application and mainframe modernization; automation; edge computing; and sovereign cloud (which allows control over the location, access to and processing of data in the cloud).
Finally, Red Hat now is certifying its vendor partners on edge computing. Companies including Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and OnLogic are officially authorized to support edge workloads running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
“From hardware and infrastructure to application development and edge computing, our partners are working side by side with Red Hat to deliver the hybrid cloud solutions that customers need to drive real business outcomes on the supported, consistent foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux,” Chiras said.
Finally, Red Hat now is certifying its vendor partners on edge computing. Companies including Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and OnLogic are officially authorized to support edge workloads running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
“From hardware and infrastructure to application development and edge computing, our partners are working side by side with Red Hat to deliver the hybrid cloud solutions that customers need to drive real business outcomes on the supported, consistent foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux,” Chiras said.
Red Hat Summit 2022 is Tuesday and Wednesday. Just in time for the event, the company released an avalanche of news. Channel partners who specialize in open-source platforms and services will want to get the scoop on those announcements. We’ve compiled those into the slideshow above just as Red Hat Summit kicks off.
Want some teasers for what’s happening at Red Hat Summit? Here you go.
Red Hat has a new version of its hybrid cloud platform, Enterprise Linux 9. Find out what it does differently from previous editions, and why the Red Hat Summit features so much emphasis on the new software. (Hint: It has to do with huge projections tied to enterprise spending.)
There’s also an important change to Red Hat Cloud Services and the security portfolio.
Next, find out how Red Hat is playing in edge computing and how the channel fits in.
There’s news, too, on the Ansible platform, as that relates to one of the Big 3 public cloud computing providers, plus a big announcement from Red Hat and Accenture.
Look for more from Channel Futures on the Red Hat Summit 2022 this week as the event continues.
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