Why the operating system is no longer just plumbing: Raj Das on the future of RHEL

Many enterprises still think of the operating system as a background utility-something you set up once and forget. In reality, modern OS platforms like RHEL are dynamic, intelligent enablers of innovation.

- By Aanchal Ghatak

Organizations often take the operating system for granted and think of it as a static, "invisible" layer doing its job in the background. Raj Das, the Senior Director of Core RHEL Product Management at Red Hat, thinks this concept has long since expired. Speaking with Dataquest, he discusses how RHEL 10 will help shape the future for AI, hybrid cloud, and edge computing, walking the tightrope between trust and innovation, automation and compliance, and enterprise-grade stability and agility.

RHEL has been called the “invisible backbone” of enterprise IT. As AI, cloud-native, and edge workloads diversify, what's the biggest misconception enterprises still have about the role of the OS layer today?

The biggest misconception I encounter is that the operating system is just plumbing—something you set up once and forget about. Many enterprises still think of the operating system as a “static” or background layer that doesn’t need active evolution. The reality is that modern operating systems like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are dynamic, intelligent platforms that actively enable and optimize everything running on top of them. Whether you're training AI models, deploying cloud-native applications, or managing edge devices, the OS is making thousands of critical decisions every second about resource allocation, security enforcement, and performance optimization.

As enterprises expand into AI, edge, and hybrid cloud, RHEL provides the trusted foundation to scale innovation without compromising on security or reliability.