Your essential reading list: Top 10 articles for your IT strategy

As the pace of innovation across the IT industry accelerates, so does the need to stay informed. To help you stay ahead, we’ve gathered our top articles from July into one essential roundup. This collection of top stories highlights the technologies and strategies that are helping our customers build a more secure, productive, and forward-looking IT environment. From major product announcements to real-world customer stories, these insights will help youdiscover the critical tools and guidance that can strengthen your journey. 

1. Model Context Protocol (MCP): Understanding security risks and controls

   The rise of large language models (LLMs) and their use with external tools has brought a new set of security challenges. This article provides a clear, concise look at the security risks inherent in the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new protocol by Anthropic. It explores common vulnerabilities like authentication issues and unauthorized command execution. The author shares practical advice on how to mitigate these risks, helping you take advantage of the power of LLMs safely while maintaining a robust security posture. 

2. Getting started with Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed with IBM watsonx Code Assistant

   Automation teams are always looking for ways to optimize their workflows. In this article, you’ll get a detailed look at Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed with IBM watsonx Code Assistant, a new generative AI service designed to help you write, adopt, and maintain Ansible content more efficiently. This post showcases how this collaboration between Red Hat and IBM turns natural language prompts into Ansible code that adheres to best practices. It shares key features like full playbook generation and the Ansible code bot, a tool that improves code quality. 

3. Red Hat boosts partner engagement with program updates and new Partner Demand Center

   Red Hat is committed to simplifying and enhancing its partner ecosystem with its latest program updates. The Red Hat Specialized Partner Program now offers a clearer path for partners to demonstrate expertise in high-demand areas like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and RHEL AI. This effort also includes the launch of the Red Hat Partner Demand Center, a new platform that gives partners the autonomy to execute marketing campaigns with customizable content and robust performance tracking. With these new tools and updated rebate opportunities, the company is equipping its partners with the resources needed to grow and collaborate effectively.

4. Now available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Select Add-On

   This article announces the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Select Add-On, a new offering designed for customers in highly regulated industries. It details that while standard subscriptions cover critical vulnerabilities, this add-on provides a solution for organizations that need to address additional, non-standard Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to meet strict compliance requirements. The author notes that the add-on includes a 90-day turnaround time for fixes and a package of 10 fixes, with the option to purchase more as needed. The article also emphasizes the requirement of having a dedicated Security Technical Account Manager (TAM) to facilitate these fixes, highlighting how the TAM’s expertise equips organizations to stay compliant with industry regulations and internal audit mandates. 

5. Why agents are the new kingmakers

   It’s a common belief that developers hold all the power in the IT world, but what happens when AI takes the lead? This article argues that AI-driven agents are becoming the new influential “kingmakers,” poised to make foundational decisions from selecting frameworks to writing code. But don’t worry, the authors clarify that humans remain at the core of this shift, as they control the data and priorities that guide these agents. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to understand how to embrace this new paradigm and position themselves as the “crafters of kingmakers” to lead the future of software innovation. 

6. Disaster recovery approaches for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

   When migrating critical workloads, a solid disaster recovery (DR) plan is essential. This article reviews  2 main architectural approaches for virtual machines (VMs) on Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization: unidirectional and symmetric replication. The authors explain the critical differences between each model, from network latency and cost to automation potential. It’s a foundational guide that helps you understand how to align your DR strategy with your business needs and prepare for the second part of this series, which will explore the orchestration layer. 

7. From chaos to cohesion: How NC State is rebuilding IT around Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

   What do you do when your IT infrastructure is a fragmented mess and your budget is being stretched to the limit? This blogpost shares the story of North Carolina State University, a customer who faced these exact challenges. Led by IT Manager Shawn Taylor, the university found a strategic solution in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. The article explains how they are consolidating their physical and virtual workloads onto a single, unified platform, not only creating a more predictable budget but also bridging the cultural and technical gaps between their IT and development teams. It’s an honest, ground-level perspective on how a small team is using open hybrid cloud solutions to build a cohesive foundation ready for the future. 

8. 9 articles Red Hat customers are reading after Red Hat Summit

   This roundup provides a look at the top articles our readers are engaging with right now, reflecting the most critical topics in today’s IT world. From a free 90-day trial for the Red Hat Learning Subscription and the latest on RHEL 10 to crucial information on secrets management with HashiCorp Vault and Red Hat OpenShift, this list offers essential guidance. We also recap key announcements from Red Hat Summit 2025 and explore the future of post-quantum cryptography. It’s a snapshot of the stories that are helping our customers navigate the demands of modern IT and prepare for the future. 

9. Accelerate virtual machine migrations with the migration toolkit for virtualization 2.9

   For virtualization administrators looking to minimize disruption during migrations, this article introduces the latest version of the migration toolkit for virtualization (MTV) 2.9. The authors highlight a new storage offloading feature, developed in a joint effort with certified storage partner Hitachi Vantara, that accelerates cold migrations by up to 10x by delegating the data copy process to the underlying storage systems instead of the network. The article shares how this feature can significantly reduce downtime and lower project risk, freeing up network resources for other critical workloads. It also covers other key updates in the release, including a raw copy mode, the ability to change non-conformant VM names, and an upgraded user interface for a more efficient experience. 

10. The Red Hat Ansible Certified Collection for Terraform has been updated to support HashiCorp Terraform Enterprise

    The latest update to the Red Hat Ansible Certified Collection for HashiCorp Terraform is designed to unify your automation efforts. This article announces that the collection now supports both Terraform Enterprise and HCP Terraform. It explains how this integration allows organizations to use Ansible Automation Platform as a central hub to manage infrastructure-as-code (IaC) efforts. This creates a cohesive strategy where Terraform handles initial infrastructure provisioning, while Ansible handles Day 1 and Day 2 operations. The update also includes an essential new approval gate, which gives teams greater control and security by allowing them to review and approve Terraform plan outputs before any changes are applied. 

Beyond the roundup: Your next steps

The stories in this roundup demonstrate Red Hat’s commitment to delivering powerful, flexible, and strong open source solutions that enable enterprises to innovate. From simplifying system management with AI and solidifying security foundations against future threats to enabling optimal partner collaboration, our work is designed to help you tackle modern IT demands and build for what’s next.