Red Hat Delivers Force Multiplier for Enterprise IT with Enhanced Intelligent Monitoring, Unveils Latest Version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

• Red Hat Insights extends proactive management of hybrid cloud environments with new capabilities across all Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 adds evolved container tools to help fuel the next wave of cloud-native development

Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2, the latest version of the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform and the foundation for Red Hat’s hybrid cloud portfolio. To help better address the IT challenges presented by shifting global dynamics, Red Hat believes that the operating system should do more than "just work;" it should help stabilize operations today with the capacity to support and embrace innovation later.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2, built for the interconnected nature of the hybrid cloud era, is designed to offer these capabilities and more, extending beyond the reliability, stability and production-readiness for which the platform is known. The latest additions to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 platform help organizations recognize more value from existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions with:

• New intelligent management and monitoring capabilities via updates to Red Hat Insights

• Enhanced container tools

• A smoother user experience for Linux experts and newcomers alike

Smarter monitoring for a distributed IT organization

As the world works to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more IT organizations are operating remotely or with limited manpower. Now more than ever, IT teams need to be able to monitor, manage and analyze the underlying foundations of enterprise technology stacks, regardless of size, scale, complexity or where they reside across hybrid/multicloud footprints. Red Hat Enterprise Linux can help intelligently detect, diagnose and address potential issues before they impact production, driven by advancements in Red Hat Insights.

Red Hat Insights, Red Hat’s proactive operations and security risk management offering, is included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions for versions 6.4 and higher. The latest updates to the service add new use case functionality and features including:

• Improved visibility into IT security, compliance postures and operational efficiencies helping to eliminate manual methods and improve productivity in managing large and complex environments while enhancing security and compliance across these deployments.

• New Policies and Patch services to help organizations define and monitor important internal policies and determine which Red Hat product advisories apply to Red Hat Enterprise Linux instances as well as guidance for remediation.

• Drift service to help IT teams compare systems to baselines, providing a benchmark to guide strategies for reducing complexity and expediting troubleshooting.

Additional monitoring and performance updates in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 include:

• Improved resource management with Control Groups (cgroup) v2, which is designed to help limit memory usage through reserving memory and setting usage floors/limits. This helps prevent specific processes from overconsuming memory and causing system failures or slowdowns.

• Better capabilities for optimizing performance-sensitive workloads through NUMA and sub-NUMA service policies.

• Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) 5.0.2 which adds new collection agents for Microsoft SQL Server 2019 to help collect and analyze a wide array of SQL Server-related metrics, providing a clearer picture for database and operating system tuning.

• Red Hat subscription watch, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool that enables customers to more easily view and manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions across hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Evolved container tools to build for the future

While containerized workloads provide a clear path towards digital transformation and a cloud-native future, the tools used to build these applications must balance the latest, up-to-date innovations with a stable and supported lifecycle. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2, an updated application stream of Red Hat’s container tools is available, supported for 24 months. Additionally, for organizations looking to build containers inside of containers for additional layers of isolation and security, containerized versions of Skopeo and Buildah are available in Tech Preview.

To further extend the security of containerized workloads, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 introduces Udica, a new tool for more easily creating customized, container-centric SELinux security policies. When applied to a specific workload, Udica can reduce the risk that a process can "break out" of a container and cause problems across other containers or to the host itself.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 also introduces enhancements to the Red Hat Universal Base Image, including:

• OpenJDK and .NET 3.0 for expanded developer choice in building Red Hat certification-ready cloud-native applications

• Improved access to source code associated with a given image through a single command, making it easier for Red Hat partners to meet source code requirements for open source licensing needs.

Further streamlining the user experience

With Linux continuing to grow as the backbone for enterprise IT, lowering the barrier for new and existing users is a key focus for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2. To help facilitate improved ease of use and an overall user experience, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 adds:

• Integrated Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription registration as part of the installation process, providing an easier on-boarding experience for new installations.

• The ability to enable Red Hat Insights during installation to simplify the launch of Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux estates of any size.

• Continued refinement and control of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle with testing for in-place upgrades, Red Hat Insights rules to help with upgrades, and the Convert2 RHEL tool which can help shift workloads from unsupported Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones like CentOS to the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform.

Availability

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 will soon be generally available via the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Supporting Quote

Stefanie Chiras, vice president and general manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat

Steve Short, platforms manager, UNIX, Kingfisher PLC

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments. Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500. As a strategic partner to cloud providers, system integrators, application vendors, customers, and open source communities, Red Hat can help organizations prepare for the digital future.

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 our pending merger with International Business Machines Corporation, 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; risks related to errors or defects in our offerings and third-party products upon which our offerings depend; risks related to the security of our offerings and other data security vulnerabilities; fluctuations in exchange rates; changes in and a dependence on key personnel; 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; 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at 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.

Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat logo, JBoss, Ansible, Ceph, CloudForms, Gluster and OpenShift are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. The OpenStack Word Mark is either a registered trademark/service mark or trademark/service mark of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries, and is used with the OpenStack Foundation’s permission. Red Hat is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.