Introduction
The Futurum Group recently attended Red Hat Summit 2024 in Denver, Colorado, and came away with some great highlights. This year’s summit was a vibrant showcase of innovation, focusing on the transformative role of open source in the technology landscape, especially in artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and cloud environments. The summit brought together industry leaders, developers, and strategists to explore new advancements and collaborative efforts aimed at enhancing the capabilities of technologies such as large language models (LLMs), hybrid cloud solutions, and AI-driven platforms. Paul Nashawaty, Camberley Bates, and Steven Dickens, practice leads from The Futurum Group, attended the event, offering unique perspectives and in-depth analysis on the discussions and technological showcases. Let’s dive into the key announcements and sessions that highlight Red Hat’s announcements and commitment to pushing the boundaries of what open source can achieve in an enterprise setting.
Matt Hicks on AI and Open Source: Pioneering a New Era of Innovation
Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks believes that the intersection of open source and AI is opening an explosion of options, with open source and academia at the center of innovation. Open source is seen in LLM development, deployment, and container platforms, and is fueling machine learning, neural networks, and generative AI. Matt predicts that AI will not be built by a single vendor or monolithic model, but by contributing to models and fine-tuning as part of the open-source community. InstructLab offers a platform for training LLMs, keeping data private, or contributing. Red Hat is also working on virtualization, with KubeVirt being in the top 10 Cloud Native Computing Foundation projects and being developed by 100 companies, including Dell, IBM, HPE, Amazon Web Services (AWS), NetApp, and NVIDIA. The company is focused on guiding the open-source community to build the necessary capability and durability for different ecosystems.
Ansible’s New Frontier: Policy as Code and Enhanced Hybrid Cloud Automation
Red Hat Summit and AnsibleFest 2024 showcased advancements in Ansible, including Policy as Code, Connectivity Link, and open-source initiatives. These innovations aim to improve automation and connectivity in hybrid cloud settings. Ansible Integration of Policy as Code focuses on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) requirements, allowing organizations to enforce regulations throughout the development cycle. Ansible Lightspeed integration increases the development pace and allows for customization of alerts and notifications. Communication Link streamlines application communication in hybrid cloud environments, offering a unified control system. Ansible Automation Insights is a crucial element of its automation strategy, ensuring consistency, resilience, and performance at scale. Open-sourcing of GraniteAI models and the InstructLab project promotes collaboration and innovation within the community. Dell APEX relationship expanded to include AI, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and OpenShift, promoting collaboration and creativity. The Red Hat Summit aims to foster collaboration and innovation within the developer community, with a future focus on simplifying compliance processes, improving application connectivity, and increasing operational efficiency.
Red Hat and Pure Storage Enhance Cloud Integration with Portworx on OpenShift
Pure Storage and Red Hat have partnered to enhance Portworx on Red Hat OpenShift, aiming to simplify integration and facilitate a smooth transition to modern virtualization. This collaboration aims to address the challenges associated with the long-term viability of large virtual machine (VM)-based applications. By combining container and VM management, the platform offers more flexibility and reduces the need for significant re-architecting, accelerating time to market. This integration also streamlines developers’ daily tasks, ensuring uniformity between environments and aligning virtualization management and platform engineering. This integration could lead to a significant change in project architecture, allowing developers to modernize legacy systems and implement cloud-native methods. The market is expected to continue moving toward integrated solutions that reduce operational complexity and maximize savings.
OpenShift AI: Accelerating Enterprise AI Deployment in Hybrid Cloud Environments
Red Hat has announced enhancements to its OpenShift AI platform, aiming to streamline container orchestration and workflows. These improvements are part of Red Hat’s AI strategy, which focuses on leveraging AI capabilities in hybrid cloud environments. The company’s Lightspeed program has expanded to include OpenShift, which now incorporates advanced natural language processing capabilities specifically designed for GenAl processing. OpenShift Lightspeed is set to release in 2024, while RHEL Lightspeed is in the planning phase. Red Hat also unveiled InstructLab, an open-source community initiative focused on the development of GenAl models. This initiative promotes collaboration among developers and enhances AI capabilities in hybrid cloud environments. The announcements at the Red Hat Summit signal a new phase in development, providing developers with advanced tools, collaborative platforms, and state-of-the-art technology to foster innovation. As AI becomes more prevalent in the software development industry, open-source initiatives like InstructLab will continue to be crucial components of the developer ecosystem.
RHEL AI: Red Hat’s Bold Move into AI-Powered Cloud and Edge Solutions
Red Hat has launched RHEL AI, a solution for modernizing applications across edge, core, and CloudOS environments. The AI-powered approach aims to optimize workflows and enhance performance, addressing the increasing needs of organizations in hybrid cloud environments. The launch of Image Mode for RHEL streamlines operating system functionality, enhancing the speed of development, testing, and distribution processes. The core of this improvement is Podman, a key component that enables local container and AI development. Red Hat’s AI plans prioritize flexibility, choice, and openness, promoting uniformity, reliability, and ease of use across various models, platforms, and portfolios in hybrid cloud environments. The introduction of RHEL AI has the potential to accelerate progress in application modernization, enabling organizations to simplify operations, enhance performance, and stimulate creativity.
