Red Hat Virtualization 4 Takes on Proprietary Competition

Red Hat continues to move well beyond its core enteprise Linux-based roots with a string of new releases. The company has announced the general availability of Red Hat Virtualization 4, the latest release of its Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) -powered virtualization platform.  It fully supports OpenStack’s Neutron – the networking project leveraged in SDNs.

The company emphasizes that Red Hat Virtualization 4 challenges the economics and complexities of proprietary virtualization solutions by providing a fully-open, high-performing, more secure, and centrally managed platform for both Linux- and Windows-based workloads. It combines an updated hypervisor, advanced system dashboard, and centralized networking for users’ evolving workloads.

All the way back in 2008, I took note of the precarious position that vendors with proprietary virtualization solutions were in.  it is always a precarious proposition for tech companies to depend on one product category when open source competition is proliferating.

Built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Virtualization 4 is designed to integrate with existing IT investments while providing a foundation for emerging technology deployments, including containerized and cloud-native applications.

While virtualization is still a key element of datacenter infrastructure, customer needs around the technology are rapidly evolving. Enterprises beginning a virtualization deployment may want a complete, agile platform that embraces efficiency and open standards of interoperability, while enterprises who have already deployed virtualization technologies may become concerned about their investment due to costs, performance limitations, or incompatibility. "Red Hat Virtualization 4 is designed to address these emerging scenarios with a platform built on open standards, providing a powerful, flexible solution for new deployments and helping existing virtualization users migrate to an open, extensible solution," claims Red Hat.

To improve overall virtualization management, Red Hat Virtualization 4 offers an advanced system dashboard that provides a comprehensive view of virtualized resources and infrastructure.  Red Hat Virtualization 4 also provides key support features for Linux container-based workloads as well as OpenStack private and hybrid cloud deployments. For containers, Red Hat Virtualization 4 supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host as a configurable guest system and allows guest agents to be run as, and report on, containers on the Atomic Host VM.

Also on the Red Hat front, the company has been getting cozier with Microsoft. Get the details on this relationship here.