Red Hat buys virtualizer Qumranet

Sep 04, 2008

U.S. Linux distributor Red Hat has bought the virtual computing solutions vendor Qumranet.

Red Hat gave notice in their press conference this morning that it is taking over the virtualization applications KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) and SolidICE from Qumranet, Inc. KVM has already been a component of the Linux kernel for two years. Via this acquisition, Red Hat predicts short development times and ensures comprehensive hardware support, thereby providing a strategic advantage over other solutions. SolidICE is a desktop virtualization system that can coexist with Linux or Windows. According to Red Hat CEO and President Jim Whitehurst in response to the acquisition, Red Hat thus becomes one of only two enterprises worldwide that offers complete virtualization solutions, emphasizing its equal rank with Microsoft as technology leader. Red Hat clarifies its target customers on its website in that it will offer Windows desktop users a secure and scalable virtualization platform. According to Red Hat's concept, the product will manage Windows as well as Linux server and desktop virtualization.

As CEO of Qumranet Benny Schnaider confirms, all Qumranet employees will transition to Red Hat. "We could not have found a better partner," he states. Red Hat paid around $107M in cash for the company. The acquisition should have an effect by the end of Red Hat's February 2009 fiscal year, with the revenue in the following year expected to be $20M.

Up until now the Linux distribution had set Xen as the virtualization solution for its Enterprise product RHEL. In a conversation with Red Hat manager Paul Cormier, he confirms that Xen as a component of RHEL 5 would be supported at least until 2014. However, the new Hypervisor, presented at this year's Red Hat Summit conference and to be available end of 2008, will be based on KVM. Red Hat is working on a management infrastructure to support the KVM technology.

Related content

  • Red Hat Announces New Virtualization Products

    Red Hat's CEO, Brian Stevens, has in a webcast announced his company's virtualization strategy for 2009.

    more »
  • The Virtualization Battle: News from Sun, Novell and Microsoft - and Red Hat joins in

    The battle in the virtualization market enters a new phase: Sun Microsystems released new versions of its virtualization software Sun xVM. And a few days ago Red Hat announced its takeover of Qumranet, makers of the virtualizer KVM. Meanwhile Microsoft and Novell are teaming up to counter with their own Microsoft Hyper-V and Suse Linux Enterprise Server offerings.

    more »
  • Red Hat Makes SPICE Open Source

    With the Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments (SPICE), Red Hat has put one of the components of its desktop virtualization under GPL and BSD licensing.

    more »
  • Virtualization Intro

    Good tools are half the battle – even if you are just managing virtual machines. This month we take a practical look at virtualization, and we show you a new threat to watch for in the virtual future.

    more »
  • Red Hat CEO Whitehurst: Open Source Better, Faster

    After a year as its head, Jim Whitehurst has issued a financial assessment of the Red Hat Linux distro and spoke of its future plans. He sees the company braced for success, with an advantage over its proprietary competitors, thanks to Open Source.

    more »

Comments

  • Microsoft as technology leader in VM. I do not think so.

    Referencing:
    http://www.linux-magazine.c...hat_buys_virtualizer_qumranet/

    "Red Hat thus becomes one of only two enterprises worldwide that offers complete virtualization solutions, emphasizing its equal rank with Microsoft as technology leader."

    VMware is the undisputed leader in Virtualization. Microsoft is (has been playing) second fiddle with HyperV being the first offering from MS that migh begin to gain significant market share. That makes RedHat number three if you exlcude all the other players (and their ar a bunch).
comments powered by Disqus

Issue 235/2020

Buy this issue as a PDF

Digital Issue: Price $12.99
(incl. VAT)

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Desktop Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source