Originally posted on August 12, 2013, by Tim Burk, vice president, Cloud and Virtualization Development, Red Hat - Part 4 of a 4 part series [1]

Tim's earlier posts include:

• The evolution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and the answer to "Who will be the Red Hat of OpenStack?"
• Why combine Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenStack? Technology Optimization Benefits.
• Why combine Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenStack? Integration and Ecosystem Benefits.

As described in my earlier posts, it is plain to see that Red Hat is not treating OpenStack as "just" a layered product.

Rather, Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform is the next major evolution in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family. The tight levels of integration and responsible enterprise grade feature enhancement necessitate this combination. We believe that doing OpenStack right – to make it secure, performant, easy to use, and evolve over time – is only possible by taking a holistic approach.

The prior product variants of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family continue to meet the needs and price-point of non-cloud scenarios. In addition, the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform variant augments the standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux foundation with optimizations and features combined with the accompanying Red Hat supplied OpenStack components. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenStack are a very natural fit. The boundaries of infrastructure software are expanded. No other vendor can provide this level of OpenStack integration and optimization on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat's objective with OpenStack is to use our expertise in upstream innovation, combined with enterprise product hardening, maintenance, and support to deliver industry-disruptive OpenStack capabilities in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

To answer the question "Who will be the Red Hat of OpenStack?"

The answer is here today.

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, Red Hat has claimed its place as "the Red Hat of OpenStack." And this is just the beginning.

1. Editor’s note: In a four-part blog series, Tim Burke has reviewed the evolution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and highlighted a few of the key benefits offered by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. In this, Tim's final post, he answers the question he launched this series with: "Who will be the Red Hat of OpenStack?" All statements in the blog represent the views of the author and Red Hat as of the original date of publication and have not be updated or revised subsequent to that date.