Red Hat Boosts Virtualisation Offerings

September 9, 2008: Red Hat has given its virtualisation capabilities a boost this week with the acquisition of Qumranet and its Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) platform and SolidICE virtual desktop.

Red Hat says that the acquisition will advance its efforts to transform the virtualisation market and “drive comprehensive virtualization technology and management solutions into every system, from servers to desktops, on both Linux and Windows.”

The company claims that thanks to Qumranet’s technology it can now deliver what virtualisation-only vendors cannot: a comprehensive solution integrated with the operating system. Red Hat says that the addition of Qumranet’s kit will help it lower costs while enhancing flexibility and responsiveness of IT infrastructure.

“This acquisition furthers our capability to widen the gap between open source and proprietary infrastructure software,” said Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO at Red Hat. “Put simply, Qumranet's KVM and VDI technologies are at the forefront of the next generation of virtualisation. They represent an opportunity to raise the bar and meet the market's demand for virtualisation solutions.”

Red Hat says that its new Qumranet-based solutions will leverage the power of the open source model, with all solutions delivered within an open framework, promoting plug-and-play compatibility with existing infrastructure and third-party software.

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