Modernize with confidence: Build a threat-resistant Linux foundation with Red Hat Consulting

Operating an unsupported or outdated Linux distribution can expose your organization to critical security risks, drive up maintenance costs, and keep you from using the newest and best tools. However, undergoing a successful Linux modernization effort requires deep insights into your current environment, careful planning, and a clear roadmap that organizations are often unprepared to handle alone.

To help you strategically plan and execute your Red Hat Enterprise Linux modernization, Red Hat Consulting has formalized the discovery and planning process into a two-week intensive engagement that dives deep into your existing computing environment, including versions, dependencies, and post-quantum cryptography readiness. The Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment provides your organization with a detailed blueprint on how to modernize on the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux version, sets the foundation for standardization, and provides a framework for a secured standard operating environment including post quantum cryptography readiness.

With the Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment, our experts work alongside your team to ensure you understand the essential tools and methods necessary to confidently plan and execute a migration, an in-place upgrade, or prepare for the threat that quantum computing poses to current cryptography standards. The core objectives of the engagement are to:

• Assess complexity in moving to a fully supported environment
• Identify target systems for modernization efforts
• Chart a clear path toward a Secured Standard Operating Environment
• Assess current readiness for post quantum cryptography (PQC), and plan for remediation

Below we’ll detail the key phases involved in a typical engagement. We’ll also share some takeaways from real-world customer engagements and highlight how Red Hat Consulting worked with IT teams to ensure they achieved their modernization goals.

Phase 1: Preparation and setting the foundation

The Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment engagement is a true partnership between Red Hat Consulting and your infrastructure team. To ensure we have the background needed to develop a forward-looking plan, Red Hat spends time in the beginning of the engagement collecting comprehensive background data, validating your business goals, and understanding the existing internal knowledge of your environment.

In one of our recent engagements, a customer was starting with a mix of Linux distributions across physical datacenters and cloud providers. The Linux environment was a mix of currently supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux, end-of-life Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and upstream distros. They were using third party tooling for patch management and identity, and were responding to reports from a security team to address compliance issues.

Phase 2: Workshop deep-dives

The core of this engagement with Red Hat Consulting involves a series of in-depth workshops, which typically span 4 days. These on-site workshops are designed to cover every angle of your current and desired future state. Red Hat sits down with subject matter experts from your organization to go over all aspects of your environment, including content management, patching processes, new host build pipelines, automation, compliance tooling, and other aspects. We document your current processes and procedures, and map them to the desired end state.

The customer detailed above had Red Hat Enterprise Linux in their environment, but we quickly discovered that they were not using some of the included functionality that could address known security gaps like identity management (IdM) and Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) tooling. Additionally, they were paying for third party tooling to manage patching, reporting and identity, and manually addressing compliance and security concerns. Red Hat was able to identify tooling to consolidate cost, cover gaps in the existing environment, and standardize deployment and maintenance operations.

Phase 3: Deliverables and next steps

After the onsite workshop sessions, Red Hat Consulting experts synthesize all findings into a comprehensive package, typically presented to your team the following week. This includes review of the following items:

1. Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment and high-level design report: This detailed document provides the architecture assessment, migration complexity analysis, and a proposed roadmap.
2. Red Hat Consulting approach: A proposal outlining how Red Hat Consulting can accelerate the implementation of the high-level design.

This final presentation is a critical milestone, aligning you and Red Hat on the delivery approach and setting the stage for the next phase of your standardization journey. Red Hat provides an actionable roadmap that addresses the gaps between your current state and a Secured Standard Operating Environment, marking individual steps to be taken and a programmatic approach to achieving the end state in a security-focused manner with minimal downtime. Whether you follow the plan independently or engage Red Hat Consulting to assist, you will know the recommended path to follow.

Protect and modernize your environment

Remaining on an unsupported or aging Linux distribution is a ticking clock for security concerns and operational costs, but rushing into a migration without a clear roadmap is equally risky. The Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment bridges that gap, giving you a predictable and structured path forward that keeps your business running smoothly while you modernize.

Ready to take the next step? Contact Red Hat Consulting or your Red Hat account team directly to discuss if the Comprehensive Enterprise Linux Assessment is right for your organization.