Linux Container Deployment Plans Grow, While Concerns about Container Security and Certification Linger, Red Hat Survey Finds

DUBAI, UAE - JUNE 22, 2015 - Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today released the results of a survey assessing enterprise adoption plans for application containers. The survey of more than 383 global IT decision makers and professionals, representing organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to state and local governments and commissioned by Red Hat through TechValidate, shows that while container adoption is likely to surge in the next few years, concerns around security, certification and adequate skills remain – concerns that Red Hat’s container certification aims to address.

Survey results show strong enterprise plans for container deployments, with 67 percent of respondents planning production roll-outs over the next two years. Survey respondents indicate that they plan to use container-based applications in cloud roles (50 percent) and as vehicles for web and e-commerce software (56 percent).

Application development enhancements dominated as the top benefits of containers, with faster application deployment and reduced deployment effort topping the list at 60 percent each. Forty-four (44) percent of respondents view containers as a means to consolidate existing servers. Virtual machines are also the preferred deployment method, with 83 percent of respondents planning to deploy containerized application implementations on top of virtual environments, demonstrating that organizations recognize the benefits of using containers and virtualization together, rather than one or the other.

Despite strong enterprise adoption plans for containers, the survey results highlighted a number of lingering challenges, including:

- security and a lack of certification/image provenance (60 percent of respondents);

- integration with existing development tools and processes (58 percent);

- management (55 percent); and

- existing knowledge and skills (54 percent).

Finally, open source remains the dominant platform in the container world, with more than 95 percent of respondents planning container development on the Linux operating system. Internal champions remain at the grassroots (39 percent) and middle management (36 percent) levels, with upper management and CIO directives playing limited roles in containerized application adoption within the enterprise, according to survey respondents.

Methodology and Demographics

TechValidate, an independent research company, conducted an online survey on behalf of Red Hat from April 28 - May 5, 2015, to understand enterprise adoption trends associated with containers. The survey polled more than 383 enterprise IT decision makers and professionals from global organizations across industries and of all sizes, spanning small businesses to Fortune 500 organizations.

Supporting Quotes

Tim Yeaton, senior vice president, Infrastructure Business, Red Hat

“While it’s apparent that enterprise interest in containers is growing, the challenges highlighted by the survey respondents reinforce Red Hat’s own container strategy – directly addressing security and certification concerns, providing robust container management capabilities regardless of the container deployment platform, and creating tools and best practices to enable enterprises to develop the right skillsets to best leverage the promise of Linux containers for their organizations. Ultimately, containers represent a significant paradigm shift for enterprise application development and deployment, whether used to modernize existing applications to build net new web or cloud-native workloads, or enable DevOps. Large scale enterprise adoption can be accelerated by addressing enterprises' concerns about security, management, and developing the right skills, and we stand ready to help organizations enter this new world of IT as an experienced and reliable partner.”