Red Hat announces certification for containerised applications

Red Hat, Inc. has announced the extension of its application certification program to include containerised applications. The Red Hat Container Certification ensures that application containers built using Red Hat Enterprise Linux will operate seamlessly across certified container hosts. Designed with the needs of independent software vendors (ISVs), service providers and their enterprise customers in mind, the certification extends the confidence customers have with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which currently supports thousands of certified applications, to certified containers running on certified container hosts. The pending release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and Red Hat’s OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering will both be certified container hosts, with Docker as a primary supported container format.

Linux Containers
Linux Containers have emerged as a key open source application packaging and delivery technology, combining lightweight application isolation with the flexibility of image-based deployment methods. Developers have rapidly embraced Linux Containers because they simplify and accelerate application deployment, while many PaaS platforms are built around Linux container technology, including OpenShift by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux implements Linux Containers using core technologies such as Control Groups (cGroups), Resource Management, SELinux, and network namespaces, enabling secure multi-tenancy and reducing the potential for security exploits.

Building on the capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, application containers are deployed as software packages that include the application and all of its required runtime components. Benefits include:
· Instant portability, deploy the certified application container across any certified container host
· Minimal footprint, avoid the overhead of virtual machine images which include a complete operating system
· Simplified maintenance, reduce the effort and risk by patching applications along with all of their dependencies
· Lowered development costs, develop, test and certify applications against a single runtime environment

Red Hat Container Certification
The Red Hat Container Certification is the latest addition to Red Hat’s industry-leading certification portfolio that includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. The certification is also part of a larger set of Red Hat technology initiatives which in turn support thousands of third party technology partners within Red Hat’s global ecosystem.

To support this newly announced container certification, Red Hat is also announcing the container certification Partner Early Access Program (PEAP). The PEAP will run through late spring and provide the ability for ecosystem partners to participate in early testing, integration and feedback of the tools and resources required for containerisation prior to the official launch of the certification and partner program, currently planned for mid-2014.