Red Hat Outlines Comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service Cloud Strategy

A key component of Red Hat Cloud Foundations, Red Hat PaaS to leverage JBoss Enterprise Middleware for Open Choice in application development and deployment

RALEIGH, N.C. -

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced its vision for a comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution as part of its Cloud Foundations, a portfolio that will promote consistency between enterprise applications and the cloud. Red Hat is the only vendor that has the infrastructure capable of delivering an open source, flexible cloud stack, incorporating operating system, middleware and virtualization. Based on JBoss Enterprise Middleware, Red Hat PaaS is designed to be the solution within the portfolio that will allow enterprises, cloud service providers, ISVs and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers to take existing assets and develop new applications and deploy them to a wide range of public and private clouds.

Red Hat plans to bring the JBoss Enterprise Middleware strategy of Open Choice to the cloud through flexible deployment options in addition to a choice of development frameworks and languages. Red Hat's next-generation PaaS solution will be designed to simplify the development of new simple web applications as well as complex, transactional enterprise applications and integrate them into an enterprise. Additionally, Red Hat PaaS is expected to offer a comprehensive reference architecture to enable existing applications to be re-purposed within a wide choice of private and public clouds, protecting existing investments. With Red Hat PaaS, enterprises, cloud service providers, ISVs and SaaS providers will have the opportunity to leverage their existing skills without rewriting applications.

"Application infrastructure (middleware) is a key technology layer in enterprise computing, and it is of equal role and importance in cloud computing as well. To achieve the full cost, agility, productivity and scale benefits of cloud computing, applications must be deployed over a native cloud-enabled application infrastructure. Mainstream organizations must prepare to evaluate a full range of deployment options, including cloud, when planning their future application infrastructure investments," said Yefim Natis, vice president, Distinguished Analyst, Gartner, Inc.

Red Hat PaaS Built on JBoss Open Choice

Red Hat plans to make PaaS available as software offered as a service in public or private clouds to help developers and organizations build, deploy and manage the entire life cycle of applications. Red Hat PaaS solutions will be based upon Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise Middleware, a comprehensive product portfolio for application and integration services, and Red Hat's cloud engine for lifecycle management of applications.

Support Programming Models of Choice - Red Hat PaaS will be based on the JBoss Open Choice strategy, which enables developers to build applications in their programming framework or language of choice, including Java EE, POJO, Spring, Seam, Struts, GWT, Groovy and Ruby. JBoss Developer Studio is expected to include a series of Eclipse plug-ins to deploy applications into a JBoss platform instance within a cloud. This will allow developers to leverage existing skills and not force them to start over with proprietary cloud APIs.

Deployment Portability & Interoperability - JBoss cloud images are expected to be available through a variety of public and private clouds including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Amazon EC2, Windows Hyper-V and more through Red Hat's cloud engine. This feature is designed to enable enterprises to migrate existing applications to the cloud without rewriting them. Red Hat application engine will be designed to enable developers and IT operations staff to create JBoss platform instances in public or private clouds and provide elastic scalability.

Comprehensive Middleware Reference Architecture for PaaS - Red Hat PaaS will offer a comprehensive set of middleware capabilities, beyond simple containers, for building, deploying and integrating applications within clouds and on-premise deployments. Red Hat PaaS is expected to include containers, transactions, messaging, data services, rules, presentation experience and integration services.

Entire Application Lifecycle - Red Hat PaaS will seek to provide all of the services necessary for application lifecycle management, including building, deploying and managing. JBoss Operations Network offers the tools to manage and monitor JBoss platform instances in the cloud.

"Our enterprise customers leverage the JBoss Open Choice strategy today to protect existing investments while retaining the ability to choose the right developer environment for the problem at hand and skill set," said Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager, Middleware Business Unit at Red Hat. "With growing interest in the benefits of cloud computing, enterprises are looking to leverage cloud deployment of existing applications as well as develop new applications in the cloud. We believe that Red Hat PaaS will be ideally suited to deliver the flexibility required by CIOs to respond to business needs with rapid development and deployment and simplified management."

Red Hat PaaS Aims to Optimize Application Lifecycle

Today, enterprises can begin to deploy JBoss Enterprise Middleware in private clouds by using Red Hat Consulting services and offerings from partners. Red Hat offers a comprehensive suite of services across the application lifecycle designed to move existing deployments or develop new applications to private and public clouds and manage those cost-effectively.

Over time, Red Hat PaaS is expected to expand to areas such as testing and QA services, automated elasticity, provisioning, deployment services for building multi-tiered, multi-service applications and metadata management across services.

To learn more about this announcement, join the Red Hat executive team for an online press conference that will be broadcast live via webcast on August 25, 2010 at 11:00 am ET.

To view the webcast, or to watch the replay, please visit http://www-waa-akam.thomson-webcast.net/us/dispatching/?event_id=4823cc54f791257334ecc3038e901faf&portal_id=af9b227bf07c733390c2738ee0330646.

For more information about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for six consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with virtualization, applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending, the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements, and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

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  • About Red Hat
  • Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



  • Forward-Looking Statements
  • Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.