Red Hat to acquire CoreOS in $250m deal

Red Hat to expand its container portfolio with acquisition

Open source pioneer Red Hat has reached an agreement to acquire technology start-up CoreOs in a deal worth $250m.

Founded in 2013, CoreOS develops the container orchestration platform Kubernetes and other container-based systems. Red Hat, which provides enterprise open-source solutions, is looking to strengthen its grip on these areas.

Red Hat said the acquisition forms part of its "vision of enabling customers to build any application and deploy them in any environment with the flexibility afforded by open source".

The company already offers broad Kubernetes and container-based systems, but by bringing CoreOS into the fold it'll be able to "further accelerate adoption and development of the industry's leading hybrid cloud platform for modern application workloads".

On announcing the deal, Red Hat praised the start-up for popularising "lightweight Linux operating systems optimized for containers" and said it's "well-regarded" as a leader in container technology.

CoreOS Tectonic is the firm's main product. It's a Kubernetes platform that provides enterprises with access to automated operations and portability across private and public cloud providers.

It also offers an enterprise container registry called CoreOS Quay, as well as Container Linux. The latter automates important security updates.

Paul Cormier, president of products and technologies at Red Hat, said the deal will enable his company to accelerate its hybrid cloud and modern app deployments.

"The next era of technology is being driven by container-based applications that span multi- and hybrid cloud environments, including physical, virtual, private cloud and public cloud platforms," he said.

"Kubernetes, containers and Linux are at the heart of this transformation, and, like Red Hat, CoreOS has been a leader in both the upstream open source communities that are fueling these innovations and its work to bring enterprise-grade Kubernetes to customers.

"We believe this acquisition cements Red Hat as a cornerstone of hybrid cloud and modern app deployments."

Alex Polvi, CEO of CoreOS, explained that its relationship with RedHat "began many years ago as open source collaborators developing some of the key innovations in containers and distributed systems, helping to make automated operations a reality".

Polvi added: This announcement marks a new stage in our shared aim to make these important technologies ubiquitous in business and the world."