Security compliance has been simplified and hybrid workloads run reliably in demanding environments
What is our primary use case?
We use Satellite from that list for all our catalog for everything we're pulling down, and we've recently had to upgrade to better Satellite capabilities. For the security aspects, FIPS compliance, SELinux, and all that ticks all the government boxes that we need to stay compliant with our regulations.
I use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in a hybrid manner, as I am part of the AWS team. We're starting to build a presence in AWS, so I have been putting RHEL images up into there as AMIs and working on them there, but for the most part, it's all on-premises because we run most of our operations in-house in our data centers.
Almost 80 percent of our virtual machines are on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and it's our base image for a lot of our containers, with all of our workflows using RHEL.
Our security team can be very specific about things, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) ticks all our boxes for security, FIPS compliance, SELinux, and all the security features we need. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) meshes extremely well with OpenShift, which is what we use mainly to host all our workloads.
What is most valuable?
I have been learning about a few new features, but security is my main focus. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, there's the new remote desktop connection that supports RDC connections, which is really valuable, allowing us to get around a couple of network issues we were having. It boots up really fast, is very lightweight, and the images we use, some of which are hardened, are really nice because we don't have to go in and harden them ourselves.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) features save us a ton of time and money from engineer hours working on security hardening because Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) works out of the box, does what we want it to do, and does it well.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is pretty resilient and bounces back effectively. Recently, we had an issue where some power fluctuations caused many of our servers and virtual machines to go down. None of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) machines were the problem in getting back online because when we flicked the switch back, all our Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) boxes were exactly where we needed them to be within minutes, whereas Windows was what gave us the issue.
Remote desktop was really the big feature that I wanted, which came out in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, and we are just now starting to test out Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10 with our machines. Right now, I'm happy with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because it checks my boxes.
I attended a session on Project Hummingbird, the hardened images for container-based Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which was really cool. They are breaking down Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) into small, bite-sized pieces, which allows for rolling updates where, when you're updating your system, it's only updating exactly what changed instead of pulling in the whole package. Since we're a disconnected environment, minimizing our downtime is critical, and having these hardened images that just update very modularly really helps us get back on our feet. Focusing on creating a more portable Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) would be great.
Most of what we do involves virtual machines for containers on OpenShift, which meshes extremely well with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). I have never taken more than five or ten minutes to get a virtual machine or container up and running from a fresh start because it's extremely simple and streamlined.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) could play a bigger role in our company's implementation of the zero-trust model. For the most part, we're a lockdown environment where if you have access to the network and that machine, you're trusted and can have access. Most of our users need to be working on zero trust implementation a little bit better.
Some of the information provided by the knowledge base offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can be outdated, and it could be cleaned up a little bit better. However, for the most part, the documentation is pretty easy to follow when you're working with the modern current offerings that Red Hat has to provide.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in the intelligence community computer field in general for about five and a half years, with NASA specifically for just about a year now, and I've been using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for the better part of three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never experienced downtime that wasn't my fault, so I find the stability and reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to be quite impressive.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have been able to expand my usage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because all of our workloads that need to be scaled up have new Pro containers that pop right up when we need them, ready within a minute. It scales extremely well.
How are customer service and support?
Our Red Hat team has been very good with talking with us, working with us on what we need to get done, and there is very little pain in terms of the actual operating system.
The colleague sitting right next to me is our AI engineer, so I have been riding shotgun on a lot of what he's been doing, and it seems really innovative so far. We just got a batch of GPUs in to start working with this technology and have hit a few roadblocks, but none of that was Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) related.
The customer service and technical support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is extremely technical. Even when we get new team members, we're able to make good connections with them quickly because they're very knowledgeable and know what they're talking about. They answer our questions, and if they can't or it's a new problem, they're more than happy to spend a week or two with us working it out.
The biggest return on investment when using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is the customer service because our Red Hat team is amazing. We go out for lunches, we talk, and when we were setting up OpenShift, we were on the phone with those team members an hour a day, five days a week for months in a row. Anything that we had questions on, they were right there with us, helping us get what we wanted out of the product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I worked for Auburn University, and we were kind of all over the place with our products, still trying to figure out what we wanted to do. For the last two years I was there, we were just testing products all the time, getting bad support and bad service. We never went to Red Hat while I was there, and I hope they do someday.
How was the initial setup?
I have set up Ansible Automation Platform, but we don't have a whole lot of automated workflows for our operations yet. We still are kind of just manually doing everything we need to do and applying policies, but I did set it up, troubleshooting a few OAuth issues with some authentication mechanisms, which was no problem. The test that we did run with it worked pretty well.
What about the implementation team?
I'm not our Satellite engineer, but I have interfaced with it a few times, and it was really seamless when I used it. I have never really had to be the one troubleshooting anything like that. It hasn't given us much pain from what I know, and our team seems to be pretty happy about those operations.
What was our ROI?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) features save us a ton of time and money from engineer hours working on security and infrastructure operations because Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) works out of the box, does what we want it to do, and does it well.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I don't think my company has ever considered choosing another product other than Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because they've been on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) since I got there, and they've been on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for the longest time, which I feel has become the industry standard at this point.
What other advice do I have?
Every operating system we use has to meet a certain set of regulations set by a board way above us, and we don't really get to choose what operating systems we implement. It goes through a multi-year process of being scanned and tested, and then they give that to us and say we are authorized to use it. Most of that is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) because most of what our center runs on is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and we stick with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) most of the time, which checks all our compliance boxes.
The colleague sitting right next to me is our AI engineer, so I have been riding shotgun on a lot of what he's been doing, and it seems really innovative so far. We just got a batch of GPUs in to start working with this technology and have hit a few roadblocks, but none of that was Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) related.
For how long I have used the solution, I would rate Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a ten out of ten overall. My advice to other companies considering it is that, with NASA, we've got operations in space and we have problems all the time. In my experience, it has never been the operating system causing issues; it's always some other component, but Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has been the solid foundation of what we've been building off of. I give this review a rating of ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)