Red Hat has declared the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, to be released in early 2007, will offer open source technologies designed to improve performance, security and flexibility. With a sustained focus on technology intended to drive costs out of deploying and managing infrastructure software, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will deliver complete integration for commercial-strength Linux virtualization in an x86 server environment.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, now available in Beta 2, incorporates a new, fully integrated server and storage virtualization solution. This release permits an integrated virtualization solution by coupling server virtualization with Red Hat's clustering support. For improved accessibility, failover at either the application or virtual machine level is provided by Red Hat Cluster Suite. Red Hat Global File System and Cluster Logical Volume Manager technology allows application data to be safely accessed and shared by any guest from any system.
"The integration of virtualization technologies into operating system software is a major industry development that will have long term impact on how customers design their computer infrastructure, how they deploy, and how they plan for scalability, availability and continuity," said Al Gillen, research VP, system software at IDC. "Red Hat's strategy of integrating virtualization software and clustering technology together with file system software gives Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 the capability to go further than basic server consolidation, and authorizes users to address more sophisticated virtualization requirements."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 represents the result of nearly two years of development spread across the entire core product, and Linux kernel enhancements accrued from version 2.6.9 to 2.6.18. Widespread improvement to the kernel, network and I/O subsystems aim to ensure best performance and scalability. Users will realize resistance to security exploits through the inclusion of complete security profiles and improved compiler and runtime buffer management technologies. Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 presents improved desktop capabilities and new application development tools.
"The release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 2 is a great indicator for customers on what to expect in our next release. Integrating technologies such as virtualization is challenging and exciting, and the resulting product will enable customers to utilize their systems more effectively than ever before," said Tim Yeaton, senior vice president of enterprise solutions, Red Hat. "We continue to drive down costs by optimizing performance, manageability and availability. Other customer-driven innovations, such as security, are inherent to our development model."
Customers and partners can now download Red Hat Enterprise Linux Beta 2 to deploy pilots for production environments.
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