Red Hat is set to launch the beta of the latest version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) platform, dubbed the 8.7 and 9.1 milestones.
Both RHEL 8.7 and 9.1 add new features and capabilities designed to help organizations more effectively use its Podman containers.
Podman is an open-source tool for developing, managing, and running containers on Linux systems, developed by Red Hat engineers alongside the open source community, Podman allows users to manage their container ecosystem using the libpod library.
What can users look forward too?
Enterprise users will now be able to monitor and check Podman containers for health and availability, by using the RHEL web console for system configuration and management.
The web console now also apparently lists CPU and memory utilization for Podman containers, potentially providing better visibility for enterprise users.
Eric Hendricks, operations advocate, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat, told VentureBeat that “Podman is almost at feature parity” with its key competitor Docker.
In addition, Hendricks told VentureBeat that another key feature which differentiates Podman “is the ability to export markup code for importing a container configuration into Kubernetes systems”.
Improved security capabilities could be on the cards for red hat users.
Hendricks told VentureBeat: “With 9.1 beta, administrators are now able to validate that a remote system’s boot environment has not been tampered with,”
He added: “This includes confirming that the expected kernel and associated modules are being called instead of a compromised boot image.”
This remote attestation capability is reportedly based on the open-source Keylime.
The exec also said that: “RHEL 9.1 also enables better support for multilevel security (MLS), a critical requirement in some government agencies.”
He added: “MLS can be used to classify different components by the level of secrecy and privacy required.”
IBM bought out RedHat in 2018 for $34 billion, in what was at the time the biggest software acquisition of all time, and its been operating as a subsidiary since then.
The container market is one that Red Hat is doing extremely well in, as according a recent IHS Markit report, it had a 44% market share in the first quarter of 2022 for container software market revenue.
Docker came in second place with a 23% market share, with Pivotal and VMware coming in third place with 6%.
Via VentureBeat (opens in new tab)
