Solutions based on Red Hat’s Kubernetes platform can run on-premises or in the multicloud

Red Hat and owner IBM are launching an online marketplace where customers and channel partners find, try, and buy a range of software offerings built on Red Hat’s OpenShift Kubernetes platform and available from independent software vendors (ISVs).

The Lowdown: The software available on the vendor-neutral marketplace, which was announced this week, is designed to run on an organization’s hybrid IT infrastructure both on premises and in multicloud environments. Kubernetes is an open container orchestration technology. Containers have become key components in enabling applications to run reliably when moved between different computing environments, including hybrid clouds.

The Details: The marketplace, which is operated by IBM, is launching with more than 50 commercial products available from such ISVs as Cockroach Labs, Couchbase, MongoDB, and MemSQL. Those solutions cover a range of areas, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, databases, security, storage, Big Data, and developer tools.



All products are certified for Red Hat OpenShift and come with commercial support. They’re built on the open Kubernetes Operator Framework, so they can run on OpenShift like a cloud service, which includes automated install and upgrade, backup, failover, and recovery. The automated deployment capabilities mean that software on the Red Hat Marketplace can be instantly deployed on any OpenShift cluster.



Along with the public marketplace, Red Hat and IBM also are rolling out Red Hat Marketplace Select, a private and personalized offering that comes at an additional cost to enterprises. The private marketplace gives customers greater control and governance with curated software that meets organizations’ needs for efficiency and scale. Companies get not only access to pre-approved software but also the ability to track usage and spending by departments of all applications deployed across hybrid clouds.



ISVs looking to become marketplace members need to have a certified Red Hat OpenShift operator, offer technical support, provide a priced edition and free trial, offer subscription-based pricing models, and sign click-through DLA and DPA agreements from IBM.

Background: IBM last year bought Red Hat, a powerhouse in the open-source enterprise software and cloud solutions space, for $34 billion in a deal designed to greatly expand IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities at a time when enterprises continue to migrate workloads from their on-premises environments to both private and public clouds. IBM had identified the cloud as one of four key growth areas, along with social, mobile, and analytics.

The Buzz: “We believe that removing the operational barriers to deploy and manage new tools and technologies can help organizations become more agile in hybrid multicloud environments,” said Lars Herrmann, senior director of technology partnerships at Red Hat. “The software available on Red Hat Marketplace is tested, certified, and supported on Red Hat OpenShift to enable built-in management logic and streamline implementation processes. This helps customers run faster with automated deployments while enjoying the improved scalability, security, and orchestration capabilities of Kubernetes-native infrastructure.”



“The key factor for every requirement we’ve built into joining Red Hat Marketplace is simple: We want to drive the best possible experience for enterprise developers,” Kate Kwiatkowski, business development leader for Red Hat Marketplace, wrote in a blog post. “The foundation for the Red Hat Marketplace partner program is based on our teams’ collective experience building existing partner programs. We’ve found the requirements we’ve built for listing on Red Hat Marketplace set our partners and end users up for success and drive better outcomes for enterprises seeking to build a strong hybrid and multicloud strategy.”



“In today’s business climate, companies want flexibility to build, manage, and deploy applications to the infrastructure of their choice, and have a seamless experience with their on-premises environments. Enabled by Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Marketplace makes this possible in a simple, efficient, and scalable platform,” said Sandesh Bhat, general manager of open cloud technology and applications at IBM.



“We are committed to ushering in a new era of healthcare that profoundly enhances and simplifies our customers’ healthcare experience, and having our own Red Hat Marketplace Select environment will play an important role in our digital-first strategy,” said Rajeev Ronanki, senior vice president and chief data officer at Anthem. “Enterprise marketplaces are an important component of how organizations will enable their digital strategies in the future because this approach provides companies with a private, developer-centric location to develop innovative products and services. By working with Red Hat, we are able to help shape the marketplace experience for other organizations as they transition to this environment.”



“We have millions of developers using our products to deploy to the cloud and modernize their applications. We are always looking to reduce complexities so we can serve them better,” said Alan Chhabra, senior vice president of partners and APAC sales at MongoDB. “Red Hat Marketplace supports the shift we’re seeing to Kubernetes, workload portability, and a cloud-first approach. It allows us to expand our reach to Red Hat OpenShift users and gives them ways to make hybrid cloud management easier.”