Red Hat launches platform to support Docker, Kubernetes and enterprise-grade containerization

Red Hat continued its momentum to capture a piece of the containerization market last week with the official launch of its new Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host operating system. According to Red Hat executives, this is a natural progression in the Red Hat ecosystem as more of the company’s customers embrace Docker and other containerization technologies.

“Today, with the launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host, we are doing the same for Linux containers, bridging innovative open technology with the stability and security required by the enterprise,” said Jim Totton, vice president and general manager of the platforms business unit at Red Hat. “More than just an addition to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux portfolio, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host showcases the future of the enterprise application, a powerful, flexible application greater than the sum of its parts, and entirely fueled by the power of open innovation.”

Optimized for running applications using Linux containers, Atomic Host is a byproduct of the Project Atomic open source project launched in 2014.

“This pulls together work from Project Atomic and makes it ready for organizations that are looking to package and run applications based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 and 7 as containers,” said Joe Brockmeier, who works on Red Hat’s Open Source and Standards team, in a recent blog on Project Atomic about the launch.

Red Hat’s drive to embrace containers has been fairly visible for the past year, starting in March 2014 launch of its Red Hat Container Certification program, which was designed to help ISVs, service providers and enterprises gain proficiency in administering Docker containers and container hosts.

In beta since last November, Atomic Host contains components to support Docker, Kubernetes, Flannel and system on RHEL. It’s meant to help large customers achieve the kind of security and reliability required by enterprise-class IT, Red Hat’s team explained.

The launch could help allay some of the fears certain Docker detractors have lodged against most Docker deployments today. According to Craven, Atomic Host will support stronger default security by isolating containers in a multi-container environment through SELinux, cgroups and kernel namespaces. It will also offer support for super-privileged containers by securing the way host management applications access the host and other containers.

According to Masahiko Iwata, general manager of NTT Open Source Software Center, Docker and Kubernetes has simplified the management of containers throughout their lifecycle, but there was still unfinished business in the process of disrupting the PaaS landscape. Iwata says Atomic host “completes the picture by providing a hardened container platform that builds on a trusted operating system.”

 

About The Author  ⁄ Ericka Chickowski

An award-winning freelance writer, Ericka Chickowski covers information technology and business innovation. Her perspectives on business and technology have appeared in dozens of trade and consumer magazines, including Entrepreneur, Consumers Digest, Channel Insider, CIO Insight, Dark Reading and InformationWeek. She’s made it her specialty to explain in plain English how technology trends affect real people.

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