For the first time ever, Red Hat will align its flagship operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), development and release dates with a third-party: Amazon Web Services (AWS). This alliance underlines just how important the cloud is to Red Hat as it moves from being a Linux distributor first to being a cloud services provider first.

This move also shows that the hybrid cloud is alive and well. The AWS and Red Hat strategic partnership will integrate AWS services with Red Hat's OpenShift. For users, this will mean you'll be able to access AWS services directly from Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

special feature Integrating the Hybrid Cloud As far and fast as cloud computing is embedding itself into the enterprise, there remain many cloud-resistant applications and services. Read More

Specifically, you'll be able to seamlessly configure and deploy such AWS services as Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, Amazon Athena, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Route 53, and Elastic Load Balancing. While you will be able to use these AWS services from application programming interfaces (API), you won't need to be a programmer to use them. Instead you can access them from directly within the OpenShift console.

Of course, you've long been able to run OpenShift on AWS. Indeed, since 2008, you could run RHEL on AWS. And, recently, Red Hat made it possible to run OpenShift on the Google Cloud Platform. What's new here is that AWS and OpenShift have been integrated into one hybrid platform.

Why? Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's CEO, explained: "Container adoption is taking off in the enterprise, and this alliance is designed to accelerate that by giving customers access to AWS services directly within Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. By bringing together the incredible pace of innovation and breadth of functionality that AWS provides with the industry's most comprehensive enterprise-grade container platform, we're enabling customers to bring the combined advantages of these offerings across their hybrid environments with the backing of our joint support."

"Given that Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open-source solutions, our enterprise customers have been passionate about seamlessly running RHEL and various other Red Hat solutions on AWS," added Andy Jassy, AWS's CEO. "With AWS's pace of innovation continuing to accelerate, we're excited about deepening our alliance with Red Hat so that customers can enjoy AWS's unmatched functionality as quickly as it comes out, whether they're using RHEL or Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform."

Specifically, Red Hat executive vice president Paul Cormier blogged, "Wherever an enterprise deployment lives, Red Hat can support it." The AWS alliance "will enable customers to develop and deploy hybrid applications running on Red Hat technologies (Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat JBoss Middleware, and RHEL) on AWS or in their own data-centers with the ability to consume AWS services regardless of where the apps are deployed, and with joint support."

Red Hat and AWS are currently demoing their pairing of AWS and Red Hat technologies at Red Hat Summit in Boston, Mass. If all goes well, it will be made available to customers in Fall 2017.

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