Red Hat and Microsoft sign interoperability pact

Red Hat and Microsoft's new interoperable virtualisation vision
Source: Red Hat Red Hat and Microsoft have announced that they will in future be validating each others server operating systems on their own virtualisation platforms. This means that Red Hat will validate Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2000 SP4 and Windows Server 2008 guest, on Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualisation and Microsoft will validate Red Hat Linux 5.2 and 5.3 guests, on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Hyper-V Server 2008.

Unlike many other interoperability deals with Microsoft, Red Hat stress that "no patent or open source licensing components" were involved in the deal and there are "no financial clauses other than industry standard certifications/validation testing fees". The agreements come in the form of Microsoft joining Red Hat's Virtualisation Certification Program, and Red Hat joining the Microsoft Server Virtualisation Validation Program. Red Hat says that the deal has been driven by customer demand for a more symmetrical range of support to guest operating systems, on both companies virtualisation platforms.

Mike Evans, VP of corporate development, said that the agreements would also allow for coordinated customer support for customers running RHEL guests on Hyper-V and Windows Server guests on RHEL. Mike Neil of Microsoft's Virtualisation Strategy Manager pointed to Microsoft's third party vendor certification program, running since June 2008, which already had vendors committed to the process of including Cisco, Novell, Oracle, Sun and VMWare. It is expected that there will be certified releases of both Red Hat and Microsoft's operating systems, available in the second half of 2009.

(djwm)