In-person event

Red Hat Summit: Connect 2025 Jacksonville, FL

October 29, 2025Jacksonville, FLSawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa
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Explore, connect, and grow together

Advances in enterprise IT are accelerating at a rapid pace, and organizations will either need to acquire the skills and technology to adapt or risk falling behind. Red Hat Summit: Connect invites you to be at the forefront of industry innovation by joining us in Jacksonville, FL. 

 Engage with your peers, Red Hat experts and technologies to help take your organization to the next level.

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Customize your learning experience

Enhance your skills, grow your expertise, and connect with peers through interactive breakout sessions, hands-on labs, networking opportunities and more.

*Agenda is subject to change

Agenda

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM

Check-in and Breakfast

(Masters E)

9:00 AM - 9:05 AM

Welcome Remarks

(Masters E)

Vince Tsugranes,

Principal Chief Architect, Red Hat

9:05 AM - 9:50 AM

Innovate freely, operate efficiently: Build on a unified AI and application platform

(Masters E)

As the world moves from the cloud era to the generative AI era, business and technical leaders are searching for the best ways to manage the transition. How can we improve cloud environments to drive modernization? What role will open source play in the evolving landscape? How do we build a foundation that enables success, in an AI future that is still not well defined? Join us to learn how Red Hat helps leading-edge companies balance innovation with efficiency, and agility with digital sovereignty. We’ll explore pragmatic strategies to help your business succeed in this transitional time, ​​building on unified platforms that bridge existing cloud investments with future AI capabilities, enable teams to collaborate, and turn uncertainty into strategic advantage.

Brian Gracely,

Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy, Red Hat

9:50 AM - 10:00 AM

Power AI Everywhere with Intel

(Masters E)

Discover how Intel helps Enterprises move from AI pilots to payoff. Intel’s end-to-end AI portfolio, including hardware, software, and a broad partner ecosystem, enables you to build, deploy, and scale AI across cloud, data center, edge, and client. Whether you're a developer, architect, or decision-maker, you'll leave with practical ideas and proven tools to power your next AI move.

Jen Horvath,

Global Account Executive, Intel

10:00 AM - 10:10 AM

Customer Keynote - CSX

(Masters E)

Eric Grabill,

Lead Senior Product Manager IT, CSX

10:10 AM - 10:15 AM

Closing Remarks

(Masters E)

Vince Tsugranes,

Principal Chief Architect, Red Hat

10:15 AM - 10:25 AM

Break

(Masters E)

10:25 AM - 11:10 AM

Breakout sessions

10:25 AM - 11:10 AM

Real-World Design and Implementation of OpenShift Virtualization: Insights from Manufacturing, Media, and Healthcare

Join Portworx and Red Hat for an in-depth exploration of Portworx and OpenShift Virtualization in action across the automotive, media, and healthcare industries. Attendees will gain insights into real-world deployment patterns, key design considerations, and best practices to make their own modern virtualization journey successful. Whether you're planning your virtualization strategy or looking to enhance your current deployment, this session will provide valuable takeaways to help you build a robust and scalable infrastructure.

David Castellani,

Cloud Native Architect, Portworx

10:25 AM - 11:10 AM

Accelerate Your Cloud Journey with Red Hat and AWS

Cloud modernization isn’t a one-size-fits-all journey — but the Red Hat and AWS partnership delivers a consistent, scalable foundation for every stage. In this session, we’ll dive into how technical teams are deploying hybrid and cloud-native architectures using RHEL, ROSA, and Ansible Automation Platform — all natively integrated with AWS services. Explore modernization paths for legacy workloads, strategies for managing virtual machines alongside containerized and AI/ML workloads, and how automation best practices are accelerating time-to-value. Real-world customer examples and architecture patterns will guide the discussion, along with practical tips you can take back to your team.

Steve Mirman,

Principle Solution Architect, AWS

11:10 AM - 11:20 AM

Break

(Masters E)

11:20 AM - 1:00 PM

Hands-on labs

11:20 AM - 1:00 PM

The Essential Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 hands-on lab

Get started with RHEL 10 today! After a short briefing on RHEL 10 updates, you will get hands-on with several of the core new RHEL 10 features like: building and managing image mode built images; working with the command-line assistant, an on-system AI driven assistant to help you manage your systems; and implementing security standards with RHEL system roles, powered by Ansible.

Kevin Zona,

Associate Principal Account Solution Architect, Red Hat

Brian Kulawiak,

Senior Account Solution Architect, Red Hat

11:20 AM - 1:00 PM

Private LLM as a Service - A Practical Introduction with OpenShift AI

Organizations are increasingly turning to AI for transformative business insights and task automation. This session offers a practical introduction to LLM-as-a-Service (LLMaaS), showing you how to build and manage custom Large Language Models (LLMs) to meet specific enterprise needs. These LLMs can be served for business insights as well as linked to other AI agents to perceive the world around them and complete tasks. We'll cover deploying LLMs securely within your private cloud, ensuring data security, scalability, and compliance. You'll get a clear overview of integrated services, access controls, and usage metrics for chargeback. We'll also explore practical, high-impact use cases like AI-powered code assistants for developers and agentic AI applications, demonstrating the immediate business value LLMaaS can deliver.

