The transition from proprietary software to a growing reliance on enterprise open-source solutions is accelerating. A notable majority of IT leaders now embrace enterprise open-source software to unlock the benefits of cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, edge and serverless computing. Despite the advantages, this shift is not without its obstacles, including security issues, integration hurdles, and the demand for specialised skills.
In an exclusive interview with TechObserver.in, Ameeta Roy, Senior Director, Solution Architecture for Red Hat India, South Asia said: “The open-source world is indeed complex, given the millions of ongoing projects. But the beauty of open source lies in its ability to foster innovation through collaboration, making cutting-edge technology accessible to everyone. At Red Hat, we're not just about offering software; we're about creating a community and an ecosystem where innovation thrives.”
Edited Excerpts:
What has been your impression of the government's digital initiatives and their approach to software development?
I read a lot and am very impressed with the government's digital initiatives, particularly their trust in and focus on using open source software. We have been part of many of these Digital India led initiatives. Some of the mission critical projects under “Digital India initiative” are powered by Red Hat Technology like Employee Provident Fund (EPFO), Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN), Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Red Hat is at the heart of many enterprise digital transformation projects as well. This focus is encouraging because it signifies a broader acceptance and understanding that a lot of innovation happens within the open-source community. In fact, reports suggest that almost two-thirds of application code incorporates some open source components, which is quite remarkable.
With such a heavy reliance on open source, what complexities do organisations face, especially related to software versions and security?
The open-source world is indeed complex, given the millions of ongoing projects. To give you an idea of the scale, there could be around 6 million open source software component versions released every year. This creates a massive challenge for organisations aiming to work swiftly while ensuring their software remains secure and up-to-date amidst rapidly changing versions. At Red Hat, we try to introduce some method to this madness with enterprise open source, curating, hardening, and securing software for our customers.
How does Red Hat's approach to enterprise open source differentiate from others in managing these challenges?
Our approach is somewhat different. We focus on providing the most stable version of open-source software and support it over a period, allowing for innovation while ensuring stability. This is particularly important for our government and enterprise customers who require lifecycle support for their projects. We start with community-built open source software that meets the needs, partially or fully, of our customers. Then, upon these projects Red Hat builds, hardening security, patching vulnerabilities, and adding new enterprise features. Unlike many other open source vendors, Red Hat's intent is to push the envelope on constant innovation in the open source projects.
Can you elaborate on how Red Hat's platforms, like OpenShift and Ansible, contribute to innovation in software development?
While Kubernetes is widely discussed in the context of cloud-native applications, our OpenShift platform goes beyond being just enterprise Kubernetes. It's a comprehensive development and deployment platform, integrating features like observability and service mesh. This turns OpenShift into a complete solution, freeing developers from infrastructure complexities to focus on innovation. Similarly, our Ansible and RHEL products are part of an ecosystem that supports diverse hardware and cloud environments, offering consistency and simplifying automation.
With industries rapidly evolving, how in your view can companies maintain a competitive edge?
The landscape is indeed shifting quickly. We see companies, including those in traditional sectors like banking, reinventing themselves as software companies to gain a competitive edge. Red Hat supports this transformation by offering platforms that enforce security policies, automate processes, and integrate security earlier in the development cycle. Our focus on CI/CD and extending practices to AI and ML workloads helps our customers innovate swiftly.
In terms of data science and AI, how are you ensuring flexibility and efficiency in model training and deployment across various environments?
Our OpenShift platform plays a crucial role in this, operating across diverse environments to offer flexibility in training models. This ensures that models are portable and can be deployed seamlessly across different platforms, including edge computing scenarios, which are becoming increasingly important. Red Hat OpenShift AI is a flexible, scalable MLOps platform with tools to build, deploy, and manage AI-enabled applications. Combined with the proven capabilities of OpenShift , we now have a single enterprise-ready AI application platform that brings teams together. Data scientists, engineers, and app developers can collaborate in a single destination that promotes consistency, security, and scalability. This enables data acquisition and preparation, model training and fine-tuning, model serving and model monitoring, and hardware acceleration. With an open ecosystem of hardware and software partners, OpenShift AI delivers the flexibility you need for AI specific use cases.
Heterogeneity is a reality in today's IT environment. How are you addressing the challenges of hybrid cloud environments and the need for automation?
Many of our customers find themselves managing hybrid cloud environments. Our goal is to help them leverage this situation effectively, ensuring seamless operation across various platforms. We emphasise open standards and automation, notably with our event-driven Ansible, which allows for automated responses to a range of IT infrastructure events. This focus on automation and standardisation is a cornerstone of our commitment to supporting our customers' innovation and resilience. With the introduction of Ansible Lightspeed , we now have generative AI service available to Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform users that taps into automation-specific foundation models, using natural language processing to turn written prompts into code snippets for the creation of Ansible playbooks. It is all done ensuring an experience rooted in transparency, accuracy, and trust.
