Mar 23, 2017 03:56 PM EDT By Emily Schultz, UniversityHerald Reporter

Red Hat, one of the world's leading provider of open source solutions, this week announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9 (RHEL 6.9), providing users with more improved platform security and reliability chops for mission-critical workloads. The North Carolina-based company made the huge announcement this week.

According to eWeek, which got the full details of the Linux story, the newly released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9 (RHEL 6.9) delivers new hardware support and updates to Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 to boost network security. RHEL 6.9 has been updated to use TLS 1.2, enabling TLS 1.2 encryption will result in a more secure RHEL 6 systems and applications running on the Red Hat Linux platform.

Developed in collaboration with Red Hat technology partners, the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9 adds also support for the latest PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) standards. This particular features can be useful in retail industry, which allow companies and organizations to offer more secure online transactions and payment systems.

While emphasizing stability for existing IT investments, the RHEL 6.9 is said to support the next-generation of cloud-native applications through an updated RHEL 6 base image. The RHEL 6 enables companies and organizations to migrate their existing RHEL 6 workloads into container-based applications, which can then be deployed on RHEL 7, RHEL Atomic Host, and even on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

As mentioned on Red Hat official website, the RHEL 6 enters Production Phase 3 on May 10, 2017. This means that subsequent updates to the RHEL6 will be limited to critical security fixes and business-impacting urgent issues only, but it still is supported until at least November of 2020. Support life for RHEL 6 may still be extended onward with extended life-cycle support, check out the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle page for more information about support.

Since RHEL subscriptions aren't tied to a particular Red Hat Linux release, existing Red Hat customers can also update their RHEL 6-powered infrastructure to RHEL 7 at any time, with no charge. In addition, the open source provider has also simplified the upgrade to RHEL 7, by providing instructional materials and the Preupgrade Assistant and Red Hat Upgrade Tool. RHEL 6.9 is currently available to all customers with an active RHEL subscription via the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat is a software company that has a strong focus on open-source software solutions, best known for its industry-leading Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Additionally, the company also offers an enterprise virtualization product called the Red Hat Virtualization (RHV). In addition to the Enterprise-grade Linux operating system, Red Hat also offers middleware, applications, management products, storage, and even consulting services. The open source company is the second largest corporate contributor to the Linux kernel version 4.5, following Intel.

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