Red Hat and IBM: Collaborating on Next-Generation AI with RHEL AI
Red Hat has introduced RHEL AI, an open-source AI platform designed to simplify AI integration for businesses. The platform aims to reduce training costs, improve deployment options, and enhance the performance and adaptability of pre-trained models. It also addresses challenges faced by developers in AI development, such as resource requirements and data privacy concerns. RHEL AI integrates InstructLab’s capabilities with IBM Research’s Granite language models, enabling efficient deployment across various hybrid cloud environments. The platform’s image mode deployment mechanism connects AI runtimes with IT infrastructure, facilitating hybrid cloud portability.
Open-Source Evolution: RHEL AI Leads with New Standards in AI and Cloud
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) AI has been announced at the Red Hat Summit in Denver, introducing supported, indemnified, and open-source-licensed IBM Granite LLMs under its enterprise subscription model. The platform provides a robust runtime environment across AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA platforms, accelerating AI innovation built on open source. The Linux ecosystem is witnessing an unprecedented evolution in technological advancements, with the shift from CentOS to CentOS Stream sparking discussions across the industry. The Linux landscape is poised for a transformation driven by the burgeoning demand for AI capabilities, with a tsunami of new applications predicted over the next 2-3 years. The release also introduces enhanced capabilities for managing hybrid cloud infrastructures, virtualization improvements, and advanced security features.
Looking Ahead
As we consider the Red Hat Summit 2024’s insights, it is evident that a deeper integration of AI and open source is shaping the future of technology. The advancements in AI capabilities within the Red Hat ecosystem, particularly through projects like InstructLab and the expansion of RHEL AI, signify a shift toward more collaborative and community-driven innovation. The intersection of open source and AI not only broadens the accessibility of new technology but also enhances the adaptability and efficiency of enterprise solutions across various industries.
Looking ahead, the continuous evolution of open-source tools and platforms is expected to drive more personalized and efficient technological solutions. The commitment to improving hybrid cloud infrastructures and the integration of AI into diverse cloud environments will likely catalyze further innovations in automation and virtualization. This is poised to reduce operational complexities and enhance performance scalability, thereby supporting the next wave of digital transformation. The collaborative efforts seen at the summit, especially in the space of AI development and deployment, are set to redefine how businesses leverage technology to meet their goals while ensuring resilience, security, and compliance.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other Insights from The Futurum Group:
Red Hat Summit and AnsibleFest 2024 Unveils Innovations
Red Hat Summit: Musings on Matt Hicks’ Vision for AI and Virtualization
Red Hat Optimizes Application Modernization with RHEL AI
Author Information
At The Futurum Group, Paul Nashawaty, Practice Leader and Lead Principal Analyst, specializes in application modernization across build, release and operations. With a wealth of expertise in digital transformation initiatives spanning front-end and back-end systems, he also possesses comprehensive knowledge of the underlying infrastructure ecosystem crucial for supporting modernization endeavors. With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.
Camberley brings over 25 years of executive experience leading sales and marketing teams at Fortune 500 firms. Before joining The Futurum Group, she led the Evaluator Group, an information technology analyst firm as Managing Director.
Her career has spanned all elements of sales and marketing including a 360-degree view of addressing challenges and delivering solutions was achieved from crossing the boundary of sales and channel engagement with large enterprise vendors and her own 100-person IT services firm.
Camberley has provided Global 250 startups with go-to-market strategies, creating a new market category “MAID” as Vice President of Marketing at COPAN and led a worldwide marketing team including channels as a VP at VERITAS. At GE Access, a $2B distribution company, she served as VP of a new division and succeeded in growing the company from $14 to $500 million and built a successful 100-person IT services firm. Camberley began her career at IBM in sales and management.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business from California State University – Long Beach and executive certificates from Wellesley and Wharton School of Business.
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the Vice President and Practice Leader for Hybrid Cloud, Infrastructure, and Operations at The Futurum Group. With a distinguished track record as a Forbes contributor and a ranking among the Top 10 Analysts by ARInsights, Steven's unique vantage point enables him to chart the nexus between emergent technologies and disruptive innovation, offering unparalleled insights for global enterprises.
Steven's expertise spans a broad spectrum of technologies that drive modern enterprises. Notable among these are open source, hybrid cloud, mission-critical infrastructure, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and FinTech innovation. His work is foundational in aligning the strategic imperatives of C-suite executives with the practical needs of end users and technology practitioners, serving as a catalyst for optimizing the return on technology investments.
Over the years, Steven has been an integral part of industry behemoths including Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and IBM. His exceptional ability to pioneer multi-hundred-million-dollar products and to lead global sales teams with revenues in the same echelon has consistently demonstrated his capability for high-impact leadership.
Steven serves as a thought leader in various technology consortiums. He was a founding board member and former Chairperson of the Open Mainframe Project, under the aegis of the Linux Foundation. His role as a Board Advisor continues to shape the advocacy for open source implementations of mainframe technologies.