Red Hat Inc. recently announced that Herzog Technologies has launched a cloud-based positive train control (PTC) solution using Red Hat technologies. The enterprise-grade foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides the backend to the complex IoT system required for the intelligence and dynamism expected of PTC, while Red Hat CloudForms and Red Hat Satellite help Herzog with systems management and compliance. Combined, Red Hat’s powerful open source technologies are helping Herzog provide railroads with the ability to more quickly adopt PTC technology, helping to enable safer and more efficient rail transportation.
"Without Red Hat, launching this solution would have been a far more complex undertaking, and we would not have been able to onboard new customers as quickly," said Travis Rollings director, office systems, Herzog Technologies.
A highly-advanced system that is designed to stop trains before certain types of accidents can occur, PTC is aimed at making rail transportation safer and is the focus of a rail safety initiative1 in the United States, backed by Congressional mandate. Railroads, particularly smaller carriers, however, may struggle to implement PTC due to the financial and technical burdens required to fully deploy a complete, on-premise solution, which can include large sensor networks and significant computing resources. To help meet the requirements of these railroads, Herzog Technologies saw a need for a more cost-effective, open source and cloud-based PTC offering.
Herzog chose to build its new PTC solution on a private cloud powered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux and managed by Red Hat Satellite and Red Hat CloudForms. The leading enterprise Linux platform allows for easier scaling for IoT-type network deployments and helps minimize the hosting footprint in Herzog’s datacenter, thanks to the flexible, stable foundation that it provides. Red Hat CloudForms, an award-winning open hybrid cloud management platform, has helped Herzog transform their existing virtualized infrastructure into a private cloud, through its on-demand scaling functionality. Red Hat Satellite helps Herzog maintain greater platform security and compliance with various regulatory standards, as well as manage their software lifecycle from testing through production. Herzog also worked with Red Hat Consulting to help bring their new offering to market.
With their new cloud-based PTC solution built on Red Hat technologies, Herzog has experienced:
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The potential for more market opportunities by bringing a cloud-based PTC offering to a new customer segment, enabled by Red Hat’s experience in delivering open, flexible technologies for the rail industry.
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Higher efficiency for Herzog’s complex, hybrid IT environment, provided by the management and automation capabilities of Red Hat CloudForms and Red Hat Satellite.
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Improved costs thanks to the open source nature of Red Hat’s solutions (hosted solutions for rail) via intelligent IoT networks.
