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Earlier this week Red Hat and Microsoft announced they were going to work closer together , mainly to ensure Virtualization Interoperability. Both RedHat and Microsoft will join the other’s virtualization validation/certification program and will provide coordinated technical support for their mutual server virtualization customers.

In short this means that Red Hat and Microsoft customers will have the ability to run Microsoft Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual servers on either host environment with configurations that will be tested and supported by both virtualization and operating system leaders.
The agreements contain no patent or open source license components. There are no financial clauses beyond simple certification testing fees. These are straightforward certification and validation agreements.

The key components of the announcement are as follows:

* Red Hat will validate Windows Server guests to be supported on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization technologies.
* Microsoft will validate Red Hat Enterprise Linux server guests to be supported on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.
* Once each company completes testing, customers with valid support agreements will receive coordinated technical support for running Windows Server operating system virtualized on Red Hat Enterprise virtualization, and for running Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtualized on Windows Server Hyper-V and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

In a blogpost Scott Crenshaw writes
“Of course, it is also big news because it is rare that these two companies publicly work together. The companies continue to compete vigorously. But virtualization interoperability is very high on customers’ wish lists, and I’m pleased both companies have been able to respond in this cooperative fashion.”

To many the announcement does not come as a big surprise, after acquiring Qumranet, RedHat gained a lot of Microsoft aimed Virtualization knowledge, with this agreement it makes a step towards an even better supported Virtual desktop environment