Red Hat and Microsoft Simplify Containers to Help Enterprises Accelerate to the Hybrid Cloud

Enterprise leaders collaborate to enable container adoption across heterogeneous datacenter infrastructure and Microsoft Azure with new capabilities and product support

REDMOND, Wash., and RALEIGH, N.C. -

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) today announced an expansion of the two companies’ alliance with plans for new initiatives aimed at enabling enterprises to more easily adopt containers. This includes native support for Windows Server containers on Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Microsoft Azure, and SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift. These additions to the companies’ joint roadmap will focus on simplifying container technologies to help enterprise customers increase the agility and drive digital transformation using hybrid cloud.

Icon-Red_Hat-Media_and_documents-Quotemark_Open-B-Red-RGB

Alongside Microsoft, Red Hat is providing a way for organizations to make the technology choices that matter to them, from containerized workloads to public cloud services, without adding complexity.

Matthew Hicks

vice president, Software Engineering, OpenShift and Management, Red Hat

Continuing their commitment to deliver choice and flexibility to enterprise customers, Microsoft and Red Hat will extend the integrated, co-located Microsoft and Red Hat support to enable these new offerings across platforms. This helps to assure IT organizations that whatever challenges they face on their path to digital transformation, Microsoft and Red Hat will stand by them together.

Windows Server containers on Red Hat OpenShift
Enterprises see the benefit in using containerized applications to run their mission-critical workloads, but most IT organizations are not standardized on a single infrastructure stack. These heterogeneous environments often carry both Windows and Linux platforms, siloing applications and making it difficult for a business to modernize and scale their operations.

Today’s announcement simplifies these challenges, as Windows Server containers will be natively supported on Red Hat OpenShift, a leading enterprise-grade, Kubernetes-based container application platform. Red Hat OpenShift will be the first container application platform built from the open source Kubernetes project to support both Linux and Windows container workloads in a single platform across the multiple environments of the hybrid cloud, breaking down silos and making it easier for enterprises to pursue their cloud-native agenda.

This capability was demonstrated at Red Hat Summit in May 2017, and is expected to be available as a Technology Preview in Spring 2018.

Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Microsoft Azure and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Microsoft Azure Stack
Cloud-native applications and the container platforms that power them are critical components to digital transformation, but managing the infrastructure for these technologies can be complex and time-consuming for already-stretched IT teams. Red Hat and Microsoft will address this by offering Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Azure. Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated is a container platform delivered as a cloud service, managed by Red Hat. With today’s announcement, this service is planned for availability on Azure, Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud platform with availability announced across 42 regions globally - more than any other public cloud provider. Microsoft and Red Hat engineers are working closely to optimize OpenShift while running on Azure, helping to deliver standardized enterprise performance and matching integrated support.

In addition, Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Microsoft Azure allows enterprise IT teams to focus on delivering business value and fostering innovation rather than keeping the lights on and micro-managing resources. Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated on Microsoft Azure is expected to be available in early 2018.

The companies also plan to collaborate on delivering enterprise performance standards and integrated support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux workloads running in Microsoft Azure Stack. Azure Stack is an on-premises extension of Azure that brings cloud computing to on-premises environments, running on certified hardware from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Cisco that enables enterprises to quickly and easily stand up a cloud experience in their datacenter.

SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift
As customers continue leveraging containers to increase agility in a cloud-native world, Red Hat and Microsoft are committed to helping them harness open innovation. Yesterday, Red Hat announced the availability of .NET Core 2.0 as a container in OpenShift, and in the coming months, the two companies plan to bring the power and scale of SQL Server for Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift.

As with all Red Hat and Microsoft joint initiatives, SQL Server for Linux on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform will be jointly supported by both Microsoft and Red Hat.

Supporting Quotes
Matthew Hicks, vice president, Software Engineering, OpenShift and Management, Red Hat
“Alongside Microsoft, Red Hat is providing a way for organizations to make technology choices that matter to them, from containerized workloads to public cloud services, without adding complexity. Combined with our integrated support teams, we’re able to offer a pathway to digital transformation that offers the capabilities, flexibility and choice required to power the future of enterprise IT.”

John Gossman, Lead Azure Architect, Microsoft Corp.
“Microsoft and Red Hat are aligned in our commitment to bring enterprise customers the hybrid cloud solutions they need to modernize their businesses as they shift to operate in a cloud-native world. Today, we’re extending this commitment as we again join forces to bring fully integrated solutions that simplify container adoption and help customers make the most of their hybrid cloud strategies.”

  • About Red Hat
  • Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As a connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



  • Forward-Looking Statements
  • Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; delays or reductions in information technology spending; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; fluctuations in exchange rates; the effects of industry consolidation; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; changes in and a dependence on key personnel; the ability to meet financial and operational challenges encountered in our international operations; and ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.