# Red Hat accelerates agentic adoption across hybrid environments > Source: > Published: 2026-11-11 14:42:00+00:00 ### Red Hat accelerates agentic adoption across hybrid environments Enterprise ambitions for artificial intelligence are outpacing the infrastructure and budgets needed to support them. Red Hat AI faces a familiar enterprise challenge: turning ambitious plans for artificial intelligence into production deployments that deliver measurable returns. Organizations must also decide how to deploy and manage increasingly complex AI workloads across existing infrastructure without letting costs spiral. At [Red Hat Summit 2026](https://www.thecube.net/events/red-hat/red-hat-summit-2026) in May, Red Hat Inc. outlined its approach to those challenges through expanded platform capabilities, automation and an open-source development process that relies on community contributions. “I think everybody here loves that because that does lead to sovereignty as well,” said [Rob Strechay](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robstrechay/), principal analyst at theCUBE, [during the event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1FKbaF8hoo&t=2s). “They’re actually building on top of open source and enhancing it in a way that provides more value in supporting it, which is key to their success.” *This feature is part of SiliconANGLE Media’s ongoing coverage of the AWS Financial Services Symposium.* *(* Disclosure below.)* ### Red Hat expands support for AI across hybrid cloud environments Deploying and managing AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments presents new operational challenges for enterprises. [Red Hat’s answer](https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/inference-agentic-ai-scaling-enterprise-foundation-red-hat-ai-34) is Red Hat AI 3.4, an updated version of its enterprise AI platform that supports agentic AI deployments and large-scale inference across hybrid environments. The company also announced [two new managed services](https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-05-12-ibm-announces-red-hat-ai-inference-and-red-hat-openShift-virtualization-service-on-ibm-cloud): Red Hat AI Inference and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Service on IBM Cloud. Red Hat AI Inference is designed to integrate real-time AI inference directly into clients’ production workflows, while OpenShift Virtualization enables clients to migrate and run virtual machines at scale. Both services are intended to [accelerate hybrid cloud adoption](https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-05-12-ibm-announces-red-hat-ai-inference-and-red-hat-openShift-virtualization-service-on-ibm-cloud). “What’s really going to [drive inference demand exponentially](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/12/red-hat-targets-enterprise-deployment-new-version-ai-platform/) is AI agents,” said [Joe Fernandes](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joefernandes1/), vice president and general manager of Red Hat AI. “We provide a platform where customers can deploy and manage their AI agents across a hybrid infrastructure environment.” The next piece of Red Hat’s agentic strategy comes in the form of [Ansible Automation Platform 2.7](https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/whats-new-ansible-automation-platform-2-7), which connects AI-generated insights to governed infrastructure actions. Its self-service automation capabilities allow authorized users in locations such as branch offices and factory floors to manage servers and networks within established controls. “Customers are now able to use their own data to calculate [savings and efficiencies](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/12/red-hat-targets-enterprise-deployment-new-version-ai-platform/),” said [Sathish Balakrishnan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsathishb/), vice president and general manager of Red Hat’s Ansible business unit. “Every action, whether it’s triggered by humans, an event or an AI agent, passes through the same [access controls], approval gates, audit trails, content signing and credential management.” ### New services aim to mitigate AI budget concerns AI budgets are booming: [according to theCUBE Research](https://thecuberesearch.com/ai-spend-governance-and-how-finops-must-evolve-for-the-ai-era/), Analysts project that AI cloud spending could approach $2.5 trillion by 2026, growing at roughly 44% year-over-year. However, that investment does not always return concrete value. Research shows that [50.7% of organizations](https://thecuberesearch.com/ai-spend-governance-and-how-finops-must-evolve-for-the-ai-era/) rely on public AI tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot but only 20.2% report enterprise-wide AI deployments built on a governed framework. “Most people are token consumers and that is part of the reason they’re trying to figure out how do they get to production,” Strechay said. “How do they get out of these death-by-pilot situations and become token producers so that they can offset the cost or at least lower the cost so they can get to the [return on AI investment] of those applications? You can use [OpenShift] infrastructure along with things like vLLM and some of the other things in Red Hat AI to get and become efficient in how you produce your tokens.” Part of Red Hat’s strategy for helping customers manage sprawling AI budgets is [its partnership with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/26/enterprise-ai-red-hat-open-hybrid-cloud-rhsummit/). Together, AMD and Red Hat are encouraging enterprises to rethink the financials of AI. Rather than opting for the newest, most expensive hardware, clients might have better results if matching compute resources to the workload, according to [John Hampton](http://linkedin.com/in/johnahampton), corporate vice president of global enterprise technical sales at AMD. “So many of these enterprises just ran out and bought [big \[graphics processing unit\] clusters](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/26/enterprise-ai-red-hat-open-hybrid-cloud-rhsummit/) because they knew they had to solve for AI,” he said. “Enterprises are coming to us and saying, ‘This is exploding. It’s good that we’re using AI, but we can’t afford this anymore.’” Red Hat has also [joined forces with Intel