Red Hat Takes Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform to the Next Level

Red Hat remains very focused on advancing its OpenStack-focused cloud business initiatives. The company has now released an update of its OpenStack distribution, marrying its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL) platform with the latest OpenStack release: Juno. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform sets a new standard for OpenStack deployments, with customers in production in every region, spanning industry verticals and enterprises of various sizes in education, financial services, government, healthcare, retail, and telecommunications," claims the company's announcement.

Of course, survey results from The OpenStack Foundation have shown that many OpenStack deployments are taking place on top of Ubuntu, but Red Hat has steadily remained focused on pairing its Linux platform with OpenStack. The company also pointed to succes with the effort on its most recent earnings call.

According to today's announcement, the new release has a number of new features, with some aimed directly at telcos:

"Building on its innovative co-engineered design, Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6 strengthens Red Hat’s production-ready cloud platform through advancements in both the Linux and OpenStack components. Interoperability and ease of use continue to be at the forefront, starting with updates to Red Hat’s intuitive graphical installer and management tools that create greater efficiency and reduce the complexities of a cloud deployment."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6 is based on the OpenStack Juno release and includes several new features aimed at easing enterprise deployments of OpenStack technology within existing datacenters and capabilities specific to telecommunications providers to enable Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) deployments among carriers, including:

- IPv6 support, for both provider and tenant networks, enabling customers to assign IPv6 addresses across physical networks and OpenStack Networking (Neutron) virtual routers in stateless and stateful modes.

- Neutron High Availability offers an upgraded OpenStack experience with Neutron agents in “active-active” mode for high availability configuration. This availability improves redundancy for networking, providing service uptime and improving stability for larger-scale production clouds.

- Single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) networking, supported by a new driver, enables users to execute network switching directly on their hardware, bypassing the hypervisor and virtual switch levels.

- Support for Multi-LDAP backends and domains, all within a single Identity service node, easing the installation and configuration processes for the platform, as well as long-term daily operations."

Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager of OpenStack at Red Hat, said:

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6 delivers enterprise-grade and telco-ready features, fueled by deep engagements with hundreds of customers and partners across the globe, to enable an open cloud infrastructure. Backed by our robust partner ecosystem, this release can enable a wider variety of enterprises and cloud service providers to quickly transition to an OpenStack-powered cloud infrastructure.”