Red Hat has announced a new offering that could reshape enterprise Linux development. The company now provides Red Hat Enterprise Linux (REHL) for Business Developers at no cost, marking a significant shift in how organizations can access enterprise-grade Linux platforms.
This move comes as businesses face increasing IT complexity across physical, virtual, cloud, and edge environments. Red Hat’s latest offering aims to bridge the gap between development and production systems while addressing growing concerns about software supply chain security.
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What is Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Business Developers is a self-service offering through the Red Hat Developer Program. It provides development teams with free access to the same enterprise Linux platform that powers production systems across hybrid cloud environments.
The platform allows registered users to entitle up to 25 physical, virtual, or cloud-based instances. This is a big improvement over what was offered to developers before and shows that Red Hat is serious about helping business development teams.
Importance of RHEL
Enterprise organizations rely on RHEL for several reasons. The platform offers proven stability across demanding production environments. It provides comprehensive security features that help protect against evolving cyber threats. Additionally, RHEL delivers consistent performance across different deployment models.
The platform is valuable for more than just its technical features. RHEL gives businesses access to Red Hat’s large network of partners, tools, and support. This network adds extra benefits for companies looking to upgrade their IT systems.
Red Hat’s focus on security has become more important as software bugs and supply chain attacks keep increasing. Their latest Product Security Risk Report shows how crucial it is to have safe, reliable platforms for both development and production.
Key Benefits of RHEL
The new offering gives development teams many benefits. Now, organizations can build apps on the same platform they use for production. This makes it easier for development and operations teams to work together and helps ensure smoother, more predictable deployments.
Enhanced Development Consistency
Teams now have access to enterprise-grade resources, including up-to-date programming languages, tools, and databases. This carefully selected content helps them build applications faster while staying within enterprise standards. The platform also offers advanced container development tools, especially Podman Desktop. Developers can build bootable container images and use a wide range of Red Hat software components for development and testing.
Simplified Access and Deployment:
The self-service design of the offering removes the usual hurdles to using enterprise Linux platforms. Development teams can set up instances quickly without needing long approval steps or much help from IT. It’s also flexible across different setups, teams can run the platform on physical servers, virtual machines, or in the cloud, depending on what works best for them.
How RHEL Helps Organizations
This new offering helps solve several common problems modern development teams face. Many organizations deal with mismatches between development and production environments, which can cause deployment problems, security risks, and make operations harder.
Minimizing Development Friction: By giving teams access to the same platform used in production, Red Hat helps reduce deployment problems. Apps built on RHEL for Business Developers move more easily into production environments. This consistency also benefits operations teams, making collaboration with developers smoother since both use the same platform and tools.
Supporting Modern Development Practices: The platform is designed for today’s development needs, supporting containerized apps and cloud-native architectures. Teams can use modern tools while still benefiting from the stability and security of enterprise Linux.
Boosting Organizational Agility: With direct access to enterprise-grade platforms, development teams can respond faster to changing business needs. This agility is especially valuable as companies speed up their digital transformation efforts.
Cost-Effective Enterprise Development: Since the offering is free, organizations can try out enterprise Linux without large upfront costs. This makes it easier for teams to test and evaluate RHEL for production use while keeping financial risks low.
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Moving Forward with Enterprise Linux Development
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Business Developers takes a strategic and thoughtful approach to adopting enterprise Linux. It lets organizations equip their development teams with enterprise-level tools while keeping costs under control and staying aligned with operations.
For those who need extra help, optional support subscriptions are available, giving organizations the flexibility to adjust their support based on their needs and level of development maturity.
As Gunnar Hellekson, vice president and general manager of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, puts it: “Modern developers need the freedom to innovate at their own pace, but without creating friction with IT operations or production systems.”
This new offering meets that need by giving developers direct access to enterprise Linux platforms that are consistent with production environments. It helps boost developer productivity while maintaining operational alignment and enterprise-grade security.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Business Developers is now available, offering a balanced path to enterprise Linux development that combines accessibility, consistency, and the reliability enterprises require.
