Red Hat Corporate Linux 9.1, the most recent version of this enterprise Linux platform, has been released. Along with the recently announced Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7, these minor versions would add and refine capabilities for a wide range of enterprise IT needs. It would help streamline complicated infrastructure settings up to enhancing the security posture of containerized applications.
In Forrester Research’s Predictions 2023: Cloud Computing, the company predicts that “Forty percent of firms will take a cloud-native-first strategy,” adding that “Instead of plowing resources into VMs, organizations will accelerate investment in Kubernetes as a distributed compute backbone for current applications as well as new workloads that can run more efficiently in K8s environments in a range of technology domains.”
Red Hat believes that this anticipated investment will need a common base that spans many technological fields, and, according to Red Hat, their new Red Hat Enterprise Linux release has continued to provide just that.
“As enterprise IT expands to encompass traditional hardware, multiple public cloud environments and edge devices, complexity grows in parallel,” said Gunnar Hellekson, Vice President and General Manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat. “The latest versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux continue our commitment to making hybrid cloud computing more than just accessible, but successful at the scale of global business by pairing reliability and stability with features designed for innovation and flexibility.”
Multi-Level Security, Malware Detection
Security of IT systems is a persistent worry for almost any firm, regardless of the setting, stated Red Hat. These requirements are kept top-of-mind in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and 8.7 thanks to operating system images that are pre-configured to satisfy organization-specific system security requirements. When extending Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments with image builder, IT teams can specify an OpenSCAP security profile to deliver operating system images that satisfy IT security and compliance requirements right from installation. This is done by enabling security compliance profiles in image builder blueprint files.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s most recent releases provide multi-level security (MLS) functionality allowing organizations or other sensitive activities to more effectively document and regulate classification requirements. In order to effectively limit possible threat vectors, administrators may now leverage new attestation technologies to confirm that their operating system is booting with certified, unmodified components.
To check Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems for the existence of known vulnerabilities or malicious code, Red Hat Insights now has a malware detection feature. Additionally, as a technical preview, Sigstore technology has been implemented into Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s native container tools. By enabling users to sign and validate code signatures using local keys, hybrid environment software security postures would be improved.
Flexibility – From Data Center to Clouds to Edge
IT departments must be able to operate workloads wherever and however they are required by hybrid cloud methods, especially when business requirements change, stated Red Hat. Versions 9.1 and 8.7 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux would provide the flexibility to manage innovation across workloads and footprints at hybrid cloud scale with features like:
- Updated Red Hat Enterprise Linux system roles – to facilitate the standardization and automation of manual processes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments in the hybrid cloud. In order to better manage the underlying hardware, new improvements include automation support through Ansible and Redfish as well as many quality of life adjustments for almost all other jobs.
- PHP 8.1 (available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1) – a “substantial” improvement to the PHP programming language, now supported and verified as an Application Stream. Enterprise developers would now be able to deploy critical applications using the newest tools without putting platform stability at risk.
Hybrid Cloud Innovation
Enforcing the reliability and stability of business IT environments can be crucial for CIOs since these environments consist of a constantly changing range of services, hardware, and procedures. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and 8.7, the following new features are added to enable IT organizations achieve the stability and dependability necessary for hybrid cloud computing:
- Support for Extended Update Support (EUS) releases via Convert2RHEL and Leapp in-place upgrades – Making it simpler for operations teams to prepare for and eventually migrate in a repeatable, consistent, and standardized way to the most recent Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions, wherever there is a hybrid cloud.
- Containerized application performance diagnostics – Users can learn about hardware bottlenecks and which programs or processes are using the most resources via the Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console, even if those programs or processes are running in containers.
- Support for embedding containers, including UBI, into image builder blueprints – It would enable IT teams to produce operating system images with a container image integrated that is retrieved from the related container registry. This enables the usage of containerized programs or processes right once when the image has started.
Red Hat Insights, a predictive analytics service built on Red Hat’s extensive domain experience in corporate Linux, is still accessible with the most recent versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and 8.7 now have access to new insights features such as proactive suggestions for edge computing devices, automatic registration for public cloud instances, improved subscription tracking, and more.
What’s next?
Red Hat Customer Portal users with active Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions can access versions 9.1 and 8.7 of the operating system. Technical blogs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7 include further information on the new releases.
