Red Hat confirms details of CoreOS integration with container software

Red Hat claims development will make managing large-scale Kubernetes deployments easier

Linux operating system distributor Red Hat is to begin combining its recently acquired CoreOS tools into its container software suite.

The company has, for the first time, detailed the steps it will take to integrate CoreOS Tectonic, Quay and Container Linux with its container and Kubernetes-based solutions portfolio.

Having acquired CoreOS at the start of the year, Red Hat said the combination of Tectonic and Container Linux will "drive automation at every layer of the cloud-native stack".

It will use the CoreOS tools to bring new automation capabilities to its independent software vendor ecosystem, providing them with the ability to develop and roll out products quickly.

Tectonic, which is an enterprise Kubernetes solution from CoreOS, lets administrators and IT managers roll out hardware upgrades more easily and quickly.

Now, Red Hat will bring the solution to its OpenShift Container Platform and its enterprise-grade Kubernetes distribution tool to handle automated operations.

The company claimed that users will be able to use the capability with better reliability, support and application development capabilities.

"This makes managing Kubernetes deployments at-scale easier, with the vast majority of rote maintenance tasks performed automatically," it claims.

CoreOS also developed the Kubernetes operators concept, which utilises a sophisticated set of APIs to create, configure and manage complex applications.

Building on this idea, RedHat is planning to use it throughout its vendor ecosystem, enabling it to improve big data, analytics and hybrid cloud capabilities.

Developed by CoreOS, Container Linux is another important feature within this ecosystem. It is essentially a container-native operating system that offers automated updates.

RedHat wants to integrate the concepts, technology and user experience of Container Linux into its own solutions. The company envisages creating an "immutable" container ecosystem. This will underpin the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, Red Hat OpenShift Online and Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated solutions.

Ashesh Badani, vice president and general manager of OpenShift at Red Hat, believes that the combination of these solutions will redefine the hybrid cloud.

"Previously, enterprises had to choose between public cloud lock-in for ease-of-use or managing the complexity of a hybrid IT environment to retain full control over workloads and data," said Badani.

"Now, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform settles this argument, delivering automation across the entire container stack, from the underlying operating system to the application services, to make hybrid IT easier to consume while retaining enhanced security, driving a new model for how enterprises perceive the open hybrid cloud."