Red Hat Network To Gain Virtualization, Storage Management, Desktop ManagementRed Hat Network To Gain Virtualization, Storage Management, Desktop Management

As part of its plan to develop a full-fledged Open Source Architecture stack, Red Hat announced at LinuxWorld Expo Thursday a new provisioning module for its Red Hat Network platform. The company also spoke of plans to develop desktop management, policy and directory management, storage management and health/availability modules.

Sean Witty, product marketing manager for Red Hat Network, declined to say when those modules would ship but said Red Hat will feature more prominently the Red Hat Network management stack for the on-demand era.

"We're moving to a world where intelligence and automation and flexibility are important. As the hardware layer has been commoditized and parts of the software layer, the value-add occurs in the management," Witty said.

Red Hat Network currently offers Update, Management and Provisioning modules. Red Hat also plans to integrate virtualization capabilities into its Linux management stack following its recent acquisition of Sistina, company executives said.

As part of its new release of Red Hat Network and its provisioning module, the company announced a new API access layer that enables customers to fine tune how servers are managed and provisioned. In addition, Red Hat now provides an embedded database, freeing customers from their previous dependence on Oracle, Witty said.

Red Hat also is working on a more secure layer of SELinux it plans to build into the next version of its distribution, Red Hat Enterprise 4. It is also beta-testing a new application server, due to ship by the end of the year, a spokeswoman said.