Why run Linux on AWS?

For organizations using Amazon Web Services (AWS), running an open source enterprise Linux® distribution (distro) helps development and operations teams innovate together, in any environment, because it accommodates different infrastructure types. 

Running Linux and AWS in tandem gives your organization the freedom and flexibility to move to cloud environments and simplify hybrid cloud management. It also provides tools to build, deploy, and deliver applications quickly and at scale.

Before looking at what makes Linux and AWS such a useful combination, it‘s important to understand each technology and its benefits.

Linux

Linux is an open source operating system (OS) and has become one of the largest open source software projects in the world. Because Linux is open sourced and released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), anyone can run, study, modify, and redistribute the source code, or even sell copies of their modified code. Since cloud computing’s creation and proliferation, Linux has remained a popular choice of OS among enterprises for cloud computing and cloud services. 

AWS

AWS was the 1st global cloud provider and remains the largest in the market.¹ Through its globally distributed network of datacenters, AWS gives organizations on-demand, security-focused, virtual access to the computing capacity needed to scale workloads and applications. This provides the agility to respond to today’s market challenges.

AWS also offers a Linux OS―the latest version being Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023). If you choose AL2023 to run your applications in the AWS cloud, in some cases you can include it at no charge for a period of time via the AWS Free Tier.

AL2023 works with various AWS services and offers optimized performance for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Graviton-based instances.

Read the FAQ for Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2

Using enterprise Linux on AWS yields the same benefits as using it on premise and lets you more easily integrate cloud and on-premise systems. An enterprise Linux distribution gives AWS users:

• Flexibility to keep working with your original processes, business practices, and skills while adapting new ones both on premise and in the cloud.
• Innovation from the open source community.
• Consistency across infrastructure, which can help reduce the complexity of moving to the cloud.
• Shortened time to market and lower costs by standardizing on 1 OS.
• Container portability.
• On-demand scalability.
• Continuous patches and updates to improve security.

To fully realize the benefits of AWS in a modern IT environment, you need to choose the right Linux distro. Each distro varies, offering different subscription models, cost structures, support models, and integrations with existing infrastructure or third-party technologies.

4 benefits of using Red Hat solutions on AWS

Adopting cloud computing can help your enterprise scale efficiently and innovate to keep up with competitors, customer demand, and rapid market changes. But there’s a lot to consider when moving to the cloud. You must balance flexibility and scalability with security, manageability, and reliability issues. The Linux distro you choose can make a huge difference in costs, management, and security.

Red Hat has more than 25 years of Linux expertise. As our foundational platform, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux integrates and works well with our broad portfolio of tools, products, and partner solutions. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is certified on hundreds of clouds, including AWS, and with thousands of hardware and software vendors.

Whether using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on AWS, on premise, or on both, you can manage all your enterprise applications and workloads with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's a stable choice for high-performance computing and hybrid cloud use cases, offering compatibility with a number of industry partners like AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Combining Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AWS gives you the best of both offerings, including:

Simplified management to reduce complexity. Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps minimize the complexity and management associated with moving applications to the cloud. It does this through its openness and consistency, made possible by vast integrations across third-party hardware, software, and tool providers.

Advanced tools from Red Hat and AWS automate and configure application management for everything from provisioning to scaling, and policy enforcement to decommissioning. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console saves time and simplifies daily system administration with an easy-to-use user interface accessible even to new Linux users. Automated system roles make it easy to optimize security groups and workflows and maintain them over time with minimal resources. RPM Package Manager (RPM) helps users install, update, remove, and keep track of software packages and permissions from specific repositories in the Linux system.

Security features to help protect systems from vulnerabilities. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and AWS verify consistency across your systems through a dual-process approach to continuous security:

1. The OS must pass a validation process to be listed on AWS Marketplace.
2. Artificial intelligence tools―Red Hat Insights (included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and AWS Inspector―constantly monitor the enterprise environment.

Red Hat provides Linux kernel live patching to respond to vulnerabilities without disrupting your Linux instances. We also apply security updates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux as soon as they’re available. These updates help ensure OS reliability, protect user data, and fix security vulnerabilities as they’re discovered.

Convenient payment options. Red Hat works closely with AWS to offer convenient purchasing and pricing options. You can use your organization’s committed spend with AWS toward the purchase of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This lets you take advantage of the discounts outlined in your committed-spend agreement with AWS (known as an Enterprise Discount Program) when buying on AWS Marketplace.

Alternatively, Red Hat can work with your enterprise to develop a payment plan tailored to your needs. Or you can use the pay-as-you-go cloud option.

Flexibility that supports your hybrid IT environment. Red Hat Enterprise Linux accommodates today’s hybrid IT environments by delivering consistent performance and security wherever needed―in the cloud, on premise, or at the edge. Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is engineered to perform optimally on AWS, but it’s also part of a larger partner ecosystem. For example, SAP environments are certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 1 of only 2 Linux distros with that certification. This extensive ecosystem provides further flexibility through freedom from vendor lock-in.

Red Hat solutions on AWS are jointly engineered to ensure they’re optimized for performance. Meanwhile, Red Hat Enterprise Linux gives AWS users the same level of security, scalability, manageability, and reliability Red Hat users have come to expect from their more traditional on-premise deployments.
 

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1. Vailshery, Lionel. "Worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) hyperscaler market share from 2020 to 2023, by vendor." Statista, Feb. 22, 2024.