Corp.](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/26/enterprise-ai-red-hat-open-hybrid-cloud-rhsummit/) to help customers determine which combination of hardware and software best suits their workloads. As enterprises look to reduce inference costs, the companies are emphasizing the value of choosing the right mix of CPUs and GPUs rather than relying on a single approach. “As we’ve gone through this with [our customers in the industry](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/26/enterprise-ai-red-hat-open-hybrid-cloud-rhsummit/), we’ve seen that people often have just assumed, ‘I’ve got a hammer. I need the nail to hit it with,’” said [Bill Pearson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/billpearson2/), vice president of data center and AI at Intel. “Once they take a step back to say, ‘Wait a minute. I have these [central processing units] in my data center’ or ‘I need to figure out how to balance the right number of CPUs with the right number of GPUs to achieve that outcome I’m looking for,’ they’re actually going to get better results at a better price point for delivering lower-cost tokens.” ### Red Hat AI partnerships extend from enterprise agents to the edge Red Hat announced several collaborations at the summit, including Red Hat AI Factory with Nvidia Corp. The partnership includes support for Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture and upcoming Vera Rubin platform, as well as [participation in Nvidia’s OpenShell project](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/12/red-hat-targets-enterprise-deployment-new-version-ai-platform/) for AI agent sandboxing and secure execution. “Moving AI from corporate experimentation to an industrial engine requires a sovereign, consistent foundation across the hybrid cloud,” said [Chris Wright](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wright-b733851/), chief technology officer and senior vice president for global engineering at Red Hat, [in the announcement](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-ai-factory-nvidia-expands-support-new-class-autonomous-agents-enterprise). “Through our strategic co-engineering efforts with Nvidia, Red Hat provides the architectural control and open source innovation enterprises need to scale agentic AI with confidence.” Red Hat’s other partnership announcements focused on agentic AI and edge computing. Boomi LP, which brands itself as a data activation company, is collaborating with Red Hat on a single, integrated stack [for deploying agentic AI at scale](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/boomi-and-red-hat-collaborate-production-ready-agentic-ai). The partnerships with [Panasonic Connect](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-and-panasonic-connect-collaborate-enhance-durability-and-security-capabilities-edge) and [Voyager](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/voyager-and-red-hat-propel-red-hat-enterprise-linux-orbit-space-edge-micro-datacenters) cover edge computing solutions and space edge micro data centers, respectively. Red Hat’s expanding ecosystem of partnerships reflects the growing range of enterprise applications for agentic AI. The challenge for organizations is determining how those capabilities can address their specific business needs, according to Matt Hicks, president and chief executive officer of Red Hat. “From the board level down … you have a feeling of, ‘We have to be able to harness what this technology can do,’” [said Matt Hicks](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/13/enterprise-ai-infrastructure-modernization-now-urgent-rhsummit/). “The people that will be the most successful with AI are the people that have the most questions. People that know business, they know their domain. Those are the ones [that] have no barriers to what they can do and change. It’s just about getting started.” ### Red Hat expands sovereign AI capabilities and governance Sovereign AI has become an increasingly important consideration for enterprises seeking greater control over their data and infrastructure. Gartner Inc. [forecasts](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/5863580) that the sovereign cloud infrastructure-as-a-service market will grow at a compound annual rate of 36% through 2028. Red Hat is [expanding support](https://siliconangle.com/2026/03/25/sovereign-ai-now-top-enterprise-priority-kubeconeu/) for sovereign cloud while allowing customers to keep the infrastructure they already invested in. That includes collaborations with [Core42](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-and-core42-set-standard-sovereign-ai-infrastructure), which specializes in sovereign-by-design infrastructure, and [Sopra Steria](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-and-sopra-steria-advance-sovereign-ai-capabilities-through-expanded-collaboration), a longstanding European collaborator on sovereign AI initiatives. Red Hat is also extending its software security capabilities as enterprises adopt agentic AI. [Fedora Hummingbird Linux](https://siliconangle.com/2026/05/12/red-hat-targets-enterprise-deployment-new-version-ai-platform) is a container-native operating system designed for agent-first development, with an [automated software delivery pipeline](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/fedora-hummingbird-linux-brings-agentic-linux-builders). Meanwhile, [Red Hat Hardened Images](https://www.redhat.com/en/products/hardened-images) provides a catalog of minimal container images designed to reduce vulnerabilities and strengthen software supply-chain security. At this point, sovereign AI and governance play an essential role in giving customers choice and control, according to [Ashesh Badani](https://www.linkedin.com/in/asheshbadani/), senior vice president and chief product officer of Red Hat. “Whether an organization is meeting jurisdictional mandates or reclaiming its data from proprietary silos, we are providing the capabilities and platforms to build a more self-determined future,” he said in a [Red Hat press release](https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-introduces-new-sovereign-and-private-cloud-capabilities-power-digital-autonomy). Here’s theCUBE’s complete video coverage of [Red Hat Summit 2026](https://www.thecube.net/events/red-hat/red-hat-summit-2026): *(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Red Hat Summit event. 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