Atos has launched a managed container service built on Red Hat OpenShift. The offering, leveraging Linux and Kubernetes, enables customers to create and run cloud-native applications and migrate legacy workloads to hybrid cloud environments, Atos claims.
The new service is part of Atos’ Canopy Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, which is designed to provide businesses with highly industrialized and automated end-to-end cloud services including application and infrastructure transformation and management.
Features and benefits the new service is designed to include:
- Deployable to multiple clouds: can be used across private, public and hybrid cloud landscapes.
- A development suite with a DevOps tool chain, which the company says enables greater security risk compliance.
- Higher workload density with lower infrastructure costs
- Lower IT support time and costs
Cloud Containers Explained
Cloud containers have become a bit of a buzzword in the IT industry for the last couple years. Essentially, they work to create a buffer around a single application in a virtual machine. If something goes wrong in a container, it only impacts that container and not the entire virtual machine or server. It also solves compatibility issues between applications that reside on the same operating system.
For a long time, cloud containers were the domain of Linux-based systems, but companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web services have been leveraging the technology over the last few years. Google designed the open-source Kubernetes system, which saw a lot of activity last year with big name companies making announcements around the system. Cisco recently decided to make a big play in the container arena, releasing its own “Container Platform.”
History Lesson
Atos and Red Hat have collaborated in the past, but this marks the first development from Atos’ Cloud Engineering Centre of Excellence, which focuses on building business solutions using technology partners and portfolios like those of Red Hat, the company said.
Atos’ other big moves of late have included a number of acquisitions, including Anthelio Healthcare Solutions, Engage ESM, zData, three U.S. healthcare IT consulting firms, and an attempted $5 billion buyout of Gemalto (though Thales ultimately acquired Gemalto for $5.6 billion).
The Paris-based Atos currently boasts around 100,000 employees in 72 countries and annual revenue around €12 billion. The company has a hand in a number of sectors including defense, financial services, health, manufacturing, media, retail, and more. It also happens to be a the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic an Paralympic Games.
