Two open source titans put their rings together and joined forces to announce that Red Hat Enterprise Linux v7.1 beta is now available on the IBM Power Development platform. Last month Red Hat announced that v7.i beta supported IBM Power Systems based on little endian mode. Today, it is available and ready to use on the platform directly via download as well as at IBM Innovation & Client Centers worldwide.

According to IBM, this announcement demonstrates their aggressive pursuit of offering a smart, viable alternative to commodity servers. These new solutions optimize Linux software on POWER for Big Data applications, enabling the improved performance that enterprises expect from Linux virtual machines. 

According to Doug Balog, General Manager of IBM Power Systems, today’s announcement is all about simplicity. “As the most open server platform in the market place, IBM Power Systems is making it as simple as possible to handle today’s biggest data center challenges with access to industry innovations focused on getting the most value from data.” As part of that, making Red Hat Enterprise Linux v7.1 available on the IBM Power Platform in little endian mode removes application portability barriers, while offering access to an even greater ecosystem of Linux applications.

With v7.1 beta available from several different sources, ISVs, in-house and open source developers have an opportunity to access and test the beta on their own, with additional toolkits created specifically for the Power community. You can test your own applications on this beta with support for Power Systems based on little endian mode in one of these three simple ways:

1. Visit the Power Development Platform (note: you will be asked to register for a PartnerWorld login if you do not have one already).
2. Request an engagement at the IBM Client Centers.
3. Visit the IBM Innovation Centers site to request access to the two major U.S. centers in Cambridge or Silicon Valley or to any center near you (there are more than 40 centers located around the world).