Red Hat pushes open virtualisation

Open source hot shot, Red Hat, has introduced Version 3.0 of Enterprise Virtualisation with significantly expanded capabilities for both its server and desktop virtualisation management tools and its Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.   

That is the view of Gary Chen, research manager, Cloud and Virtualisation System Software at analysts, IDC. And according to Red Hat itself many of its largest customers, based on revenue, are already deploying dual-source virtualisation strategies, with over 80% of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation customers deploying Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation as an alternative side-by-side with VMware.

Red Hat is hoping to see open virtualisation gain more traction over the coming months through the work of the Open Virtualisation Alliance and oVirt project. As a founding member of the Open Virtualisation Alliance, Red Hat has worked closely with leading IT vendors to foster the adoption of KVM-based solutions, ensuring that customers can choose from a wide range of virtualisation products and services.

In addition, Red Hat is a lead sponsor of the industry-backed open source oVirt project, which has the goal of promoting the development of open source virtualisation management technologies.

Version 3.0 of Enterprise Virtualisation is seen by Red Hat as helping it take a major step into the cloud and virtualisation market. For example, it has a joint initiative with BMC to bring customers choice and expand their virtualization options. BMC plans to support Version 3.0 in the near future, enabling joint customers to leverage the best technology of both companies.

BMC is just one of a large cohort of partners Red Hat has lined up behind Version 3.0. Cisco and Red Hat, for example, have been working to ease the management of the virtualised datacentre. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation 3.0 now offers integration with Cisco’s Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which enables customers to easily collapse virtual and physical networking into a single infrastructure.

Fujitsu will enable customers to run optimized virtualisation environments on Fujitsu's PRIMEQUEST and PRIMERGY servers, while Hitachi expects Version 3.0 to address customer needs such as expandability and flexibility for cloud infrastructure. Intel expects it to provide improvements in scalable performance and manageability for virtualised infrastructures.

Other systems vendors in the partner community include NEC Corporation, NetApp, and SGI.

Red Hat has also introduced a central hub where all the ecosystem partners can showcase information on their products. Known as The Market Place, it offers a forum for collaboration, documentation and trial evaluations of certified products and applications.

The new certified status will apply to partner products that integrate with the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation API. Early entries on the list come from Acronis, CiRBA, eG Innovations, ManageIQ, Radware, Sourcefire, and VKernel.