A decade of open innovation: Celebrating 10 years of Microsoft and Red Hat partnership
Celebrating 10 Years of Microsoft and Red Hat’s Game-Changing Partnership
Ten years ago, Microsoft and Red Hat embarked on a transformative partnership focused on open source solutions and enterprise cloud innovation. As we mark this exciting milestone, it’s a perfect time to reflect on how our collaboration has enabled customers to embrace hybrid cloud transformations, inspire developers, and bolster the open source community, driving modern application development.
The Partnership That Redefined Enterprise Cloud
Back in 2015, running critical Linux workloads on Microsoft Azure was seen as a daring move. Fast forward a decade, and our partnership with Red Hat has empowered thousands of organisations globally to hasten their digital transformations, set new standards in open innovation, and foster the adoption of cloud-native technologies across various sectors.
One key milestone was the introduction of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on Azure. This landmark collaboration paved the way for further innovations, such as Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO)—a fully managed application platform that marries the scalability of the cloud with the flexibility of open source.
The vast reach and growing customer base of Red Hat and Microsoft showcase how a commitment to an open approach tackles customer challenges and fuels large-scale innovation.
Achievements and Their Impact
Azure Red Hat OpenShift, along with Red Hat’s automation tools, is driving digital transformation for industry leaders worldwide:
- Teranet has realised savings of CA$5.6 million in capital outlays and boosted customer confidence by migrating essential systems and OpenShift containers to Azure, thereby unlocking unparalleled scalability and automation.
- For Bradesco, Azure Red Hat OpenShift serves as the robust, scalable backbone for its AI platform, integrating governance and supporting 200+ enterprise AI initiatives—driving transformation across all business sectors. The bank combines Azure OpenAI and Power Platform to enhance compliance and boost innovation in banking services.
- Western Sydney University has elevated reliability and expedited digital research for its extensive student body with the added security and versatility that Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides on Azure.
- Symend launched new regional services in a matter of weeks by adopting Azure Red Hat OpenShift and Microsoft Azure AI, enhancing customer engagement at an enterprise level. Even Microsoft uses Red Hat’s Ansible Automation Platform to optimise numerous endpoints, modernising its global network operations effectively.
Joint Industry Advancements
The collaboration between Microsoft and Red Hat has led to significant industry advancements:
- Real-World Flexibility: Red Hat solutions—including Azure Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Ansible Automation—are available across Azure platforms like Azure Marketplace and Azure Government, ensuring migrations are seamless, security is enhanced, and support is integrated for easier modernisation.
- Operational Agility: OpenShift Virtualization and Confidential Containers on Azure Red Hat OpenShift allow organisations to modernise legacy applications while maintaining secure management across hybrid environments.
- Boosting Open Source Innovation: We’ve made contributions to Kubernetes, containers, cloud monitoring, and more—all of which push the envelope of open hybrid architecture.
- Developer Choice: By making RHEL accessible for Windows Subsystem for Linux, Microsoft and Red Hat allow developers to work efficiently with flexible tools across various platforms.
- Affordable Pricing: Azure Hybrid Benefit for RHEL is a cost-saving feature that lets organisations optimise their existing subscriptions on Azure. This means lower licensing costs and improved return on investment, alongside technical flexibility for hybrid setups.
- Additionally, customers can benefit from pay-as-you-go pricing, utilise Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), and consolidate billing for both OpenShift and Azure with Azure Red Hat OpenShift.
A Decade of Innovation: Key Highlights of Microsoft and Red Hat’s Partnership
The journey of our partnership is rich with milestones that represent our shared achievements and innovations, which we invite you to explore further in the attached timeline graphic.
Ignite 2025: New Milestones on Azure Red Hat OpenShift
A highlight of our tenth anniversary was the General Availability (GA) of OpenShift Virtualization on Azure Red Hat OpenShift, revealed at Microsoft Ignite 2025. Now, organisations can run both VMs and containers on a single, secure platform, uniting traditional virtualization with cutting-edge cloud-native innovation. This transition enables enterprises to convert VM workloads into Kubernetes environments that leverage Azure’s capabilities alongside familiar OpenShift tools.
During the same event, Microsoft Ignite 2025 announced the GA of confidential containers on Azure Red Hat OpenShift, providing advanced hardware-based security and isolation for container workloads. Also launched was the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for High-Performance Computing (HPC) on Azure, tailored for secure and efficient scientific and parallel computing workloads.
The Core of Open Collaboration: What Lies Ahead
The last decade has shown that openness transcends technology; it embodies a culture of trust, progress, and shared innovation. Microsoft and Red Hat are dedicated to leading the way in hybrid cloud advancements and AI-driven applications, with customer choice and reliability remaining our guiding principles.
We stand proud in our partnership with Red Hat, not only to serve our customers but also to advance projects such as the Linux Kernel and Kubernetes. Together, we aim to keep contributing to the vitality of open-source technologies and communities.
To our esteemed customers, partners, and open-source communities: thank you for joining us on this remarkable journey. Together, we will continue crafting the future of enterprise technology—openly, boldly, and collaboratively.
—Brendan Burns, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Cloud Native
