Red Hat Summit 2019 Highlights: Microsoft collaboration, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8), IDC study predicts support for software worth $10 trillion

Azure Red Hat OpenShift: A Red Hat and Microsoft collaboration

The latest Red Hat and Microsoft collaboration, Azure Red Hat OpenShift, must be important - when the Microsoft’s CEO himself came across from Seattle to present it. Red Hat had already brought OpenShift to Azure last year. This is the next step in its partnership with Microsoft.

The new Azure Red Hat OpenShift combines Red Hat's enterprise Kubernetes platform OpenShift (running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with Microsoft's Azure cloud. With Azure Red Hat OpenShift, customers can combine Kubernetes-managed, containerized applications into Azure workflows. In particular, the two companies see this pairing as a road forward for hybrid-cloud computing.

Paul Cormier, President of Products and Technologies at RedHat, said, “Azure Red Hat OpenShift provides a consistent Kubernetes foundation for enterprises to realize the benefits of this hybrid cloud model. This enables IT leaders to innovate with a platform that offers a common fabric for both app developers and operations.”

Some features of the Azure Red Hat OpenShift include:

• Fully managed clusters with master, infrastructure and application nodes managed by Microsoft and Red Hat; plus, no VMs to operate and no patching required.
• Regulatory compliance will be provided through compliance certifications similar to other Azure services.
• Enhanced flexibility to more freely move applications from on-premise environments to the Azure public cloud via the consistent foundation of OpenShift.
• Greater speed to connect to Azure services from on-premises OpenShift deployments.
• Extended productivity with easier access to Azure public cloud services such as Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Machine Learning and Azure SQL DB for building the next-generation of cloud-native enterprise applications.

According to the official press release, “Microsoft and Red Hat are also collaborating to bring customers containerized solutions with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 on Azure, Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.8 and Ansible Certified modules. In addition, the two companies are working to deliver SQL Server 2019 with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 support and performance enhancements.”

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) is now generally available

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (RHEL 8) gives a consistent OS across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. It also provides users with version choice, long life-cycle commitments, a robust ecosystem of certified hardware, software, and cloud partners, and now comes with built-in management and predictive analytics.

Features of RHEL 8

Support for latest and emerging technologies

RHEL 8 is supported across different architectures and environments such that the user has a consistent and stable OS experience. This helps them to adapt to emerging tech trends such as machine learning, predictive analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and big data workloads. This is mainly due to the hardware innovations like the GPUS, which can assist machine learning workloads.

RHEL 8 is supported to deploy and manage GPU-accelerated NGC containers on Red Hat OpenShift. These AI containers deliver integrated software stacks and drivers to run GPU-optimized machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, Caffe2, PyTorch, MXNet, and others. Also, NVIDIA’s DGX-1 and DGX-2 servers are RHEL certified and are designed to deliver powerful solutions for complex AI challenges.

Introduction of Application Streams

RHEL 8 introduces Application Streams where fast-moving languages, frameworks and developer tools are updated frequently without impacting the core resources. This melds faster developer innovation with production stability in a single, enterprise-class operating system.

Abstracts complexities in granular sysadmin tasks with RHEL web console

RHEL 8 abstracts away many of the deep complexities of granular sysadmin tasks behind the Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console. The console provides an intuitive, consistent graphical interface for managing and monitoring the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, from the health of virtual machines to overall system performance. To further improve ease of use, RHEL supports in-place upgrades, providing a more streamlined, efficient and timely path for users to convert Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 instances to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systems.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Roles for managing and configuring Linux in production

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Roles automate many of the more complex tasks around managing and configuring Linux in production. Powered by Red Hat Ansible Automation, System Roles are pre-configured Ansible modules that enable ready-made automated workflows for handling common, complex sysadmin tasks. This automation makes it easier for new systems administrators to adopt Linux protocols and helps to eliminate human error as the cause of common configuration issues.

Supports OpenSSL 1.1.1 and TLS 1.3 cryptographic standards

To enhance security, RHEL 8 supports the OpenSSL 1.1.1 and TLS 1.3 cryptographic standards. This provides access to the strongest, latest standards in cryptographic protection that can be implemented system-wide via a single command, limiting the need for application-specific policies and tuning.

Support for the Red Hat container toolkit

With cloud-native applications and services frequently driving digital transformation, RHEL 8 delivers full support for the Red Hat container toolkit. Based on open standards, the toolkit provides technologies for creating, running and sharing containerized applications. It helps to streamline container development and eliminates the need for bulky, less secure container daemons.

Other additions in the RHEL 8 include:

• It drives added value for specific hardware configurations and workloads, including the Arm and POWER architectures as well as real-time applications and SAP solutions.
• It forms the foundation for Red Hat’s entire hybrid cloud portfolio, starting with Red Hat OpenShift 4 and the upcoming Red Hat OpenStack Platform 15.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS, a minimal footprint operating system designed to host Red Hat OpenShift deployments is built on RHEL 8 and will be released soon.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is also broadly supported as a guest operating system on Red Hat hybrid cloud infrastructure, including Red Hat OpenShift 4, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 15 and Red Hat Virtualization 4.3.

