RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – An undisclosed number of Red Hat employees will move to IBM as part of a consolidation move uniting the tech giant’s data storage offerings under one name. The move reflects the importance IBM places on cloud computing – and why it acquired Red Hat in the first place.
It’s also perhaps the first big sign of the “Borg” (IBM) assimilating the open-source flagship (Red Hat) Enterprise. Example: Cloud data news site Blocks and Files says the consolidation means IBM is “deepening its assimilation of Red Hat.”
“Red Hat storage product roadmaps and Red Hat associate teams” are moving to the IBM Storage business, the companies said.
The deal is an attempt to capitalize on what tech research firm Gartner says is a surging demand for so-called hybrid cloud services – a blend of private and public cloud offerings. IBM cited Garner research as forecasting that in three years 60% of what it calls “infrastructure and operations leaders” will embrace hybrid clouds, up from 20% today.
IBM bought Raleigh-based Red Hat for $34 billion in a deal that closed three years ago but in many ways the company have remained separate. At that time IBM justified Red Hat’s strength in cloud computing as the driving force in the deal, citing the cloud as a trillion-dollar business opportunity.
But the consolidation announced Tuesday means Big Blue will soon offer what it calls a “consistent application and data storage across on-premises infrastructure and cloud.”
The move comes two months after Red Hat named a new CEO.
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Kubernetes – what is it?
The focus is on a technology known as 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 “burgeoning.”
“This combines IBM and Red Hat’s container storage technologies for data services and helps accelerate IBM’s capabilities in the burgeoning Kubernetes platform market,” IBM says.
IBM says it expects the moves to be completed by Jan. 1, 2023.
Under “one roof”
“Red Hat and IBM have been working closely for many years, and today’s announcement enhances our partnership and streamlines our portfolios,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager of IBM Storage, IBM Systems, in the announcement. “By bringing together the teams and integrating our products under one roof, we are accelerating the IBM’s hybrid cloud storage strategy while maintaining commitments to Red Hat customers and the open-source community.”
IBM says “clients will have access to a consistent set of storage services while preserving data resilience, security, and governance across bare metal, virtualized and containerized environments.”
Red Hat’s OpenShift Data Foundation tech will become 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 Kubernetes platform market,” IBM says.
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The Ceph community involved, too
The move also involves the open source community known as Ceph which Ceph has trademarked as “the future of storage.”
IBM says it “intends to offer new Ceph solutions delivering a unified and software defined storage platform that bridges the architectural divide between the data center and cloud provider.” Big Blue will replace Red Hat as the primary sponsor of the community.
“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. “With IBM Storage taking stewardship of Red Hat Ceph Storage and OpenShift Data Foundation, IBM will help accelerate open-source storage innovation and expand the market opportunity beyond what each of us could deliver on our own. We believe this is a clear win for customers who can gain a more comprehensive platform with new hybrid cloud-native storage capabilities.”
Read the full announcement online at this site.
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