IBM and Red Hat have announced a major expansion to their relationship, which will enable IBM and Red Hat customers to benefit from the combined power of both companies’ technologies in private and public clouds.

The agreement builds on IBM’s recent move to re-engineer its entire software portfolio with containers, including WebSphere, MQ Series and Db2.

 Container technologies are fast becoming a safe and reliable way to move applications across multiple IT footprints, from existing data centers to the public cloud and vice versa. Going hand-in-hand with IBM’s shift to containerized software, is Red Hat’s expansive portfolio of enterprise-grade, cloud-native, and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, which, when combined, provide a clear pathway for enterprises to adopt hybrid cloud computing.

Through the agreement, IBM and Red Hat customers can now:

●    Maximize their existing technology investments and move them more easily to the hybrid cloud with IBM Cloud Private and Red Hat OpenShift serving as the common foundation;
●    Build and deploy containerized applications on one single, integrated container platform IBM Cloud Private providing a single view of all enterprise data;
●    Allow developers to design, modernize, and deploy new applications more quickly while taking advantage of IBM’s cloud-based services such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain with IBM Cloud Private on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

As part of the agreement, IBM will extend its private cloud platforms (IBM Cloud Private and IBM Cloud Private for Data) and its middleware offerings to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform as Red Hat Certified Containers. Customers can benefit from the speed and simplicity of the IBM Cloud Private self-service catalogue, deployment engine and operational management on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform across all footprints of the hybrid cloud including the IBM public cloud.

This extended collaboration is already available to customers, as organizations with eligible Red Hat subscriptions can currently use their Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions on IBM Cloud via the Red Hat Cloud Access solution.

The companies will also partner to provide joint consultancy and implementation services through the IBM Garage and Red Hat Consulting and the solution will be supported by world-class IBM Technology support services and Red Hat Services.

The news parallels a joint development plan designed to accelerate the availability of key pieces of Red Hat’s portfolio on IBM Power Systems. Additionally, IBM, in collaboration with Red Hat, also announced that IBM PowerAI is now available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  

Today, 90 per cent of Fortune 100 companies and more than 100 billion mission-critical transactions per day run on IBM systems. Meanwhile, Red Hat has become the leading Linux platform for the enterprise and one of the primary catalysts fuelling Kubernetes adoption for global IT organizations.

Paul Cormier, president, Products and Technologies, Red Hat said: “Today’s enterprises need a succinct roadmap for digital transformation as well as confidence in deployment consistency across every IT footprint.”

“By extending our long-standing collaboration with IBM, we’re bringing together two leading enterprise application platforms in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and IBM Cloud Private and adding the power of IBM’s software and cloud solutions. Together, we’re providing customers with a supported, consistent offering across their computing environments,” he added.

Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, IBM Hybrid Cloud said: “With IBM’s recent move to containerize its middleware, today’s landmark partnership between IBM and Red Hat provides customers with more choice and flexibility. Our common vision for hybrid cloud using container architectures allows millions of enterprises – from banks, to airlines, to government organizations - to access leading technology from both companies without having to choose between public and private cloud.”

Sam Fatigato, CEO, Coda Global, said: "IBM and Red Hat are leaders in delivering enterprise flexibility with strong support for open standards and hybrid cloud environments. This partnership aligns with Coda Global's strategy to help customers modernize their applications leveraging container-based cloud computing with enterprise-grade management and scale. Coda Global empowers businesses to rapidly bring their greatest ideas to market, and the combination of IBM Cloud Private and Red Hat OpenShift helps us to deliver with speed, quality, and scale.” – TradeArabia News Service