Red Hat Debuts Linux-based OpenStack Offering

This is a big week for Red Hat in the cloud. As we've reported, Amazon Web Services (AWS) blog recenlty confirmed that the AWS Free Usage Tier, which lets users run applications and operating systems in the cloud, now includes 750 hours of Red Hat Enterprise Linux usage. This is a good tire-kicking opportunity for those who aren't quite ready to commit to an RHEL deployment.

Meanwhile, Red Hat has just launched an enterprise Linux-based OpenStack platform that will provide for public and private cloud deployments.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform can serve as the foundation for  cloud users who are seeking to build an OpenStack-powered cloud, and Red Hat has also announced Cloud Infrastructure, which can support organizations moving from traditional data center virtualization to OpenStack-powered clouds.

According to Red Hat's announcement:

"Designed to meet the needs of advanced cloud users, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers (ISPs), and public cloud hosting providers, Red Hat Enterprise OpenStack Platform integrates the world’s leading enterprise Linux and the industry’s fastest growing cloud infrastructure platform to give organizations the agility to scale and quickly meet customer demands without compromising on availability, security, and performance."

Red Hat's business model has always been organized around charging for subscription support and its cloud offerings are also subscription-based. And Red Hat's announcement adds:

"Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure...enables organizations to build and manage a private cloud IaaS based upon datacenter virtualization and management technologies for traditional workloads, while providing an on-ramp to a highly scalable public-cloud-like infrastructure based on Red Hat OpenStack."

You can find out more about Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud solutions online.

Red Hat is embracing OpenStack at a time when some high-profile supporters of the platform are showing signs of wavering. In a major announcement from Dell Computer last month, the company announced that its public cloud ecosystem and strategy will be centered on partners Joyent, ScaleMatrix and ZeroLag, and will emphasize recent acquisition Enstratius. Meanwhile, IBM--which has been firmly in the OpenStack camp--is spending billions to buy SoftLayer for its cloud computing infrastructure tools and services.