Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the latest major release from Red Hat, is setting the scene for its server operating systems for the next decade. With a successful 10 years behind them, Red Hat now looks to the Cloud to bring Linux to the heart every IT organization.

In a press conference this week, Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President, Engineering, Red Hat, announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 is now available. The reoccurring themes surrounding this release are Scalability, Flexibility, Reliability, Open.

Cormier highlighted and thanked Red Hat’s customers and partners, and he emphasized the importance these relationships to Red Hat's future.

According to the company, the future of RHEL 6 includes setting the standard for operating environments for the next decade, driving Linux deeper and broader into every IT organization, eroding the Microsoft Windows server ecosystem, continuing as a high-value alternative to RISC/UNIX, as well as becoming the bellwether foundation for private and public clouds.

Next Jim Totten, General Manager and Vice President, Platform Business Unit, took center stage to go into the details and features of the release. Among the details Totten discussed were the “Facts and Figures” of RHEL 6. Totten pointed out that RHEL 6 is based on the 2.6.32 kernel and will include many features from the 2.6.33 and 2.6.34 kernels.

The RHEL 6 focus will be on optimization for today’s I.T. deployments in both scale and security, green I.T. with power management, as well as platform for virtualization and cloud with a host and guest optimization cloud foundation.

During this portion of the press conference, customer and partner videos looked at the benefits RHEL 6 brings to their business. Videos featured testimonials from IBM, Dell, HP, and Partnering with Red Hat videos include: Performance, Reliability, and Scalability; Virtualization and Cloud; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Tim Burke, Vice President of Linux Development, joined Cormier and Totten on stage for the QA portion of the press conference.

More information and details about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 can be found on their website.