Navigating complexity, delivering value: our take on why Forrester named Red Hat OpenShift a Leader

Today's IT leaders face intense pressure to accelerate innovation while managing a complex mix of technologies. They are faced with the challenge of integrating AI, modernizing legacy systems and controlling costs within a complex hybrid cloud that spans datacenters, public clouds and the edge. The core question for every technology leader is how to build a platform strategy that tames this complexity, strengthens security and reliability, and creates a foundation for future growth.

At Red Hat, our hybrid cloud strategy is designed to solve this challenge. We believe the solution is a consistent, open platform that empowers organizations to build and run any application, anywhere.

Red Hat OpenShift is at the heart of this strategy, providing a single, trusted foundation for your existing virtualized applications as well as your modern, cloud-native services. By offering a powerful virtualization alternative through OpenShift Virtualization and a pathway into artificial intelligence with Red Hat OpenShift AI, OpenShift helps you connect the infrastructure you have today with the cloud-native future you are building for tomorrow.

This is why I’m so proud that Red Hat has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Multicloud Container Platforms, Q3 2025. We feel that this recognition is highly respected, independent acknowledgement that our strategy is not only resonating with experts and observers, but also delivering tangible value to our customers.

We believe that Forrester’s comprehensive evaluation, which scored Red Hat highest in both the “Current Offering” and “Strategy” categories, confirms that we are successfully addressing the most pressing needs of enterprise IT. The report notes, "Red Hat excels in core Kubernetes areas, offering robust operator options, powerful management, GitOps automation, and flexible interfaces." Our technical excellence provides the stability and control your organization needs to more effectively manage critical applications at scale.

Recognizing more than just our technical capability, the Forrester report also acknowledges that OpenShift is a "good fit for enterprises that prioritize support, reliability, and advanced engineering, particularly in regulated industries such as financial services."

To us, this position as a leader isn't just about where we are today, it's also about our clear, forward-looking strategy focused on helping you harness the power of AI across your entire organization. We are committed to providing an open and trusted platform that supports the full lifecycle of AI development and operations.

Being named a leader is an honor and a reflection of our deep commitment to our customers and to the open source communities that help us drive innovation. Red Hat OpenShift is the platform to help enterprises master today's complexity and build what's next.

I encourage you to explore the full report to gain deeper insights into Forrester's analysis. And I also want to acknowledge that our placement in this report is not possible without the support and engagement of our customers and partners—collaboration enables innovation. 

Get the report

Access the full Forrester Wave™: Multicloud Container Platforms, Q3 2025 report to see why Red Hat is a Leader. Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here .

Learn from Red Hat’s customers and partners

To meet the constant demand and realize their boldest ideas, our customers need a comprehensive and consistent hybrid cloud platform they can trust: Red Hat OpenShift. Red Hat’s customer success stories illustrate, step-by-step, how customers have realized the benefits of this innovative technology.

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