Red Hat releases cloud-optimised Linux images for major clouds

Red Hat has announced the availability of cloud-optimised Red Hat Enterprise Linux images developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

The newly released images, introduced alongside Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, are designed specifically for cloud deployments and are tailored for each of the three major hyperscaler platforms. These images are pre-tuned and ready for immediate use, aiming to simplify building, deploying, and managing Linux-based workloads across public clouds.

Red Hat's collaboration with these major cloud providers enables organisations to more easily migrate workloads, access enhanced management capabilities, and improve the visibility of deployments. The images also integrate security features from the outset, aiming to offer a consistent experience for IT operations as companies pursue their cloud migration and expansion strategies.

Commenting on the collaboration, Gunnar Hellekson, Vice President and General Manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Business Unit at Red Hat, said: "Red Hat's collaboration with AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft mark a significant leap forward in delivering cloud-ready, purpose-built offerings of the world's leading enterprise Linux platform directly into the hands of our customers. By engineering tailored experiences for Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud, we are empowering organizations to accelerate their cloud transformations and deployments, enabling them to more rapidly achieve their business objectives and scale to embrace the next wave of IT innovation."

The cloud-optimised Red Hat Enterprise Linux offerings feature several enhancements targeted at improving operational efficiency and reliability. Pre-configured profiles are tuned to maximise cloud performance and are designed to maintain system consistency between reboots. Settings for various subsystems can be modified without disrupting workflows, providing flexibility for IT teams managing dynamic cloud environments.

The new image mode leverages container-native tooling, allowing Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be used as a bootable container image in the cloud. This is intended to help organisations consolidate cloud-native application development and IT operations workflows into a single pipeline, reducing complexity and potential friction in deployment processes.

Observability is expanded in these offerings through built-in telemetry, giving administrators a view of their Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments that is unified with other cloud services. Security capabilities have been enhanced, with features such as image attestation, Secure Boot, Confidential Computing, and Confidential Hypervisor aimed at providing a secure path from system boot to runtime.

Through these integrations, Red Hat positions its operating system as a foundation for standardising and scaling applications across hybrid and multi-cloud setups. Tuning Red Hat Enterprise Linux for specific cloud environments is intended to help organisations accelerate application development, simplify management, and achieve efficient scaling with reliability across platforms.

Manu Parbhakar, Director, Worldwide Business Application Partners at AWS, stated: "AWS customers gain immediate differentiated value from this Red Hat collaboration through performance-optimized Red Hat Enterprise Linux profiles that work harmoniously with our world-class cloud services ecosystem. By combining Red Hat's container-native tooling with AWS's comprehensive security features and observability dashboard, organizations achieve a level of operational efficiency and global scale that simply isn't available elsewhere in the market."

Mark Lohmeyer, Vice President and General Manager, AI & Computing Infrastructure at Google Cloud, commented: "Google Cloud is committed to providing our customers with the flexibility and tools they need to innovate and scale their operations. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Google Cloud offers our customers a streamlined path to migrate, deploy and scale their workloads faster across the hybrid cloud, all while benefiting from integrated security capabilities and a simplified management experience. This collaboration further empowers organizations to achieve their business goals and accelerate their digital transformation on Google Cloud."

Brendan Burns, Corporate Vice President, Azure Compute at Microsoft, added: "Microsoft and Red Hat share a commitment to enabling organizations with a more seamless and comprehensive hybrid cloud experience. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Microsoft Azure offers a powerful solution for organizations to achieve enhanced consistency across environments and more effectively manage usage and costs, helping them unlock greater business value in the cloud."

The cloud-optimised Red Hat Enterprise Linux images are available immediately on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Organisations can migrate to these offerings using existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions or select pay-as-you-go options through cloud marketplaces. Red Hat Enterprise Linux qualifies for committed spend programmes on all three hyperscaler platforms, with additional flexibility offered through Red Hat's hybrid committed spend programme.