Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions, has announced an enterprise agreement with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide centralised access to Red Hat's hybrid cloud platforms. The partnership is designed to support efficiency, innovation, and consistent security while enhancing the MOD’s cloud-native and AI capabilities.
The MOD aims to accelerate digital innovation across the UK to improve service delivery, strengthen resilience for critical infrastructure, and maintain a consistent digital environment. This includes standardising its IT landscape, adopting cloud-native application development, and ensuring consistent user experiences and security across multiple workloads and services. A unified foundation for AI delivery is considered key for both internal operations and partner collaborations.
The Defence Digital Foundry provides centralised digital services for all MOD branches, including the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. Building on existing Red Hat deployments, the Foundry will offer standardised access for MOD teams and approved third parties working on technology programmes.
Computacenter will support onboarding and access to Red Hat technologies, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift Platform Plus, and Ansible Automation Platform. MOD users will also have access to Red Hat services, including hands-on training and consulting, to help integrate these platforms into their projects:
- Hybrid Cloud Flexibility: MOD teams can build and deploy applications across on-premise, cloud, or edge environments, enabling AI initiatives through a unified platform.
- Operational Consistency: Standardising on Red Hat platforms supports streamlined application lifecycle management and a trusted software supply chain.
- Enterprise Automation: The Ansible Automation Platform provides consistent processes for IT operations, service provision, and compliance.
- Modern Application Development: OpenShift, powered by Kubernetes, supports agile practices such as microservices and DevSecOps, helping the MOD deploy applications faster and improve developer productivity.
The agreement also offers options for virtualisation, migration to containerised workloads, and potential cost efficiencies, supporting a flexible and scalable IT environment for the MOD.
