IBM and Red Hat Achieve Highest Security Certification for Linux on IBM Servers

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced a new security certification for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 that is expected to further drive the adoption of Linux among businesses and governments worldwide. With the certification, no mainstream operating system in the world offers a higher level of security certification.

Today's announcement confirms that Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM servers now meets government security standards allowing Linux to be used in homeland security projects, command-and-control operations, and throughout government agencies that previously were limited to a select few other operating systems. This latest certification ensures that Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on IBM servers is now second to none in security among mainstream operating systems.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM systems, supporting applications such as those developed by Trusted Computer Solutions, Inc., a leading supplier of cross domain solutions for industry and government, has been approved by the National Information Assurance Partnership for Common Criteria Evaluation & Validation Scheme at Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL4+) for Labeled Security Protection Profile (LSPP), Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP), and Role-Based Access Control Protection Profile (RBAC).

This marks the first Common Criteria certification for a Linux distribution at this globally recognized advanced level of security and assurance, which means Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM systems now meets government security standards for assured information sharing within and across government agencies. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is now positioned to provide best-of-breed security capabilities for commercial operating systems, offering government agencies and businesses alike an unprecedented choice for secure applications.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, which was released for general availability earlier this year, contains kernel and Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy features developed through a significant open community effort with IBM, and the participation from other key contributors, including Red Hat, Trusted Computer Solutions, and federal government representatives.

"NSA is pleased that the work of its research organization in the area of secure computing is being used as the foundation for secure solutions in the open community," said Richard Mathews, Chief of NSA's National Information Assurance Research Laboratory. "We are committed to focusing on new technology research and promoting transfer of those technologies to the private sector to improve assurance of NIAP certified commercial products."

The Common Criteria is an internationally recognized set of standards used by the federal government and other organizations to assess the security and assurance of technology products. Under Common Criteria, products are evaluated against strict standards for various features, such as the development environment, security functionality, the handling of security vulnerabilities, security related documentation and product testing.

Wide Range of Choice for Linux Solutions

IBM and Red Hat have collaborated to ensure certification of RHEL 5 on multiple platforms to maximize choice and value for customers. RHEL 5 is certified on several IBM server brands, including System x, System p, System z, and BladeCenter. IBM's server product line offers customers industry-leading performance together with application flexibility, solution choice, and outstanding scalability, reliability and security.

"Today's announcement marks another significant milestone in the evolution of Linux, which is already established as a true enterprise-class system that routinely handles mission-critical applications," said Dave McQueeney, IBM Vice President, U.S. Federal. "In our federal government environment, we have the additional requirement for certifications to confirm the integrity of software for the most sensitive applications. We all recognize that Linux is a rock-solid system, with a vibrant and innovative development community, eclipsing many other offerings in common use across federal. Now, by achieving EAL4+ with multilevel security capability, we have further confirmation of the robustness and trustworthiness of Linux, and we expect its impact across federal to accelerate rapidly."

"Systems security is top of mind for enterprise customers, and especially in the government sector," said Paul Cormier Executive Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat. "Red Hat, IBM and TCS have partnered for years to ensure that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a leading distribution that customers can trust with their most critical and private data."

About IBM

For more information on IBM and Linux, please visit www.ibm.com/linux

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for three consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, low-cost technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

IBM and Red Hat Announce New Development Innovations in Linux Kernel

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Red Hat, the world's two largest commercial Linux developers, today announced developers at the companies' world renowned Linux labs have collaborated to integrate new technologies in the Linux kernel that will help customers improve efficiency and gain a competitive edge in their industries.

Developers at IBM's Linux Technology Center, which has some 600 engineers in 40 locations worldwide, collaborated with Red Hat's Engineering team to integrate improved virtualization features, security enhancements, and "Real-Time Linux" capabilities into the Linux kernel. Hundreds of IBM and Red Hat developers work full-time on making Linux better as part of the open source community.

With today's announcement, the companies said new virtualization and security capabilities in the Linux kernel will also be available in the new release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. "Real-Time Linux" technologies are currently being incorporated into the kernel and will be extended to IBM and Red Hat customers in a future offering. The companies announced IBM is currently testing and certifying RHEL 5 across all of its standards-based middleware and servers and that IBM also plans to provide services and support for RHEL 5 as well.