Patrick Byrnes,

AI Specialist, Red Hat

Hunter Grant,

AI Specialist Solution Architect, Red Hat

Brian Addicks,

Senior Account Solution Architect, Red Hat

Jeremiah Buckley,

Associate Principal Account Solution Architect, Red Hat

Breakout sessions

11:20 AM - 12:05 PM

Better Together: Full Infrastructure Lifecycle Management with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and HashiCorp Terraform Enterprise

Ansible and Terraform are the de facto standards for IT automation and infrastructure as code for a reason. And for modern enterprises, managing the full infrastructure lifecycle—from day 0 provisioning to day 1 configuration and complex day 2 operations—requires a unified strategy, not siloed tools. This session provides a blueprint for end-to-end orchestration. We’ll show you how to combine Terraform's Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strengths for day 0 builds with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's power to configure, manage, and orchestrate the rest of the application and service lifecycle. Join us to learn how to: orchestrate a unified workflow, seamlessly calling Terraform Enterprise to provision directly from within Ansible Automation Platform; and accelerate time-to-value using the Ansible Certified Content Collection and provider for Terraform Enterprise to ensure consistent, reliable, and supported integration. See it in action with demos on how Ansible Automation Platform and Terraform Enterprise work together to reduce complexity, improve risk posture, and manage the full infrastructure lifecycle

Brad Krumme,

Senior Specialist Solution Architect, Ansible, Red Hat

12:05 PM - 12:15 PM

Break

Masters E

12:15 PM - 1:00 PM

Unlocking AI Ops with Ansible Automation Platform : Putting Intelligence into action

Complex hybrid cloud IT environments generate massive operational data, overwhelming traditional monitoring. AIOps platforms use machine learning to analyze this data, providing insights, but require action to realize full value, which is where automated remediation with Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) comes in. AIOps detects anomalies and generates structured alerts that trigger Event-Driven Ansible. Ansible Rulebooks match these alerts to pre-defined remediation workflows, executing Ansible Playbooks to resolve issues. This integration shifts operations from reactive to proactive, reducing MTTR, minimizing error, and automating responses. By connecting AI insights to automation, it enables self-healing infrastructure, improving reliability and freeing engineers for innovation.

Ben Forrester,

Associate Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Ansible - Enterprise, Red Hat

1:00 PM - 1:45 PM

Lunch

(Masters E)

1:45 PM - 2:30 PM

Breakout sessions

1:45 PM - 2:30 PM

Migrate to Innovate: Building an AI-Ready Future with Red Hat and Microsoft

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations are under pressure to modernize their infrastructure while preparing for an AI-driven future. This session explores how Microsoft and Red Hat are partnering to help enterprises securely migrate, modernize, and innovate across their IT environments — from infrastructure to applications — with a clear path to AI readiness.

John Wilson,

Solution Engineer, Microsoft

1:45 PM - 2:30 PM

Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud to Lower TCO for Containers, AI and VMs with Google Cloud NetApp Volumes

Already using Red Hat OpenShift on-prem? Not yet using Red Hat OpenShift? Learn how Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud can deliver lower TCO leveraging Google Cloud native technologies for infrastructure cost optimization (such as custom VM shapes), and the benefits of a standards-based, hybrid application platform for Containerized, AI and VM-based workloads with Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (GCNV). Join us to: get an overview of Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud for Containers, VMs and AI workloads; understand how Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud delivers lower TCO by leveraging native technologies such as custom VM shapes; learn about resources that can help you assess and estimate the TCO reduction potential of your Red Hat OpenShift workloads on Google Cloud; understand how Red Hat OpenShift and GCNV deliver increased levels of operational efficiency by leveraging Managed Services; and understand how Google Cloud provides ability to define migration journeys optimized for your own requirements to accelerate time to value (TCO reduction), while minimizing migration effort Join us for actionable guidance on how to reduce your TCO by migrating Red Hat OpenShift workloads to Google Cloud, while future proofing your workloads with industry leading AI and a platform for VM modernization with GCNV.

Michael Curtis,

Principal Ecosystem Solution Architect, Red Hat

2:30 PM - 2:40 PM

Break

(Masters E)

2:40 PM - 4:20 PM

Hands-on labs

2:40 PM - 4:20 PM

Day in the Life of an Automator (AKA "Ansible Mission Critical Roadshow")

Join Red Hat for our Mission-Critical Automation Workshop, a dynamic hands-on experience designed to introduce participants to Ansible Automation Platform and to immerse you in the journey of a new automator joining a team, progressing from using automation for information gathering to maturing their automation journey and building responsive automation that prevents and mitigates outages, minimizes downtime, and ensures mission-critical workloads remain operational.

Brad Krumme,

Senior Specialist Solution Architect, Ansible, Red Hat

Micahel Bredemeier ,

Associate Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Ansible, Red Hat

2:40 PM - 4:20 PM

Day 2 operations and automation with OpenShift Virtualization

In this hands-on lab, you’ll learn how to use Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for essential administration and optimization practices. You’ll experience OpenShift Virtualization’s capabilities beyond initial deployment and how it supports efficient and reliable platform and VM management. After working through real-world scenarios, you’ll be ready to use OpenShift Virtualization not only to host VMs but also to operate and automate in a way that aligns with your organization’s evolving needs.

