Red Hat ha annunciato la disponibilità della distribuzione commerciale Linux based Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5). Questo rilascio arriva a valle di due anni di intenso lavoro di sviluppo che, in accordo al produttore, ha permesso di integrare al meglio alcune tecnologie di recente concezione, come la Virtualization Technology, e di ampliare il numero dei componenti supportati.

Accanto alle classiche Edition per sistemi desktop e server, Red Hat renderà inoltre disponibili delle varianti specializzate per funzionalità ben precise, come quelle di un DB server o di un computing cluster ad alte prestazioni.

L'annuncio di RHEL5 è avvenuto simultaneamente a quello della pianificazione di Red Hat Exchange (RHX), una infrastruttura on line avente carattere commerciale, mediante la quale Red Hat offrirà ai propri utenti servizi di supporto in merito alle applicazioni Open Source di terze parti utilizzate nei propri ambienti.

SAN FRANCISCO - March 14, 2007 - Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Created in close collaboration with customers, Enterprise Linux 5 is the cornerstone of a company-wide push to deliver additional value to customers throughout their experience with Red Hat. Red Hat is taking the open source collaborative principles that customers are using today to drive down software acquisition and management costs and applying them to other parts of the business, including services, systems management and partnerships.

"We have been developing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for two years with our customers and partners driving the agenda. Their pain points were clear: they were unable to consume all of the technology being sold to them, and it was not solving their business problems effectively. Our resolve has been and will always be that we will deliver software that solves real business needs," said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Red Hat. "Our announcements today demonstrate how we apply this philosophy to all parts of our business."

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the cornerstone of the Company's Open Source Architecture. Initially launched in 2002, Red Hat Enterprise Linux can be found in the majority of Fortune 500 environments, and is renowned for performance, value and reliability. Customers are now seeking to deploy open source technology in increasingly complex workloads, using the latest in open source technology but with the proven stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

In response, Red Hat has worked with them to create Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. Today Red Hat is announcing the availability of the Advanced Platform, for mission-critical server deployments, as well as an updated Enterprise Desktop for user productivity. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Advanced Platform is the world's most compelling operating environment. Once again, Red Hat is redefining what "value" means in the IT industry. With Advanced Platform, customers are able to greatly reduce the cost and complexity of purchasing, integrating and managing separate virtualization, storage management and high availability software. Ultimately, Advanced Platform allows customers to shift their investment away from costly infrastructure and back into their business.

"AMD and Red Hat have been leading the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit computing for years and with the AMD64 processor platform, our joint customers have come to depend on AMD and Red Hat to deliver efficient, high performing and stable solutions," said Terri Hall, vice president, Software Solutions and Alliances, AMD. "At AMD, we've long been focused on developing technology that enables virtualization on the AMD64 platform and we've been excited to work closely with Red Hat to help customers deploy powerful and secure virtualization technologies based on a common and consistent architecture. Together, hardware-assisted AMD Virtualizationª technology and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, will help customers achieve higher levels of efficiency and utilization as they deploy their virtualization strategies."

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 significantly extends the attributes for which the product is renowned. Enhancements include additional performance, scalability and security features, extensive new hardware support, expanded development environment and toolset, improved interoperability with Microsoft® Windows® and Unix.

"By closely collaborating since the early stages, Intel and Red Hat have innovated and accelerated new technologies such as virtualization," said Doug Fisher, Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group. "The combination of leading edge Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor-based platforms and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 gives our customers impressive performance, power savings and reliability."

While the introduction of virtualization creates new opportunities to drive down costs, customers need to manage the complexity of virtual environments. The technology that Red Hat has developed to deliver our software and updates to our customers now extends its capabilities to virtualized environments.

• Managing: Red Hat Network Satellite provides new capabilities to manage virtualized systems, including the ability to detect and create Enterprise Linux based guests and bring them into a managed environment. Other administrative capabilities for controlling the operation of guests are also provided.
• Modules: Red Hat Network Satellite modules including Update, Management, Provisioning and Monitoring are all extended to work on hosts and guests alike. Subscribers now have the ability to manage a thousand virtual systems as a single system would be managed.

Red Hat customers have been asking for more than just technology to be successful in their use of open source. Adoption of best practices and integration support are equally important. In response, Red Hat has worked with customers to define three standard solution offerings, available today, that combine Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 technology with comprehensive professional services and training.

• Red Hat Datacenter Solution: A turnkey platform with everything needed to implement a datacenter (or migrate an existing data center to open source). The solution includes Advanced Platform, systems management, provisioning, high availability, identity management, consulting and training services. Two versions are available - one for small and one for large datacenters.
• Red Hat Database Availability Solution: A platform enabling existing databases (including Oracle, Sybase, MySQL EnterpriseDB, DB2 and others) to deliver all the reliability of clustered database systems, at savings of $200,000 or more per database, compared to the cost of the leading clustered database system.
• Red Hat High Performance Computing Solution: A platform which enables engineers, researchers and financial analysts to solve difficult computational problems quickly, to deliver increased profit and competitive advantage. It harnesses computing power distributed throughout the customer's network, and reduces complexity so that technical experts can focus on problem solving, not IT infrastructure.

Technology customers are in need of a simplified support experience that spans their complex deployments, including both Red Hat software and third party offerings. In response, Red Hat has simplified the standard support Service Level Agreements (SLA), and created a joint customer support center to solve issues, regardless of whether it's Red Hat technology or a partner solution.

Today Red Hat is announcing the creation of the Red Hat Cooperative Resolution Center. The Center will enable customers to experience the benefits of the close, collaborative partnerships that Red Hat has established with other leading technology providers by having a quicker route to resolution. Here Red Hat will work with the support staff of the customer's vendors to solve a problem, regardless of whether or not Red Hat software was the cause.

"Nomura Securities International, Inc. recently experienced a complex issue involving multiple technology providers. Red Hat representatives quickly addressed the issue and worked in collaboration with other vendors to provide us with a quick and effective resolution," said Leon Chen, Director of Corporate Technology, Nomura. "This type of customer service is highly appreciated."

Red Hat customers are demanding the benefits of open source beyond the infrastructure level, but have been impeded by the complexity of deploying open source business solutions. In response, Red Hat has worked with customers and partners to develop Red Hat Exchange (RHX), which provides pre-integrated business application software stacks including infrastructure software from Red Hat and business application software from Red Hat partners.

RHX is a single source for research, purchase, online fullfillment and support of open source and other commercial software business application stacks. Through RHX, customers will be able to acquire pre-integrated open source software solutions incorporating infrastructure software from Red Hat and business application software from Red Hat partners. Red Hat will provide a single point of delivery and support for all elements of the software stacks.

Through RHX, Red Hat seeks to reduce the complexity of deploying business applications and support the development of an active ecosystem of commercial open source business application partners. RHX will be available later this year.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Advanced Platform, Red Hat Systems Management, Red Hat Solutions and Red Hat Exchange represent the priority Red Hat places on customer-driven innovation. For more information, please visit http://www.redhat.com.

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