Red Hat and Virtualization
Although Red Hat offers technology that plays in several categories of virtualization, including access virtualization, application virtualization, processing virtualization and storage virtualization, I don't often have the chance to speak with a Red Hat representative. After doing the scheduling dance, Red Hat's Nick Carr finally was able to help me have a short discussion with Andrew Cathrow.
Andrew and Nick presented Red Hat's virtualization strategy (see Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for more details) and how they're trying to apply both the flexibility and cost reduction attributes of open source development and delivery to that segment of the software market. The limited time we shared really didn't do justice to what Red Hat has really been doing over the years.
A little history
Red Hat has been assembling open source virtualization technology for quite some time. Some examples are:- December 2003 -- Sistina and its storage virtualization tools
- April 2006 -- JBoss and its application framework which has quite a few application virtualization capabilities
- September 2008 -- Qumranet and its access virtualization technology, SPICE, and its virtual machine software KVM
The company has also been offering open source technology that targets virtual access, application virtualization, processing virtualization, network virtualization and storage virtualization as a standard part of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux since its inception. Some of these tools are a bit raw from a commercial perspective. They are, however, quite powerful when used properly.
Snapshot analysis
Red Hat sees that the open source approach to development and product delivery can be a significant competitive edge in the market. As both the community and Red Hat work to refine and integrate that technology, it is increasingly seen as an alternative to software from competitors such as Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle and VMware.Organizations having the technical expertise have successfully deployed Red Hat's products for years. Making the technology simple, easy to use and easy to manage appears to be Red Hat's next frontier.
The other players, however, typically do a better job of creating awareness, driving interest, inspiring desire and finally getting organizations to take action to acquire products. Red Hat's "letting the community drive the products" approach doesn't appear to be quite as effective in the short run. Red Hat's gradually increasing market share does indicate that something working.