Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Netherlands hosting company Oxilion has launched a virtual datacenter service for its customers using Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization as its foundational virtualization technology. Oxilion customers now have the advantages of a highly flexible, scalable and cost-effective environment with the freedom to manage their own infrastructure over the Internet.

Oxilion's virtual datacenter service enables its customers to configure networks, storage and systems in the same way as with a physical datacenter, but with the ease and convenience of doing so remotely, using a web-based portal. This is designed to deliver benefits typically associated with cloud computing, such as zero capital expenditure, “pay as you go” pricing and the elasticity to scale up or down to meet changing business requirements.

Today’s launch of the Oxilion virtual datacenter based on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is the culmination of Oxilion’s year-long search for a reliable technology partner to help it meet growing market demand for a virtual datacenter service. The company found many vendor solutions too costly, while the traditional proprietary licensing model was a barrier to innovation.

“In addition to proving prohibitively expensive, many vendors required us to report back on virtual machine numbers. This would have made it impossible to give customers the autonomy to create their own virtual machines. Red Hat’s license-free subscription model was, therefore, particularly appropriate,” said Larik-Jan Verschuren, technical manager at Oxilion.

Development of the virtual datacenter service took just ten weeks, with Red Hat providing the infrastructure through its Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization product and Oxilion developing the portal through which customers gain a personalized view of their systems.

Henk Jan Hogebrug, sales manager at Oxilion, notes the advantages to Oxilion customers of basing the new service on Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, “Red Hat has enabled us to provide our customers with the winning combination of advanced virtualization technology, a stable, secure solution and very competitive pricing.”

“We have been able to deliver an innovative service to our customers with a partner like Red Hat, which works to the same high standards and rapid timescales as we do,” said Verschuren.