It’s time to modernize: Your UNIX alternative with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Azure

For many organizations, IT modernization begins with the operating system. In the last few years, migrating workloads to Linux from RISC systems has accelerated as organizations seek to take advantage of the potential price/performance advantage of x86 blade hardware solutions. However, as open source becomes more pervasive, many enterprises are realizing additional benefits. Not only can enterprises reduce (or in some cases eliminate) their reliance on legacy systems by

 migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, they can simultaneously create a foundation ready for the transition to cloud-based applications and services.

A large Red Hat customer transitioned from a high-end RISC server to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on x86 and was able to recoup the cost of the project in just over three months. This is without factoring in real estate, depreciation of hardware, and power/cooling. In parallel, they were able to decrease their risk profile: according to one of Red Hat’s chief technologists who has advised many customers on their Linux migration strategy, spares for some RISC vendors have become increasingly difficult to acquire. Some customers readily admit that online auctions have become their primary source for spares. This is troubling on many levels. Factor in the price/performance ratio of RISC vs. x86 and the choice to migrate can become even more appealing.

In addition to the potential cost benefits, Linux has firmly established itself as a go-to delivery platform for modern applications and as a result, it has become a preferred platform for cloud infrastructure. More specifically, the groundwork for today’s container adoption in the enterprise was laid more than a decade ago in Linux. The same operating system enterprises leveraged to optimize their data centers is now optimizing how they package, deploy, and manage applications in the cloud.

When a large entertainment company decided to adapt and redesign one of their classic video games, they not only chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the container operating system to redevelop the game, but also chose to host it on Microsoft Azure because of its flexibility, availability, and integrated support with Red Hat. According to a senior executive, “Red Hat really impressed us with its enterprise grade support. We were surprised that Red Hat open source and Azure support resided in the same office.”

Microsoft and Red Hat are empowering enterprises to optimize and modernize in the cloud. Red Hat solutions are used by more than 90% of the Fortune 500, and one in every three virtual machines that run in Azure is Linux. Enterprises running Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the datacenter can more easily transition to a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Microsoft has embraced Red Hat technology and has committed to optimization with Microsoft platforms. Our mutual customers that use Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Microsoft Azure can benefit from a consistent foundation across physical, virtual, and hybrid cloud deployments.  

Microsoft and Red Hat have committed to further collaboration focused on driving container adoption in the hybrid cloud. Enterprises acknowledge the benefit of using containerized applications to run mission-critical applications, and many are seeking an easier way to extend that into the hybrid cloud. Red Hat Enterprise Linux, coupled with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform running in Azure can enable enterprises to modernize and extend development capabilities using a common framework.