Migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 6 steps

1. Deploy a test lab or pilot project. Many customers opt for a test lab approach where a small number of application environments can be evaluated on Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®.

2. Qualify the stack. Organizations first need to qualify their software stack for Linux. IT has typically accumulated a broad range of third-party software components for hardware enablement, storage enablement, middleware, monitoring, utilities, databases, and more.

3. Port your in-house applications. Porting of code from UNIX to Linux is typically straightforward. Red Hat ships with a broad range of developer tools and compilers to accelerate the effort.

4. Train your IT staff. Key staff should be trained as early in the process as possible. Although UNIX skills apply well to Linux, there is much to know that is specific to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With Red Hat Training courses, it becomes much easier.

5. Prepare a Red Hat Enterprise Linux standard build. Current provisioning methods using Kickstart are able to codify organizational requirements in a flexible and repeatable manner.

6. Deploy a pilot. Install the target systems using a repeatable provisioning (closed-loop) approach, leveraging Red Hat Network to ensure fully up-to-date provisioning.

For more details on how to migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 6 steps, download the whitepaper [PDF]