Red Hat Universal Base Image becomes generally available

Red Hat Universal Base Image, a userspace image derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux for building Red Hat certified Linux containers is now generally available. The Red Hat Universal Base Image is available to all developers with or without a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, providing a more secure and reliable foundation for building enterprise-ready containerized applications.

Applications built with the Universal Base Image can be run anywhere and will experience the benefits of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle and support from Red Hat when it is run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Red Hat reveals results of a commissioned IDC study

Yesterday, at its summit, Red Hat also announced new research from IDC that examines the contributions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to the global economy. The press release says:

“According to the IDC study, commissioned by Red Hat, software and applications running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux are expected to contribute to more than $10 trillion worth of global business revenues in 2019, powering roughly 5% of the worldwide economy as a cross-industry technology foundation.”

According to IDC’s research, IT organizations using Red Hat Enterprise Linux can expect to save $6.7 billion in 2019 alone. IT executives responding to the global survey point to Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

• Reducing the annual cost of software by 52%
• Reducing the amount of time IT staff spend doing standard IT tasks by 25%
• Reducing costs associated with unplanned downtime by 5%

To know more about this announcement in detail, read the official press release.

Red Hat infrastructure migration solution helped CorpFlex to reduce the IT infrastructure complexity and costs by 87%

Using Red Hat’s infrastructure migration solution, CorpFlex, a managed service provider in Brazil successfully reduced the complexity of its IT infrastructure and lowered costs by 87% through its savings on licensing fees.

Delivered as a set of integrated technologies and services, including Red Hat Virtualization and Red Hat CloudForms, the Red Hat infrastructure migration solution has provided CorpFlex with the framework for a complete hybrid cloud solution while helping the business improve its bottom line.

Red Hat Virtualization is built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) project. This gave CorpFlex the ability to virtualize resources, processes, and applications with a stable foundation for a cloud-native and containerized future.

Migrating to the Red Hat Virtualization can provide improved affordable virtualization, improved performance, enhanced collaboration, extended automation, and more.

Diogo Santos, CTO of CorpFlex said, “With Red Hat Virtualization, we’ve not only seen cost-saving in terms of licensing per virtual machine but we’ve also been able to enhance our own team’s performance through Red Hat’s extensive expertise and training.”

To know more about this news in detail, head over to the official press release.

Deutsche Bank increases operational efficiency by using Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud technologies to power its ‘Fabric’ application platform

Fabric is a key component of Deutsche Bank's digital transformation strategy and serves as an automated, self-service hybrid cloud platform that enables application teams to develop, deliver and scale applications faster and more efficiently.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has served as a core operating platform for the bank for a number of years by supporting a common foundation for workloads both on-premises and in the bank's public cloud environment.

For Fabric, the bank continues using Red Hat’s cloud-native stack, built on the backbone of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

The bank deployed Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on Microsoft Azure as part of a security-focused new hybrid cloud platform for building, hosting and managing banking applications. By deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, the industry's most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform, on Microsoft Azure, IT teams can take advantage of massive-scale cloud resources with a standard and consistent PaaS-first model.

According to the press release, “The bank has achieved its objective of increasing its operational efficiency, now running over 40% of its workloads on 5% of its total infrastructure, and has reduced the time it takes to move ideas from proof-of-concept to production from months to weeks.”

To know more about this news in detail, head over to the official press release.

Lockheed Martin and Red Hat together to bring accelerate upgrades to the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor fighter jets

Red Hat announced that Lockheed Martin was working with it to modernize the application development process used to bring new capabilities to the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics replaced its previous waterfall development process used for F-22 Raptor with an agile methodology and DevSecOps practices that are more adaptive to the needs of the U.S. Air Force.

Together, Lockheed Martin and Red Hat created an open architecture based on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that has enabled the F-22 team to accelerate application development and delivery.

“The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is one of the world’s premier fighter jets, with a combination of stealth, speed, agility, and situational awareness. Lockheed Martin is working with the U.S. Air Force on innovative, agile new ways to deliver the Raptor’s critical capabilities to warfighters faster and more affordable”, the press release mentions.

Lockheed Martin chose Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to lead them through the agile transformation process and help them implement an open source architecture onboard the F-22 and simultaneously disentangle its web of embedded systems to create something more agile and adaptive to the needs of the U.S. Air Force.

Red Hat Open Innovation Labs’ dual-track approach to digital transformation combined enterprise IT infrastructure modernization and, through hands-on instruction, helped Lockheed’s team adopt agile development methodologies and DevSecOps practices.

During the Open Innovation Labs engagement, a cross-functional team of five developers, two operators, and a product owner worked together to develop a new application for the F-22 on OpenShift. After seeing an early impact with the initial project team, within six months, Lockheed Martin had scaled its OpenShift deployment and use of agile methodologies and DevSecOps practices to a 100-person F-22 development team. During a recent enablement session, the F-22 Raptor scrum team improved its ability to forecast for future sprints by 40%, the press release states.

To know more about this news in detail, head over to its official press release on Red Hat.

This story will have certain updates until the Summit gets over. We will update the post as soon as we get further updates or new announcements. Visit the official Red Hat Summit website to know more about the sessions conducted, the list of keynote speakers, and more.

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