RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – An undisclosed number of Red Hat employees will join IBM as part of a consolidation move that will unify the tech giant’s data storage offerings under one name. The move reflects the importance IBM places on cloud computing — and why Red Hat was acquired in the first place.
It may also be the first major sign of “Borg” (IBM) assimilating open-source flagship (Red Hat) Enterprise. Example: Cloud data news site Blocks and Files says the consolidation means IBM “deepens its assimilation of Red Hat.”
“Red Hat storage product roadmaps and Red Hat partner teams” are moving to the IBM storage business, the companies said.
The deal is an attempt to capitalize on rising demand for so-called hybrid cloud services — a mix of private and public cloud offerings, according to technology research firm Gartner. IBM cites Garner research as predicting that 60% of so-called “infrastructure and operations leaders” will use hybrid clouds three years from now, up from 20% today.
IBM bought Raleigh-based Red Hat for $34 billion in a deal closed three years ago, but in many ways the company has remained independent. At the time, IBM credited Red Hat’s strength in cloud computing as the driving force behind the deal, calling the cloud a trillion-dollar business opportunity.
But the consolidation announced Tuesday means Big Blue will soon offer what it calls “consistent application and data storage across on-premises infrastructure and the cloud.”
The move comes two months after Red Hat appointed a new CEO.
Red Hat reshuffles top management: CEO now Chairman, replaced by Tech VP
Kubernetes – what is it?
The focus is on a technology called Kubernetes, which is “an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management,” notes Wikipedia.
Originally developed by Google, Kubernetes is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and IBM says the market is “budding.”
“This combines IBM and Red Hat’s container storage technologies for data services and helps accelerate IBM’s capabilities in the burgeoning market for Kubernetes platforms,” IBM said.
IBM expects the moves to be complete by January 1, 2023.
Hatters new CEO to employees: “We will have to fight for Red Hat’s success – it will not be given to us”
Under one roof”
“Red Hat and IBM have worked closely together for many years, and today’s announcement strengthens our partnership and streamlines our portfolios,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager of IBM Storage, IBM Systems, in the announcement. “By bringing the teams together and integrating our products under one roof, we are accelerating IBM’s hybrid cloud storage strategy while maintaining our commitments to Red Hat customers and the open source community.”
IBM says, “Customers have access to a consistent set of storage services while maintaining data resiliency, security, and governance across bare-metal, virtualized, and containerized environments.”
Red Hat’s OpenShift Data Foundation technology becomes the “foundation” for what IBM calls “Spectrum Fushion.”
“This combines IBM and Red Hat’s container storage technologies for data services and helps accelerate IBM’s capabilities in the burgeoning market for Kubernetes platforms,” IBM said.
IBM wants to buy Dialexa, adding to the list of more than 25 acquisitions since April 2020
The Ceph community was also involved
The move also affects the open source community known as Ceph, which has protected Ceph as “the future of storage.”
IBM says it “intends to offer new Ceph solutions that deliver a unified and software-defined storage platform that bridges the architectural divide between the data center and cloud providers.” Big Blue will replace Red Hat as the main community sponsor.
“Red Hat and IBM have a shared belief in the mission of hybrid cloud-native storage and its potential to help customers transform their applications and data,” said Joe Fernandes, vice president of hybrid platforms at Red Hat. “As IBM Storage assumes responsibility for Red Hat Ceph Storage and OpenShift Data Foundation, IBM will help accelerate open source storage innovation and expand market opportunities beyond what each of us could offer alone. We believe this is a clear win for customers who can get a richer platform with new hybrid cloud-native storage capabilities.”
Read the full announcement online at this website.
Beam this data up: IBM and Red Hat are taking cloud services into space