Naveen Kendyala,

Principal Specialist Solution Architect, Application Platform - Enterprise, Red Hat

Nick Johnston,

Enterprise Automation Specialist, Red Hat

Breakout sessions

2:40 PM - 3:25 PM

The RHEL 10 Roadmap: Thinking differently about a Linux platform

In this deep dive roadmap session, the RHEL team will unveil ambitious new features that will ignite the use of large language models, improve productivity and accessibility with new RHEL Lightspeed assistive technology features, and improve testing and deployment of the operating system as a container. Harnessing the power of post-quantum cryptography and trusted computing, you’ll be able to boldly fortify your defense against emerging security threats, ensuring that sensitive data remains impervious to the challenges posed by both current and future adversaries. Over the last 25 years, Linux has transformed from a niche operating system favored by tech enthusiasts and developers into a mainstream powerhouse with a vast ecosystem of applications, from embedded systems and supercomputers to large-scale data centers, revolutionizing how organizations approach technology with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation. This evolution has changed the demands on RHEL, and the professionals who manage it. The needs have grown increasingly complex over the years, driven by diverse use cases, security regulations, expanding hardware architectures, and innovation in the cloud. Successful deployments of RHEL have become a complex dance between a network of experts including security, performance, network, and storage. Join us to better understand how RHEL 10 helps you and your team with tough OS planning problems, beefs up security and provides the foundation for running AI workloads.

Ella Dudkin,

Associate Principal Architect, Red Hat

Norman Owens,

Senior Solutions Architect, Red Hat

3:25 PM - 3:35 PM

Break

Masters E

3:35 PM - 4:20 PM

Red Hat AI roadmap: Our vision and strategy

There is no doubt that generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a generational technology with the power to transform every aspect of a business. In this strategy session, you’ll hear how Red Hat is focused on helping make AI more accessible, efficient, and cost effective while providing the freedom to develop, train, and deploy AI-enabled applications anywhere using Red Hat AI. We’ll also give you a sneak peek into some of the cool capabilities that will continue to address both generative and predictive AI use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI and Red Hat OpenShift AI. Attend this session to learn how Red Hat AI accelerates the development and deployment of enterprise AI solutions across hybrid cloud environments, helping organizations unlock the true value of AI.

Vince Tsugranes,

Principal Chief Architect, Red Hat

4:20 PM - 5:30 PM

Networking Reception

(American Gator Club)

Highlights

il

Interactive labs

Learn about Red Hat® products and technologies at your own pace with step-by-step interactive labs with Red Hat experts and partners, no matter where you are in your journey.

Partner Ecosystem Collaborate Illustration

The power of our partners

We believe that collaborative communities of experts create the best open source, IT, and customer experiences. So we're bringing our trusted partners to you. Hear from Intel, AWS, Google, Microsoft and Portworx at our Summit: Connects. 

CSX_logo

Customer spotlight - CSX

Hear from CSX on their experience partnering with Red Hat and their technology journey.

Featured speakers

See who will be speaking at Red Hat Summit: Connect 2025 in Jacksonville, FL.

Brian Gracely

Red Hat

Brian Gracely

Senior Director, Portfolio Strategy, Red Hat

Senior Director Portfolio Strategy, focused on Open Hybrid Cloud, AI, OpenShift. He brings 20+ years of experience (Red Hat, Wikibon, EMC, Virtustream, NetApp, Cisco) in Strategy, Product Management, Systems Engineering, Marketing and M&A. Host The Cloudcast.

Vince Tsugranes

Red Hat

Vince Tsugranes

Principal Chief Architect, Red Hat

Vincent Tsugranes is Red Hat’s Chief Architect for the Healthcare and Aviation industries, helping Red Hat build tools that solve interesting customer problems the Open Source way. He has 25 years of experience leading Architecture, Software Engineering, Operations, and Emerging Technology. He holds a Masters in Management from Harvard, runs a small farm, and is a big fan of Agricultural Technology.

Jen Horvath

Intel

Jen Horvath

Global Account Executive, Intel

Consistent demonstration of problem-solving, organization, management and leadership to ensure positive business impact via successful project completion. Branching over 20 years’ experience in the world of communications into media & entertainment. Depth of practice in sales including enterprise sales, leadership, operations, and program management. Partnered with marketing, product development, and ecosystem players to bring a new product to market from point of origin to release.

Eric Grabill

CSX

Eric Grabill

Lead Senior Product Manager IT, CSX

Eric has been a Senior Manager of IT at CSX for 3 years and with the company for a total of 6 and a half years. Previous to CSX, he was a Technical Program Lead at State Farm Insurance for 12 years. Eric also served as a CW4 (Chief Warrant Officer 4) in the US Army Reserves for 25 years and retired in Oct 2023. He received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from Liberty University in 2002. Eric has  4 children and has been married to his wife Jen for 23 years.

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