Cloudera’s RHEL-volution: Powering the Cloud with Red Hat

Cloudera’s RHEL-volution: Powering the Cloud with Red Hat

Integrating Cloudera on public cloud with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

As enterprise AI technologies rapidly reshape our digital environment, the foundation of your cloud infrastructure is more critical than ever. That’s why Cloudera and Red Hat, renowned for their open-source solutions, have teamed up to bring Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to Cloudera on public cloud as the operating system for all of our public cloud platform images. Let’s dive into what this means and why it’s a game-changer for our customers.

Previously, Cloudera customers on public cloud were provided with Virtual Machine images built on CentOS Linux. As CentOS Linux approaches its end-of-life in June 2024, and considering RHEL’s widespread adoption among our customers, our transition to a RHEL-based infrastructure reflects both our customers’ preferences and the market’s direction. As a trusted enterprise Linux OS, RHEL boasts certification across hundreds of clouds and thousands of hardware and software vendors. This integration will accelerate InfoSec approvals for Cloudera customers, enhance their security posture, and deliver a long-term, vendor-backed and supported operating system.

Consider it like fortifying the foundation of a house: moving to RHEL is about laying a stronger, more supportive groundwork for your data platform. Much like reinforcing a home to support future expansions and tech upgrades, this shift to RHEL helps to confirm that your digital infrastructure not only supports but accelerates this transformation. On top of that, this solid base is crucial for effectively harnessing the power of enterprise AI and generative AI, enabling your organization to build and scale advanced AI apps with confidence.

The switch to RHEL as the standard operating system for Cloudera on public cloud isn’t just a change – it’s an upgrade for both our customers and ourselves. While this shift naturally aligns with customer preferences for quicker InfoSec approvals and long-term support, it also brings operational improvements for Cloudera itself. The adoption of a RHEL-based system allows for expedited resolutions of Critical Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) and grants access to RHEL’s Identity Management system, offering superior performance and scalability over open-source FreeIPA. RHEL’s robust automation and management capabilities free up valuable DevOps resources, allowing teams to focus on innovation with Cloudera rather than getting bogged down by the constant maintenance other operating systems demand. This upgrade is particularly beneficial for those looking to leverage next-gen hardware architectures and explore cutting-edge Gen AI use cases, which RHEL is finely tuned to support.

“Cloudera’s move to RHEL for our public cloud offering is a decisive step towards delivering unparalleled security and support for our customers. This evolution underscores our commitment to not just meet, but exceed the expectations of the enterprises and organizations we serve. By harnessing RHEL, we’re enhancing our platform to empower customers with a more secure, scalable, and supported cloud environment, ready to take on the demands of tomorrow’s data and AI challenges.” – Karthik Krishnamoorthy, Vice President of Product Management, Cloudera.

For those transitioning from CentOS Linux (or other distributions), Cloudera will offer an easy migration path. This process will be managed by our teams, ensuring that our customers continue operating smoothly without the need to rebuild their infrastructure.

Cloudera’s commitment to customer success remains a cornerstone of our service model. As part of our integration with RHEL, we are introducing a RHEL mirror, specifically curated to provide the components required for Cloudera use cases. Should customers require packages not included in this specialized mirror, they can easily open a support ticket with us, providing justification for the intended use of the additional components. It’s important to note that this limited RHEL mirror is exclusively accessible for Cloudera deployments on public cloud.

The integration of Cloudera with RHEL marks a significant advancement, offering our customers a seamless experience that combines Cloudera’s ability to tackle data and AI challenges with the reliability Red Hat is known for. This move not only streamlines compliance and security measures, but also delivers a more sustainable and scalable operating system foundation.

“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Cloudera further as they make Red Hat Enterprise Linux the standard for their public cloud runtime. Together, we are dedicated to providing supported and hybrid cloud-ready solutions that can improve security and position our joint customers at the forefront of technological innovation, including generative AI,” said Gunnar Hellekson, vice president and general manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Business Unit, Red Hat.

We invite you to harness the strengths of Cloudera and Red Hat, driving your organization forward with efficiency and innovation. Get started today with our comprehensive resources to guide you through the journey:

Blake Tow
Senior Product Marketing Analyst
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