Red Hat, Inc. has released a major new version of its flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to the channel.
This version attempts to lay a foundation for open hybrid cloud and serves enterprise workloads across converged infrastructures such as V-block and FlexPod. But Red Hat is saying Enterprise Linux 7 is going to be more than that. Version 7 has been built to push the modern data centre.
The release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 also marks its tenth anniversary and the company is positioning this new version has having the ability to deliver new applications via secure, lightweight containers to scaling infrastructure to meet big data requirements with new and enhanced file systems.
Key Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 features to address next-generation IT needs include:
- Enhanced application development, delivery, portability and isolation through Linux Containers, including Docker, across physical, virtual, and cloud deployments as well as development, test and production environments;
- Significant file system improvements, including XFS as the default file system, scaling to 500 TB;
- Cross-realm trust to easily enable secure access for Microsoft Active Directory users across Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux domains, providing the flexibility for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to co-exist within heterogeneous data centres; and
- Powerful and secure application run-times and development, delivery and troubleshooting tools, integrated into the platform and container-ready.
According to the company, bare metal servers, virtual machines, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are converging to form data centre environments that can meet constantly changing business needs. Answering the heterogeneous realities of modern enterprise IT, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 offers a unified foundation that enables channel partners to balance modern demands of customer data centres handing task such as big data, virtual machines and the cloud or hybrid cloud.
Management of the data centres is another factor addressed in the new version of Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat claims that with growing requests for complex systems, on-demand services and robust security, IT teams need more control, more clarity and more scalability without having to deploy dozens of specialized tools. Independent of deployment scale, scope or complexity, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 offers military-grade security and the mission-critical reliability. They include:
- Components such as systemd, a standard for modernizing the management of processes, services, security and other resources;
- Built-in performance profiles, tuning and instrumentation for optimized performance and scalability;
- Unified management tooling and management framework with OpenLMI for streamlined administration and system configuration; and
- Enhanced application isolation and security applied via containerization to protect against both unintentional interference and malicious attacks.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 will be backed by Red Hat’s extensive global ecosystem of services and support. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 will be supported by Red Hat’s training and certification program, featuring classroom, virtual and on-site team courses.