Linux On Half Of All New Servers? Red Hat's Got PlansLinux On Half Of All New Servers? Red Hat's Got Plans

Red Hat is partnering with Amazon to offer Linux-based computing power as an on-call computer resource, letting companies scale up applications without building a bigger data center. That Linux-on-demand idea has sizzle, but there are other interesting pieces in Red Hat's latest batch of products, including more virtualization support and one audacious goal.

The Amazon partnership is part of Red Hat's Linux Automation initiative to make it easier for companies to deploy Linux applications. With it, Red Hat will have its version of Linux powering over half of the world's new servers by 2015 while doubling its current market share, says Scott Crenshaw, Red Hat's VP of enterprise Linux business.

That's a "goal, not a prediction," Red Hat clarified--probably wisely so, given that IDC says Linux has just 15% of operating system revenue.

Projections aside, Red Hat's on the right path by doing more to help application developers and customers deploy Linux apps in multiple formats--not just standalone servers, but also servers hosting multiple virtual machines, servers running virtual appliances, and via Amazon's networked cloud.

Increased virtualization support is a big part of the 5.1 version of Enterprise Linux that Red Hat released last week. The new release adds support for virtualization on Hewlett-Packard Itanium servers and improves support for Windows VMs, as well as Microsoft's hypervisor "when and if Microsoft ever delivers Viridian," says Crenshaw. (Microsoft has promised its Viridian hypervisor within six months of the release of Windows Server 2008, slated for February.) It already supports VMware and Xen virtualization software.

The Red Hat Network, which includes online updates and on-premises management tools, has been upgraded so it now can activate real and virtual servers and monitor their function, while in the past it only dealt with physical servers. Yet, while the Red Hat Network is "a capable update and monitoring tool," writes Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff, it "hardly comprises a complete enterprise automation strategy, contrary to what the company seemed to suggest."

Another growth opportunity is virtual appliances, where an app is preconfigured with a version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and shipped in a file format that's ready to run on a VM. The approach saves customers from time-consuming server configurations. To encourage this, Red Hat beginning next year will offer a Linux designed for appliances--stripping out all but what's needed to run an application. It mirrors the strategy of rPath, a Linux appliance company founded by ex-Red Hatters, engineer Erik Troan and salesman Billy Marshall.

A PRETTY SWEET DEAL
Red Hat's end goal is getting companies running more business software on its Linux OS and its JBoss open source app server and middleware. The company has certified 3,400 applications to run on its enterprise Linux. Teaming with Amazon could open new doors, since it provides a low-cost, flexible way to try Linux apps on a small scale for projects where use might ramp up quickly. An IT department can tap the Linux-on-demand service for a preconfigured Red Hat Enterprise Linux system image for around $19 a month, plus usage fees. That amounts to support subscription for the software alone of about $230 a year, compared with a typical one-year subscription for a two-socket Red Hat system for $349. That's a pretty sweet deal that leaves room to pay for the computing power from the cloud.

Cloud computing, virtualization, and Linux appliances are promising new ways to drive Linux gains in the data center, but they still might not be enough to justify that 50% market share dream.

Yet it does make clear Linux no longer occupies the periphery, like running the Apache Web server. Red Hat is offering the system management tools and hosted services to further spread Linux applications into the heart of business IT.