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Red Hat Advanced Server Gets DoD COE Certification
DaveAtFraud writes "CNET is reporting that Red Hat Advanced server has been certified as a 'Common Operating Environment' (COE) when running on an IBM server by the U.S. Department of Defense. Red Hat Advanced Server is the first version of Linux to receive this certification. The certification clears the way for broader use of Linux in governement computer systems. Its interesting to note that the certification effort was made for the more proprietary (and costlier) Red Hat Advanced Server and not the basic Red Hat distribution." This despite the best efforts of certain lobbyists.
Why is this even worth noting? Certification efforts aren't especially cheap. If you're going to expend time and resources getting a version of your product certified, why not put the effort into the version that is likeliest to generate enough revenue as a result of the certification to pay for the effort.
After all, while RedHat is in relatively good financial condition, it's not like they have around $40 billion in the bank (unlike some operating system companies). Certifying Advanced Server is a good use of limited resources.
That said, any government security certification is a Good Thing in the commercial marketplace, too - it helps when the engineers need to make a positive case to their PHB's, and gives one more "checklist item" that can get marked in their favor when comparing RH to other vendors.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I use it on a box to run apps that I developed that our M$ monkeys haven't matched(or can't) match. Mainly a lot of situations where one line of code does what would take several more in M$ (Scheduler vs. cron)
In our case it comes down to services. I work for the Commanding General and all he wants is "services not platforms".
I think maybe that has helped to bring in open source in our little corner of the military more than anything. IM talks about how they are M$ certified blah blah and I just bring out a new app coded in Perl that the green suiters can't live without.
Or better yet create one and let it run on one of my own outside servers and then demo it to them with a "Oh by the way, we need Linux to do this".
It's like heroin, get 'em hooked. They gotta have it. Superior services, not platforms.
As far as it being the more expensive version of RH that's certified, have you seen RH's stock price? You're still saving the military a lot more in the long run by getting the more expensive version.
Read the RH press release here.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
... isn't that the same certification than the one we scoffed at when Windows 2000 got it?
Here's a better link to story, sans linkspam:
http://news.com.com/2102-1001-984202.html
COE? Here's the link to their homepage:
http://diicoe.disa.mil/coe/
Admins! Get your fucking heads out of your asses and check to see if something is linkspam before posting it. This isn't the first time. Someone is making money from the click through.
Fuck them.
And impressive considering the other certified OSes (Solaris, AIX, HPUX, and NT). I first used the Advanced Server a couple of months ago while evaluating some Itanium2s, and I was plesantly suprised. I really like RH's decision to make the Advanced Server their "Enterprise" class distro with about an 18 month release cycle. Makes my job easier (TM).
I never thought I would say this, but I've gotten accustomed to using RH. I was a die hard Debian fan, and in philosophy still am. But when it comes to 3rd party support, and announcements like this, I have to say that RH is the distro right now, and probably will be for some time to come (at least in the US).
For all of the advancements that RH has done for Linux, and in spite of itself, including RPM. I would like for them to get a better package system. Yes, I know theres the apt-rpm or whatever its called, but I'm talking something that already comes with the distro and works on all architectures supported by RH. Someday...
Anyhow, all these distro's really have in common is the kernel code which makes them linux. The rest of the software (FTP, wm's, editors) bundled is up to the bundler. It is these choices that can make a distro more secure from another. EX: ssh v. telnet, std ftpd v. vsftpd, vi v. emacs (Sorry, I just had to ;-}) et al; The DOD is going to certify the whole bundle and not just individual pieces. Basically, they don't trust their admins (contractors mostly) to pick the right pieces on their own, so they will find a good bundle and certify that with special instructions.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
Nonsense.
Anyone can download it for free from Red Hat.
You just don't get the support for free.
Mirrors: http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html
Check the "enterprise" directory.
Thanks in advance.
There was a LOT of bureaucratic inertia standing in the way of this effort inside the DoD. In the office this little initiative started in within ESC, the push for this cost two program managers and one engineer their positions, with extra effort made to derail their careers. Another person had to keep his head down and toe the line for a long time. The replacement for the second program manager was frusterated and constrained and a little scared, having entered the arena of combat by stepping over the corpses of the previous two (figuratively).
The efforts by DISA and Red Hat were started because the little program that those people worked on provided the customer for the product. Sure, there was a lot of "anecdotal" demand for Linux, but this was the first formal acquisition program that was committed to it. The guinea pig, so to speak.
Let's give proper respect to RH (those involved know who he is) at Red Hat, who took that first call and pitched it to his management, even though it looked like all the risk was on Red Hat.