IBM and Red Hat cited these three key Linux development innovations:

-- Xen Virtualization Optimizes IT Environments:

IBM, Red Hat and the open community have now integrated open source Xen virtualization software with the Linux kernel in addition to hardening the Xen hypervisor. Xen is open source virtualization software that helps customers increase server utilization and more efficiently manage Linux-based IT systems. The technologies will be incorporated into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and supported by IBM's Virtualization portfolio of products running on Intel and Opteron processor-based servers and IBM BladeCenter systems.

IBM customer ServerCave, a website hosting and data center management company catering to individuals and SMB customers, expects to increase server utilization rates from 10 percent to nearly 80 percent running Linux-based IBM x3550 systems taking advantage of Xen virtualization capabilities. ServerCave expects to reduce new hardware acquisition for its hosted and managed customers by 75 percent. It expects to save nearly $60,000 in power and cooling expenses this year because by virtualizing its IT environment it doesn't need to run as many servers.

-- Security Enhanced Linux Offers Greater Data Protection:

Addressing customer demand for features that provide greater data protection, IBM and Red Hat developers collaborated with the open source community to build Security-Enhanced Linux into Red Hat's core operating system to provide Multi-Level Security capabilities. These capabilities enable enterprise customers, particularly those in the government sector, to create a mandatory access control policy that allows information to be classified as top secret, secret, confidential and unclassified. This security underpinning of the Linux kernel compartmentalizes applications and services into distinct security domains, providing a highly secure platform for applications or data for all types of customers. After testing and certification, these features will be available in RHEL 5, and supported by IBM software and systems.

The UK Cabinet Office, for instance, is currently running IBM WebSphere and Security Enhanced Linux, SELinux, together as part of a solution developed by Tresys and IBM aimed at creating a secure environment for Belmin Group's Automated Reconciliation & Invoice Creation Service, ARIES, eProcurement application which currently runs on RHEL 4 at a National Health Service hospital trust in England. SELinux provides customers the ability to contain hackers and provide confinement for its applications.

Additionally, IBM hardware and software products running on RHEL 5 are being evaluated at the Common Criteria Evaluated Assurance Level (EAL) 4+, Labeled Security Protection Profile, Role Based Access Control Protection Profile, and Controlled Access Protection Profile (CAPP). RHEL 4U1 has currently achieved CAPP EAL 4+ certification.

New encrypted file system capabilities developed by IBM have been adopted in the kernel to protect user identity by encrypting data at the file level in systems and on laptops. Red Hat plans to include these technologies in RHEL 5.1 as a technology preview.

-- Innovation for the Future: "Real-Time Linux" Application Development Platform

IBM and Red Hat are collaborating to deliver a new "Real-Time Linux" application development and deployment platform providing customers the ability to run systems that can perform at greater processing rates with high levels of reliability. The new platform includes IBM WebSphere Real Time, a real-time J2SE Java Virtual Machine, with a real-time version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 running on IBM System x and BladeCenter AMD and Intel-based servers. This new computing infrastructure also provides a broad community of Java programmers the ability to develop applications that can execute and provide predictable to millisecond granularity execution times.

The U.S. Navy is an early adopter of IBM's Real-Time Java technology running on a customized "Real-Time Linux" platform deployed by IBM, Raytheon, and Red Hat. It is taking advantage of a single and open standards-based computing environment for applications ranging from command-and-control, navigation, targeting, weapons control, and radar systems. The first-of-its kind deployment will aid the Navy's efforts to cut the cost of developing and maintaining traditionally expensive real-time applications so it can speed the development of mission critical combatant systems for its DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class Destroyer Program. IBM is currently offering WebSphere Real-Time 1.0 running on a customized RHEL4 environment to customers in the government, financial, and telecommunications sectors.

IBM will continue to work with Red Hat and the open source community to offer performance tuning and system debugging features through a SystemTap toolkit. Additionally, the companies are also working on Samba, kernel scalability, customer testing, and numerous ongoing technology projects.

"IBM's Linux Technology Center is an incubator for technology innovation, and ultimately for business transformation," said Daniel Frye, vice president, Open Systems Development, IBM. "We're continuing to work with Red Hat and the open source community to drive innovative technologies into the Linux kernel to offer customers the efficient, cost-effective production environment they need to gain a competitive edge in their own industries."

"The upcoming release of our enterprise platform signifies much more that just an upgrade to Linux, it is the culmination of a complete enterprise architecture that includes a broad ecosystem of certified, reliable solutions from partners like IBM," said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat. "We continue our heritage of close collaboration with customers and partners to deliver a highly relevant technology platform that delivers on performance and value."