Open source developer Red Hat, Inc., has announced the launch of the OpenShift Blockchain initiative, which is aimed at software developers and fintech companies looking to build financial applications using this innovative new technology.

The OpenShift platform was initially launched in 2015 to provide a flexible developer environment for container applications to software developers, while Red Hat’s technicians maintained the back end of the platform.

In February of this year, Red Hat decided to join the burgeoning blockchain space by signing up for Linux Foundation’s Hyperedger project.

Julio Tapia, Director of the OpenShift platform, told CoinDesk that Red Hat is looking to bring the innovations in the blockchain industry to the enterprise market, “We want to position ourselves with not only customers and partners, but leverage solutions developed in the entire ecosystem, taking all the innovation going on in the industry, maturing it for an enterprise market and making sure all the solutions can be launched and supported.” said Tapia.

According to Tapia, OpenShift is currently available only on Amazon, but Red Hat has plans to bring the platform to Google and Microsoft Azure at some point in the near future.

The official release notes that Red Hat’s decision to join the HyperLedger project – as well as the launch of the OpenShift Blockchain initiative – are only the first steps in the company’s strategy to advance and contribute to the rapidly-growing blockchain ecosystem:

“Through this upstream work, Red Hat is contributing to the development of distributed ledger technology that is well-suited for a variety of industries including: finance; manufacturing; banking; insurance; and the Internet of Things.“

And Tapia confirmed this in his interview with CoinDesk

“This is how big markets start and we want to invest appropriately to be the default platform.”

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