Red Hat to drop Application Server

Red Hat confirmed Thursday that it is discontinuing development of its Red Hat Application Server (RHAS), a move that had been widely anticipated since mid-April, when the Linux distributor said it planned to buy commercial open-source application server provider JBoss for up to $US420 million.

At its annual Red Hat Summit in Nashville this week, the company said it will continue supporting its RHAS customers through the life of their contracts.

Aaron Darcy, Red Hat's director of global strategic services, declined to say how many users of RHAS would be affected. He said RHAS customers won't be rushed to migrate to JBoss. RHAS is based on the Jonas J2EE application server from the open-source ObjectWeb Consortium.

After the JBoss acquisition, which was expected to be finalized by the end of May but has yet to close, JBoss will operate as a separate division within Red Hat with its middleware product lineup intact, Darcy said.

Apart from RHAS, other middleware, such as Red Hat's Directory Server, will continue to be offered by Red Hat and managed separately, Darcy said.