The new support model is important for Red Hat’s enterprise and service provider customers as it offers the promise of a longer term stable deployment of OpenStack than had previously been possible. Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager, OpenStack at Red Hat explained that for versions prior to Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10, customers will still be supported for up to three years, with no other changes. “What’s changing is that every third version of Red Hat OpenStack Platform, starting with version 10 (so 10, 13, 16, etc.) will receive three years of support that is extensible to five,” Balakrishnan told eWEEK.