Why RHEL 8 matters to enterprises

Built-in management tools

Serving as the nerve centre of enterprise datacentres, Linux has been used to support a growing number of workloads, not only on-premise but also increasingly on the cloud in a hybrid environment. Managing these workloads is undoubtedly becoming more complex as applications get updated more frequently.

With RHEL 8, Red Hat is including Red Hat Insights to proactively identify and remediate IT issues, from security vulnerabilities to stability problems, before they occur. It uses predictive analytics based on Red Hat’s vast knowledge of open technologies to help admins avoid problems and unplanned downtime in production environments.

In addition, to ease the task of managing workloads in a hybrid environment, Red Hat is also packing in Red Hat Smart Management, a set of tools to manage, patch, configure and provision RHEL deployments across the hybrid cloud.

Stability and agility

The faster pace of business has driven more enterprises to adopt agile methodologies in software development. That, however, could have knock-on effects on stability and predictability of production systems, leading some enterprises to consider bimodal IT, a two-tiered IT operations model that allows for the creation of IT systems and processes that are stable and predictable, as well as agile and fast.

With RHEL 8, enterprises can get access to Application Streams, which makes it possible to update fast-moving languages, frameworks and developer tools frequently without impacting core resources in the OS, melding faster developer innovation with production stability in a single IT operations model.

Lowering barriers to entry

Linux admins often use the command line to perform specific tasks, but those who are new to the OS, such as Windows admins, may not be familiar with how things work in Linux. 

With RHEL 8, Red Hat has abstracted away the deep complexities of granular sysadmin tasks behind the RHEL web console. The console provides a consistent graphical interface for managing and monitoring RHEL systems, from the health of virtual machines to overall system performance. 

To further improve ease of use, RHEL 8 also supports in-place upgrades, providing a more streamlined, efficient and timely path for users to convert RHEL 7 instances to RHEL 8 systems.

Finally, RHEL 8 is not complete without built in automation capabilities. Thanks to Ansible, IT operations teams can now automate many of the complex tasks around managing and configuring Linux in production, making it easier for new admins to adopt Linux protocols and eliminate configuration issues due to human errors.

Red Hat commissioned TechTarget APAC to cover Red Hat Summit 2019 in Boston. The above content was not reviewed or influenced prior to publication.