Red Hat Adds Bevy of Updates to OpenShift Platform
Red Hat today revealed it has made a series of updates to its OpenShift application development and deployment platform, including adding support for a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to make data accessible to artificial intelligence (AI) tools and applications, as well as a runtime image volume source for AI applications.
Additionally, Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 adds support for distributed AI workloads via a LeaderWorkerSet application programming interface (API) that is now available and a technical preview of a JobSet controller.
Mitch Ashley, vice president and practice lead for software lifecycle engineering at Futurum Group, said Red Hat is making it easier to operationalize AI across hybrid environments. The improvements in OpenShift 4.20 create a smoother glide-path for organizations moving from early to full-scale AI application deployments, he added.
Red Hat today also revealed that later this year it plans to update the Lightspeed AI agents it provides to Red Hat OpenShift to provide support for multiple clusters.
At the same time, Red Hat is making a number of core updates to that platform that is now based on Kubernetes 1.33, including making Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4.9 generally available and making updates to Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer and Red Hat Trusted Profile Analyzer
Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 also provides initial support for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms for mTLS connections and plans to deliver later this year a zero trust workload identity manager. Other security additions include support for a Bring-your-own OpenID Connect capability, an ability to deploy the Red Hat OpenShift service mesh using container sidecars and an External Secrets Operator (ESO) that streamlines lifecycle management for credentials.
Support for the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) in OVN-Kubernetes has also been added to connect with external networks.
Finally, there is also now a two-node option for deploying Red Hat OpenShift at the network edge along with expanded support for Arm processors, the Oracle Cloud services and load balancing tools.
Stu Miniman, senior director for market insights for hybrid platforms at Red Hat, said Red Hat OpenShift 4.20 provides the foundation for modernizing application environments as IT teams centralize the management of cloud-native applications and legacy applications running on virtual machines. Achieving that goal will become simpler to achieve as the capabilities of the Lightspeed AI agent continue to expand, he added.
In total, Red Hat now claims that it has more than 100 virtual machine migration projects underway, with 50 others having been completed. In total, more than 250,000 virtual machines either have already been migrated or planned. On average, Red Hat is migrating 350 virtual machines per day with a 99% success rate.
It’s not clear how many IT organizations have adopted Red Hat OpenShift but IBM claimed last week that the platform is now generating $1.8 billion in annual recurring revenue. Much of that is being driven by a steady increase in cloud-native application workloads, but some organizations are also opting to now migrate legacy monolithic applications to Red Hat OpenShift to help reduce the total cost of IT.
Regardless of motivation, the number of Kubernetes clusters being deployed in production environments only continues to increase. The challenge now is finding the best way to secure and manage them at higher levels of scale, especially as more of the workloads running on them are distributed from the edge to the cloud.
