10 reasons your enterprise should adopt Red Hat 6.5

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-reasons-your-enterprise-should-adopt-red-hat-65/

Check out the 10 features that are most notable in the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 

The latest iteration of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system has arrived and it is not only ready for the enterprise, it's ready to re-define and reset the bar for enterprise expectations. With a full host of improvements (and new features), RHEL could easily become the de facto standard for enterprise platforms.

If you're not sure of this claim, or simply cannot believe the claim, I offer up to you ten reasons why your enterprise should adopt Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

1. Precision Time Protocol

If your company requires time to be measured in microseconds, you need a platform that works with the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). PTP enables sub-microsecond clock accuracy over a local area network. If you depend upon high-speed, low-latency applications (such as those used in the trading industry), PTP is a must-have.

2. Easy application image deployment

There's a new tool in town (or at least a renamed tool), called Docker. With Docker you can easily deploy application images within containers. Each of these containers run the application as if it were on a virtual machine. This means you no longer have to suffer the overhead of deploying a full-blown virtual operating system just to run a simple application. This will not only make your virtual environment much more efficient, it'll also be far more cost effective.

3. Open hybrid cloud

RHEL 6.5 supports both OpenStack and OpenShift technologies. OpenStack is an open source cloud computing platform and OpenShift automates the provisioning, management, and scaling of cloud computing platforms. Together these two pieces work to create a Platform as a Service (PaaS). This, in conjunction with Docker creates an incredibly flexible cloud environment that can serve the enterprise needs in many ways.

4. Enhanced security

RHEL 6.5 enjoys numerous security upgrades. Key to the enhancements is a centralized certificate trust store which provides standardized certificate access for all security services. There are also tools that support the OpenSCP implementation of the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP). This protocol was developed by US National Institute of Standards and Technology and is central for auditing and verifying security configurations. With this included standards-based technology, it is possible to ensure a RHEL server configuration meets very stringent standards.

5. Network activity views

If you're an administrator that likes to know specifically what is going on with your network, RHEL 6.5 has what you're looking for. The latest version of Red Hat offers a comprehensive view of all network activity. With these new capabilities, administrators will be able to inspect Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) data in order to list multicast router ports, multicast groups with active subscribers (and their associated interfaces). 

6. Improved virtualization tools

There are plenty of improvements to the virtualization tools included with RHEL 6.5. High on this list is the ability to dynamically enable or disable virtual processors in active guests. With this new addition, RHEL can now better interact with cloud-based elastic workloads. Virtual guest memory has also been improved, with configurations that support up to 4TB of memory on the Linux built-in, kernel-based virtual machine hypervisor.

7. Subscription management

RHEL 6.5 now boasts a revised Subscription Management. With this new tool you have the choice of having your server connect to the Red Hat Customer Portal or to an on-premise subscription management service set up using the Subscription Asset Manager. With the server and the service connected, your company will enjoy centralized control of all subscription assets. Another benefit of this service is that you gain enhanced reporting for multiple systems.

8. Faster dump files

If you've ever had to deal with large kernel dump files, you know they can cause problems. That is no more with RHEL 6.5 The new system is now capable of handling incredibly large dump files faster. Thanks to a new compression algorithm (LZO), dump files are created far faster than previous iterations. Enhancements to the dump tools tracing and testing commands provides additional even monitoring capabilities.

9. Improved storage

Anyone working with RHEL 6.5 will see a marked improvement of storage. One reason for this is the improved control and recover when working in iSCSI or Fiber Channel Storage Area Networks. The latest release also includes a solid state driver (SSD) controller interface as well as support for NVM Express-based SSDs. It is also now possible to configure over 255 (Logical Unit Number) LUNs connected to a single iSCSI target.

10. Improved overall performance

Above everything, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 enjoys an over all performance increase that is noticeable  – which, in turn, translates to more reliable environments, cost savings, and happier end users/CTOs. This improved performance means your critical applications can be run more effectively – which translates to a better bottom line.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 could very easily herald a new king of the mountain in the enterprise. With the newest release, your company will enjoy more reliability, more security, and an improved ROI.