VMworld may be VMware’s show, but that’s not stopping Red Hat from demonstrating its own virtualization solutions at the conference. The company is currently showcasing a beta version of CloudForms 2.1, the newest edition of its cloud management platform.

CloudForms is designed to simplify the administration of hybrid environments that combine on-premise infrastructure with public cloud services such as AWS. The solution is a key component of Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, a recently launched infrastructure-as-a-service architecture that includes the company’s Enterprise Virtualization hypervisor and Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform.

The latest release of CloudForms introduces a number of enhancements, the most notable of which is support for Red Hat’s OpenStack distribution. Other new features include self-service provisioning and reporting support, workload discovery, delegated power operations and automated event capture. The latter capability provides users with event data that can be incorporated into monitoring and alerting processes.

“OpenStack and the promise of open hybrid clouds are leading customers to reconsider their infrastructure choices with an eye toward reducing cost and avoiding lock-in,” stated Red Hat Virtualization general manager Radhesh Balakrishnan. “Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure presents an enterprise datacenter virtualization alternative to take customers on that journey from proprietary to open. Today’s announcements highlight Red Hat’s commitment to providing the top performing solutions in this space, and the steps we’re taking to bring increased value to virtualized infrastructure and meet the emerging demand for skilled OpenStack professionals in the enterprise.”

CloudForms 2.1 will launch this fall alongside a new subscription offering that couples Enterprise Virtualization with Enterprise Linux Server. The two solutions will be complemented by a new IaaS certification program and a reworked OpenStack course that promises to prepare admins for the Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Infrastructure-as-a-Service Exam.