Red Hat has announced version 8.7 of its flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL. The new release comes with a number of enhancements that aim to make server administration more manageable.

Red Hat Aims to Ease Admin Burden With RHEL 8.7

"The newest update for RHEL 8 is now here. With the full official release of RHEL 8.7, customers can automate manual tasks more efficiently, standardize deployments at scale and simplify the day-to-day administration of their systems," Red Hat principal product manager Gil Cattelain said in an official Red Hat blog post announcing the product.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux website

To that end, the company has made a big push to improve the automation of the platform. Red Hat has enhanced the ability of administrators to automate the provisioning and configuration of servers with its own Ansible platform. Companies can now use Ansible to authenticate smart cards. Administrators can also change server boot options more easily as well.

RHEL 8.7 Debuts Other Enterprise Enhancements

Given that the IBM-owned company's latest release is intended for use in enterprise servers, there's a significant focus on security. It's now possible to manage cryptographic policies systemwide and encrypt "sosreports" through the web console, the web-based system management program.

The new version of the OS debuts new system roles for companies using Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions version, a customized RHEL version for that company's products to manage company functions.

How Will Enterprise Companies Respond to RHEL 8.7?

Since RHEL is widely deployed in the business world, a lot of Red Hat's customers could upgrade, though it might take a while. Enterprise customers tend to value stability over novelty, and large IT departments are going to want to spend some time evaluating it first.

Despite the new release, there are ways to acquire the OS without having a Red Hat contract. Oracle Linux, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux mirror RHEL releases and are effectively free versions. Since RHEL is open-source, these projects can do this. As Red Hat shifted CentOS to a rolling-release model, these are viable alternatives to RHEL, though Red Hat is trying to convert these users to RHEL.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Remains Solid Server Choice

With the new release, Red Hat looks poised to remain the Linux provider of choice for enterprise companies. It will appeal less to Linux desktop enthusiasts, but those who might have ambitions for corporate IT might want to evaluate it by signing up for a trial and installing RHEL on a test machine.