IBM and Red Hat have announced a strategic collaboration to build an open source hybrid cloud based on OpenStack. The new partnership will persuade enterprise customers to opt for IBM Private Cloud to install Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage.

As a result of the collaborative move, IBM and Red Hat will jointly market and sell their cloud deployments. “Our collaboration with IBM is aimed at helping enterprise customers more quickly and easily embrace the hybrid cloud,” said Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager of OpenStack, Red Hat, in a joint statement.

“Now, customers who do not have the in-house expertise to manage an OpenStack infrastructure can more confidently consume Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage on IBM Private Cloud,” Balakrishnan added.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure with OpenStack APIs

Through the latest deal, IBM and Red Hat are set to offer a hybrid cloud infrastructure with OpenStack APIs. Both the companies are also set to enable their clients with workload migration option directly via Red Hat Cloud Access.

“The strategic collaboration between IBM and Red Hat is designed to enable clients to more easily adopt open source products and OpenStack cloud software while preserving their existing investments and creating new business opportunities,” said Zane Adam, vice president for IBM Cloud.

Cloud to expand market presence

IBM has been looking to get expanded in the cloud space for a long time. The company partnered with Dell EMC-owned VMware last year and is already running VMware management platform on its cloud.

Likewise, as the open source software is dominating the cloud space, IBM is targeting to gain success in the market by partnering with its market leaders.

Hybrid cloud application management company Cloudsoft is already using the combined service by deploying its Red Hat Enterprise Linux workloads in IBM’s cloud solution. This use case is likely to be expanded over time.

“A cloud-first strategy has become the new normal for a majority of our enterprise clients worldwide who are leveraging IBM Cloud as a key driver for digital transformation,” Adam concluded.