CloudForms is Red Hat's answer to operating and managing an OpenStack environment

We agree that an all-public cloud isn't the answer, as VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger acknowledges," says Bryan Che, general manager of Red Hat's Cloud Business Unit.

"This is a conversation Red Hat has been leading for some time now. However, we do not buy into the premise that a private or a hybrid platform based on one vendor's technologies and products is the answer either, says Che That goes against the compelling industry trends of openness and choice that have increasingly put customers in control of their own destinies and strategic direction. Instead, we are focused on delivering what we believe customers really want: an open hybrid cloud."

For that to happen, Che says, a hybrid cloud can't just run on a homogeneous software stack. It needs to work across the enterprise's entire business and IT, spanning Red Hat, Microsoft, VMware and Amazon. That's where OpenStack comes in.

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OpenStack is free open source software-actually a series of interrelated open source projects for controlling pools of processing, storage and networking resources through a datacenter-supported by a wide array of vendors, from Red Hat and IBM to Rackspace and HP.

CloudForms is Red Hat's answer to operating and managing an OpenStack environment. Its capabilities include a comprehensive cloud service catalog, chargeback and metering, service orchestration, policy and governance, reporting and forecasting and more. And, as Che notes, it can provide these capabilities from a diverse array of cloud environments-VMware, Red Hat, Amazon-all from a single pane of glass.

"This means, then, that with CloudForms, you can build and manage a hybrid cloud that spans not just Red hat technologies or VMware technologies but a choice and diversity of providers," he says. "And, you can do this all with a unified and interoperable set of tools and interfaces. In an open hybrid cloud, your cloud is not locked into a single vendor or technology stack; rather you can build and manage a cloud that spans all your important assets in an integrated and seamless way."

Red Hat also introduced a new product offering: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Promotional Offering. It integrates Red Hat's enterprise Linux platform with its virtualization management system for servers and desktops. The Enterprise Virtualization Promotional Offering will be made available as a single subscription offering in fall 2013.

The open source solutions provider also announced its Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a class and certification intended to ensure that enterprise customers' IT professionals can deploy and manage OpenStack.

Red Hat says the class will cover essential OpenStack skills, including installing and configuring a Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform deployment, configuring and managing images and managing storage using Object Storage (Swift) and Block Storage (Cinder).

"We built the industry's leading Linux certification program by focusing on rigorous, hands-on testing of real-world skills," says Iain Gray, vice president of Global Services at Red Hat.

"Our Red Hat Certified Professionals love this because it is a meaningful test of their skills. IT employers love it because it offers assurance that the certificate holders can apply their skills and knowledge in real-world situations, says Gray. We have applied these same principles to the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Infrastructure as a Service. Organizations are seeking capable professionals to help bring OpenStack into their IT environments. As with Linux, we expect to set the benchmark for a technology that is rapidly proving to be a game changer in the industry