Red Hat, one of the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, and the CentOS Project today announced they are joining forces to build a new CentOS, capable of driving forward development and adoption of next-generation open source technologies.
This collaboration strengthens Red Hat’s proven business model by extending the Red Hat open source development ecosystem. Red Hat anticipates that taking a role as a catalyst within the CentOS community will enable it to accelerate development of enterprise-grade subscription solutions for customers and partners, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Red Hat JBoss Middleware, OpenShift by Red Hat, and Red Hat Storage.
Ten years ago, Red Hat formed the Fedora Project to deliver advanced, state-of-the-art features for Linux. Just as a traditional operating system relies on the hardware beneath it, so too do projects such as cloud, virtualization, and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) rely on the foundation of an operating system.
Fast development pace and openness to change make Fedora an excellent place for operating system innovations and related projects. Today, by taking an active role in the CentOS Project, Red Hat is once again extending its leadership in open source innovation by helping to establish a platform well-suited to the needs of open source developers that integrate technologies in and around the operating system.
Brian Stevens, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Red Hat, said, “It is core to our beliefs that when people who share goals or problems are free to connect and work together, their pooled innovations can change the world. We believe the open source development process produces better code, and a community of users creates an audience that makes code impactful. Cloud technologies are moving quickly, and increasingly, that code is first landing in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Today is an exciting day for the open source community; by joining forces with the CentOS Project, we aim to build a vehicle to get emerging technologies like OpenStack and big data into the hands of millions of developers.”
With today’s announcement, Red Hat extends its commitment to rapid open source technology and solution development to deliver:
- Commercial development and deployment: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, offering an extensive ecosystem of partners, a comprehensive portfolio of certified hardware and software offerings, and Red Hat’s award winning support, consulting, and training services. Red Hat subscriptions deliver this value combined with access to the industry’s most extensive ecosystem of partners, customers, and Linux experts to support and accelerate success.
- Community integration beyond the operating system: CentOS, a community-supported and produced Linux distribution that draws on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other open source technologies to provide a platform that’s open to variation. CentOS provides a base for community adoption and integration of open source cloud, storage, network, and infrastructure technologies on a Red Hat-based platform.
- Operating system innovation across the stack: Fedora, a community-supported and produced Linux distribution that makes it easy for users to consume and contribute to leading-edge open source technologies from the kernel to the cloud. As a cutting edge development platform where every level of the stack is open to revision and improvement, Fedora will continue to serve as the upstream project on which future Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases are based.
Karanbir Singh, lead developer, CentOS Project, said, “CentOS owes its success not just to the source code it’s built from, but to the hard work and enthusiasm of its user community. Now that we are able to count Red Hat among the active contributors to the CentOS Project, we have access to the resources and expertise we’ll need to expand the scope and reach of the CentOS community while remaining committed to our current and new users.”
Since its initial release in 2004, the CentOS Project has grown to include a significant amount of focus on open source technology integration and a sizable user community. Red Hat and the CentOS Project recognize an opportunity to begin a new era by collaborating to expand the CentOS Project to address innovation, community contribution, and participation up the stack and beyond the operating system. By joining forces with the CentOS Project, Red Hat aims to accelerate community innovation, engagement, and momentum around open source cloud and infrastructure projects.
Al Gillen, program vice president, System Software, IDC, said, “CentOS is one of the major non-commercial distributions in the industry, and a key adjacent project for many Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers. This relationship helps strengthen the CentOS community, and will ensure that CentOS benefits directly from the community-centric development approach that Red Hat both understands and heavily supports. Given the growing opportunities for Linux in the market today in areas such as OpenStack, cloud and big data, a stronger CentOS technology backed by the CentOS community – including Red Hat – is a positive development that helps the overall industry.”
Red Hat will contribute its resources and expertise in building thriving open source communities to the new CentOS Project to help establish more open project governance and a roadmap, broaden opportunities for participation, open pathways for contribution, and provide new ways for CentOS users and contributors to bring the power of open source innovation to all areas of the software stack.
With Red Hat’s contributions and investment, the CentOS Project will be able to expand and accelerate, serving the needs of community members who require different or faster-moving components layered on top of CentOS, expanding on existing efforts to collaborate with open source projects such as OpenStack, RDO, Gluster, OpenShift Origin, and oVirt.
Stephen O’Grady, principal analyst, RedMonk, said, “Though it will doubtless come as a surprise, this move by Red Hat represents the logical embrace of an adjacent ecosystem. Bringing the CentOS and Red Hat communities closer together should be a win for both parties.”
