Red Hat thrown into the utility ring

Red Hat plans to expand its network service so customers can set up or reconfigure Linux servers from afar.

The "provisioning" system marks Red Hat's entry into the utility computing vision that's swirling through the computing industry. The company plans to launch and announce the new service on Wednesday at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York.

The provisioning service will be part of the Red Hat Network, which has a free module for distributing software updates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers and a system management module that costs an extra $96 per server per year.

The provisioning module of Red Hat Network will cost $192 per server per year to use, which is a price that includes the management module, said Sean Witty, product marketing manager for Red Hat Network.

With the service, a central administrator can perform several functions from a central management console including: installing a particular software configuration based on a template; "cloning" the configuration of one server and applying it to another; "rolling back" the configuration of a server to a previous state; and adjusting configuration files.

Red Hat's offering - the latest in a move to convert its leading Linux market share into new sources of revenue - bumps up against new management offerings from established industry companies.

For example, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Computer Associates International and Veritas Software all sell, or are working on, provisioning software.

Stephen Shankland writes for News.com